Did Costello mislead Parliament over IR?

Was it a lie, or were we merely disabused of the whole truth?

The Australian has published what Treasury secretly told Costello about the IR changes:

..deliver smaller wage rises for low-income earners and cut productivity in the short term..

..the changes will only "moderately" improve employment...

..the negative effects of the laws for up to 1.6 million low-skilled workers..

..admits the effect on employment growth will be "not huge" and says the impact on productivity growth will be "slow" and is "difficult to quantify"..

Not good. And to the chase:

Challenging the Government's claims that workers will be better off, Treasury instead predicts that the wages of people who rely on minimum pay rates will fall in real terms because of smaller increases granted by the Government's new Fair Pay Commission.

Swan says he misled Parliament.

Costello's on the ropes, couldn't happen to a nicer guy.