Showing posts with label government policy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label government policy. Show all posts
Saturday 22 December 2018
Still no hope of a genuine national energy policy as crew on the sinking liner SS Liberal Party brawl on deck
Financial
Review, 19
December 2018:
NSW Climate and Energy
Minister Don Harwin vowed to push on with his crusade to "end the Canberra
climate wars" after federal minister Angus Taylor derailed his proposal to
plot a national pathway to net zero emissions by 2050 at an acrimonious Council
of Australian Governments' meeting.
Tempers flared at
the meeting of energy ministers in Adelaide after Mr
Taylor used an obscure procedural rule to block Mr Harwin's motion for a net
zero emissions pathway. A furious Mr Harwin said that if Mr Taylor was going to
use obscure procedural rules to block a motion supported by most state and
territory energy ministers "be it on your own head".
The bitter split between
the NSW and federal coalition governments comes as Gladys Berejiklian's NSW
Coalition government faces a March 23 election in which climate policy looms
large after voters sharply rejected the Morrison government's climate change
agnostic energy policies at the Wentworth byelection in October and the
Victorian state election in November.
Mr Harwin said in a
statement after the meeting: "I am very disappointed by the actions of the
federal government at COAG Energy Council in Adelaide today.
"The refusal, on
procedural grounds, to let the vital matter of restoring an emissions
obligation into national energy policy be discussed is extraordinary. NSW will
continue to pursue this critical matter with COAG Energy Council."
…..the NSW-federal
government stoush dominated the aftermath of the meeting as Mr Harwin told
reporters he was furious that "the Commonwealth used the rule book to try
and shutdown a discussion on emissions".
"As a sign of how
out of touch they are, they wouldn't let us have the discussion," Mr
Harwin said. "NSW is not giving up on this. It's absolutely imperative
that we end the Canberra climate wars. "
Tuesday 11 December 2018
Just three months out from a state election and the NSW Berejiklian Government decides to introduce a new punative public housing policy guaranteed to upset a good many voters
In
2016 est. 37,715 people in New South Wales were recorded as
homeless on Census Night.
The following year the
NSW Berejiklian Coalition Government had a public
housing stock total of 110,221 dwellings and an est. 60,000 people
on the Dept. of Housing 2017 waiting list.
Below is the state government’s answer to the effects of decreasing
public housing stock and federal Coalition Government cuts to public
housing funding allocations to the states - introduce a new initiative under the 'Opportunity
Pathways' program which will cut the housing waiting list by increasing eligibility restrictions, privatise service delivery to certain categories of public housing applicants and tenants in order to ensure that vulnerable individuals and families are discouraged from seeking housing assistance.
The
Daily Telegraph,
7 December 2018, p.2:
Public housing applicants
will have to get a job if they want a taxpayer-funded home under a tough new
test to be introduced in NSW.
The state government is
overhauling the public housing system by stopping residents who
languish on welfare for decades feeling entitled to a cheap home, paid for by
the taxpayer, for their entire life.
Currently less than a
quarter of social housing tenants are in the workforce. There are
about 55,000 people on the public housing waitlist in NSW, and
under the new program they will be able to skip the queue if they agree to get
a job.
But if they get into the
home then fail to get a job or maintain work they will be booted from the
property.
Once they are secure in
a job they will then move into the private rental market and out of the welfare
system.
Social Housing Minister
Pru Goward said the program will “help break the cycle of disadvantage”.
“This is about equipping
tenants with the skills they need to not only obtain a job, but keep it over
the longer term and achieve their full potential,” she said.
“We also want to set to
a clear expectation that social housing is not for life and, for
those who can work, social housing should be used as a stepping stone to
moving into the private rental market.” The new program will be trialled in
Punchbowl and Towradgi, near Wollongong, for three years across 20 properties.
Its success will be evaluated over this time and it’s likely the program will
be expanded across the state.
Homes will be leased for
six months at a time, with renewal dependent on the resident maintaining their
job or education, such as TAFE, and meeting agreed goals within the plan.
RFT ID FACS.18.30
RFT
Type Expression
of Interest for Specific Contracts
Published 23-Aug-2018
Closes 27-Sep-2018 2:00pm
Agency FACS Central Office
Tender Details
The NSW Department of
Family and Community Services (FACS) is seeking Expressions of Interest (EOI)
from non-government organisatons with the capability to deliver the Opportunity
Pathways program.
Opportunity Pathways is
designed for social housing tenants and their household members, approved
social housing applicants and clients receiving Rent Choice subsidies who
aspire and have the capacity to, with the appropriate support, gain, retain and
increase employment.
The program is voluntary
and uses a person-centred case management approach to provide wrap-around
support and facilitate participant access to services to achieve economic and
housing independence (where appropriate).
The objectives of the
program are to:
assist
participants to gain, retain or increase employment, by accessing supports and
practical assistance, and by participating in education, training and work
opportunities
encourage
and support participants to positively exit social housing or Rent Choice
subsidies to full housing independence, to reduce their reliance on governement
assistance, where appropriate
Please refer to the
Program Guidelines for further details.
Opportunity Pathways
will run for three years and delivered across NSW in those locations where a
need and service gaps are identified.
The program will be
delivered by one or more providers following an EOI and Select Tender.
Location
NSW Regions: Far
North Coast, Mid North Coast, New England, Central Coast, Hunter,
Cumberland/Prospect, Nepean, Northern Sydney, Inner West, South East Sydney,
South West Sydney, Central West, Orana/Far West, Riverina/Murray, Illawarra,
Southern Highlands
Estimated Value
From $0.00 to $36,100,000.00
RFT Type
Expression of Interest
for Specific Contracts - An invitation for Expression of Interest (EOI) for
pre-registration of prospective tenderers for a specific work or service.
Applicants are initially evaluated against published selection criteria, and
those who best meet the required criteria are invited to Tender (as tender type
Pre-Qualified/Invited). [my yellow highlighting]
As of June
2018 in NSW there were 200,564 people registered with Centrelink whose income
was Newstart Allowance and, by September there were only est. 82,400
job vacancies available as the Internet Vacancy Index had been
falling since April 2018. The number of job vacancies were still
falling in October 2018 to 66,000 job vacancies.
Just three months out from a state election and it doesn't appear that the Berejiklian Cabinet or other Liberal and Nationals members of the NSW Parliament have thought this new policy through to its logical conclusion.
Wednesday 5 December 2018
NSW Liberal & Nationals politicians won't be satisfied until they have turned this state into a wasteland
Echo
Net Daily, 3
December 2018:
The North East Forest
Alliance has called the process used by the Commonwealth and State Governments
to adopt new Regional Forest Agreements as a superficial sham simply intended
to lock-up public native forests for private sawmillers at significant environment
cost.
North East Forest
Alliance spokesperson Dailan Pugh says there has been no attempt to assess or
review environmental, industry or social data, instead they are relying on
incomplete and out of date assessments undertaken 20 years ago.
’The Governments chose
to ignore the recommendation of their own reviewer for a contemporary review
that included an assessment of the effects of climate change,’ he said.
‘By rejecting the
recommendation of their own review and proceeding on incomplete and out of date
assessments the National Party have once again proven that their intent is to
lock up public resources for private companies irrespective of the
environmental costs and community interests.
Mr Pugh says NEFA are
disgusted that the Governments have not publicly released their new RFAs, so it
is not possible to know what changes they have made. ‘They are keeping us in
the dark,’ he said. ‘The only document they have released is their resource
commitments which show they are increasing the cut of high quality logs in
north-east NSW by at least 10,000 cubic metres to 230,000m3 per annum, at the
same time they are fraudulently claiming a shortfall of 8,600m3 per annum to
justify opening up protected old growth and rainforest for logging.’
‘Due to their increased
logging intensity they are intending to more than double the cut of small and
low-quality logs from 320,000 tonnes per annum to 660,000 tonnes per annum.
‘The increased logging
intensity and significant reductions in protections for most threatened species
and streams is an environmental crime.
Mr Pugh says that out of
more than 5,400 public submissions on the proposed new NSW RFAs, only 23
supported the RFAs. ‘There is no social license to continue the degradation of
our public native forests.
‘Plantations already
provide 87% of our sawntimber needs, it is time to complete the transition to
plantations and establish more plantations on cleared land, while we actively
rehabilitate our public native forests to help them recover from past abuses
and restore the full suite of benefits they can provide to the community.
BACKGROUND
North Eastern, Southern & Eden Regional Forest Agreements Image:NSW EPA |
NSW EPA Regional Forest Agreements
Here are links to NSW members of the state parliament:
If any readers wish to contact members of the Berejiklian Government in order stand up for native forests these links provide addresses, telephone numbers and, in the case of the Legislative Assembly, the names of electorates these politicians represent.
Friday 9 November 2018
When will the Federal Government realise there is a Climate Emergency?
The need for urgent and
effective action on climate change is becoming a major issue in Australia . More people are starting to realise that we
are facing a climate emergency and that we are being caught short largely
because of the incompetence of our Federal Government which continues to be
captive to climate denialists and the coal lobby.
The message from the
October 20 Wentworth byelection does not appear to have resonated with Prime Minister
Morrison and others in his Government.
Morrison is equating the devastating swing against the Government with
the electorate’s concern about the dumping of their popular member, Prime
Minister Turnbull. While that was
certainly a factor, there were other concerns about the Government’s poor
performance with a major one being its lack of effective climate action.
Despite all that
Wentworth voters said about climate change (as well as the way they voted),
there are Government members who claim Wentworth cannot be seen as comparable
with other electorates. Wentworth is different! According to them, climate
change is not a major issue elsewhere.
It will be interesting to see if this wishful thinking lasts until next
year’s federal election campaign.
While Wentworth
indicated the growing public concern about climate change, other recent
developments in relation to climate have further shown how out of touch the Government
is.
Morrison started his
Prime Ministership with the determination to assist drought-affected
farmers. But he brushed aside any
linking of this latest severe drought with climate change. However, the National Farmers Federation and
an increasing number of farmers acknowledge the link and understand that simply
throwing drought relief money at the problem is only a short-term solution. Calls for discussion about land use in parts
of the country are growing. These
include consideration of the viability of some forms of farming and whether
farming will be sustainable in some areas as climate change impacts worsen.
The latest data on
Australia’s climate emissions for the twelve months to March 31 was released
late on the Friday afternoon of the Grand Final weekend (September 28). The
Government had been sitting on this data for months and quite obviously did not
want it noticed – for good reason. The
report showed that emissions have continued rising as they have every quarter
since the end of the carbon price in 2014. Emissions continue to increase
simply because the Government does not have an effective policy to curb them.
Despite this bad result,
the Prime Minister and Melissa Price, the Minister for the Environment, managed
to put a positive spin on the figures. Price
claimed Australia would beat its 2020 target – an impossible achievement. And Morrison, ignoring reality completely,
claimed Australia was on track to achieve its 2030 Paris targets and would do
so “in a canter”. This is despite the analysis
of experts who say we will fall drastically short unless there is an urgent
change in government policy.
The recent dire
announcement by the IPCC has shown just how urgent the climate issue is. According to an analysis of the IPCC report
published by the Climate Council “limiting global warming to 1.5°C would
require rapid and far-reaching transitions during the coming one to two decades
– in energy, land, urban and industrial systems”. (The aim at Paris was to keep global
temperature rise well below 2°C above preindustrial levels and to attempt to
limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C. A rise of 2°C would produce
catastrophic effects.)
At war within itself, our
Government just does not have either the interest in the issue or the will do
what is essential - to act effectively across the board to reduce our emissions
drastically. This is in spite of the Wentworth result and all the polls
indicating that a growing number of people are concerned and want effective
action.
As well as concerned individuals, scientists, environmentalists and
farmers, it is significant that many in the business community, who know they
need to take measures to protect their businesses in a carbon-constrained
world, also want effective action from the government.
Just what are the
chances of the current Government coming to its senses and acting in the
national interest? At the moment that
seems unlikely. We may have to wait for
a change in government - unless a grass roots campaign across the nation
persuades Morrison that he has no chance of political survival unless he
changes tack.
Hildegard
Northern Rivers
29th October 2018
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GuestSpeak is a feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to
make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them. Posts of 250-300
words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak AT gmail.com.au for consideration. Longer posts will
be considered on topical subjects.
Monday 5 November 2018
Scott Morrison doesn't know watt's watt
This was the ‘interim’
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison
on ABC TV The Drum, 23 September 2018:
SCOTT MORRISON: I want
more dispatchable power in the system.
ALAN JONES: Could you
stop using the word dispatchable? Out there they don’t understand that.
SCOTT MORRISON: Well,
real power, OK?
ALAN JONES: Real power.
SCOTT MORRISON: Well,
fair dinkum power.
So what
exactly is this “dispatchable power” the Prime Minister is talking about
whenever he cites “fair dinkum power” that “works when the sun isn’t shining and the
wind isn’t blowing”.
This is what Energy
Education:has to say on the subject:
Dispatchable source of
electricity
A dispatchable
source of electricity refers to an electrical power system, such as
a power plant, that can be turned on or off; in other
words they can adjust their power output supplied to the electrical grid on
demand.[2] Most
conventional power sources such as coal or natural
gas power plants are dispatchable in order to meet the always changing
electricity demands of the population. In contrast, many renewable energysources are intermittent and non-dispatchable, such
as wind power or solar
power which can only generate electricity while their energy flow is
input on them.
Dispatch times
Dispatchable sources
must be able to ramp up or shut down relatively quickly in time intervals
within a few seconds even up to a couple of hours, depending on the need for
electricity. Different types of power plants have different dispatch times:[3]
Fast (seconds)
Capacitors are
able to dispatch within milliseconds if they need to, due to the energy stored
in them already being electrical, whereas in other types of power storage such
as chemical batteries the power must be converted into electrical energy.
Hydroelectric facilities are also
able to dispatch extremely quickly; for instance the Dinorwig hydro power
station can reach its maximum generation in less than 16 seconds.[4]
Medium (minutes)
Natural
gas turbines are a very common dispatchable source, and they can
generally be ramped up in minutes.
Solar thermal power plants can
utilize systems of efficient thermal energy storage. It is possible to design
these systems to be dispatchable on roughly equivalent timeframes to natural
gas turbines.
Slow (hours)
While these systems are
typically regarded as only providing baseload power, they often have some flexibility.
Many coal and biomass
plants can be fired up from cold within a few hours. Although nuclear power
plants may take a while to get going, they must be able to shut down in seconds
to ensure safety in the case of a meltdown.
What this tells us is that renewable energy can and is used
as “dispatchable power” and often responds faster than coal-fired power.
Battery
storage by way of home battery installations and mega battery
installations such as the Tesla system in South Australia are just two successful
examples of storing renewable power for later use – making it dispatchable
power.
According to the Melbourne
Energy Institute, South
Australia’s new mix of renewables and traditional source of energy is working
well.
What has
become increasingly obvious over the years is that once
renewable energy via wind and solar reaches a reasonable scale it becomes cheaper
than coal and other fossil fuels. That is where Australia is now.
Yet Scott
Morrison apparently doesn’t understand how electricity generation and the
national power grid work – it’s a though he has been asleep for the last
decade. Because he
appears to believe that renewable energy systems have not evolved to meet
market demands.
Therefore, based
on his erroneous views Morrison states he is “going
to force them [electricity wholesalers]
to put more fair dinkum, reliable energy, power, into the system”.
Expensive,
polluting, coal-fired power supplying electricity to Australian homes at maximum cost to ordinary consumers.
Saturday 3 November 2018
Tweets of the Week
I remember when Australia has a price on carbon, investment in renewable energy was booming, carbon emissions were falling & Australia was seen as a global leader in these policies— Stephen Koukoulas (@TheKouk) October 26, 2018
If Murdoch and his sons won’t rein in its extremist propaganda, advertisers should flee Fox, and investors should flee its parent company, News Corp. Its stock should become as toxic as shares of mining companies that produce “blood diamonds.” Me: https://t.co/GVsXBolSt9— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) October 29, 2018
Remember the date well 11/1/18. On this day in history President Donald Trump announced building massive concentration camps to house asylum seekers while giving permission for the military to fire on civilians armed with nothing more than rocks. @realDonaldTrump— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) November 1, 2018
Labels:
climate change,
government policy,
murdoch,
News Corp
Monday 29 October 2018
Morrison Government whittling away at health & safety requirements in live sheep export trade
“Space
allocation per animal must be based on allometric principles and increased by
at least 30% for sheep that weigh 40 to 60 kg (based on a k-value of 0.033).
The typical sheep sent to the Middle East is an adult Merino wether in this
weight range. This increase in space (k = 0.033) is the minimum amount needed
to alleviate adverse welfare outcomes, and must be implemented across all body
weights and all months of the year…. Irrespective
of stocking density, thermoregulatory physiology indicates that sheep on live
export voyages to the Middle East during May to October will remain susceptible
to heat stress and die due to the expected extreme climatic conditions during
this time. Accordingly, voyages carrying live sheep to the Middle East during
May to October cannot be recommended.” [Submission
from the Australian Veterinary Association, May 2018]
Between January and September 2018 Australia exported 973,651 live sheep.Dep of Ag admitted at #Estimates hearings (p.70) that their recent decision to increase stocking densities will mean only 50% of sheep can lie down at same time over 3-4 week voyage. They're either expecting sheep to timeshare their lying arrangements or lie on top of each other. pic.twitter.com/HxdiCf6uzu— Jed Goodfellow (@JedGoodfellow) October 26, 2018
The majority of these sheep were exported by sea for slaughter at destination and, the size of each sea shipment ranged from 498 animals up to 68,039 animals.
It is not unusual for sheep deaths on these voyages to number in the hundreds.
Overall sheep mortality for the first 6 months of the year ran at 0.61% as of June 2018.
That represents almost 6,000 sheep which died due to the stress of the sea voyage and conditions on board the export vessel from January to June.
One can reasonably expect sheep mortality rates to rise given the Morison Government's recent decision to increase sheep density numbers on board export vessels.
A decision it apparently arrived at after the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources & Nationals MP for Maranoa David Littleproud had announced that the government had accepted all 23 recommendations in the Review of conditions for the export of sheep to the Middle East during the northern summer report.
From 1 November 2018 the floor space per adult sheep will be reduced by 11.5% going into projected November temperatures ranging from 22 to 37 degrees Celsius across Middle Eastern destination ports.
It is worth noting that the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) has not published any analysis of current animal welfare standards in the last 5 years and the version of Australian Standards for the Export of Livestock in operation to date appears to be the 2011 version.
Australian media now report that the Morrison Government is stalling on legislating tougher penalties for exporters who breach live export regulations and, that Nationals MP for New England and disgraced former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce claims that 99.7% of sheep arrive at their export destination in the same or better condition than when they left.
So according to Barnaby only 0.3% of exported sheep suffer a loss of condition.
An interesting claim, given official sheep mortality is calculated at 0.61% of the live cargo being transported.
It seems that some of Barnaby's sheep are miraculously born-again sometime during those sea voyages,
Sunday 28 October 2018
On past performance it will only take state and federal National Party politicians and their mates a couple of years to drain Morrison's $5 billion Drought Future Fund
On 26 October 2018, in the face of ongoing allegations of financial gouging of the public purse and mismanagement of water resources in the Murray Darling Basin, Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison unveiled his $5 billion Drought Future Fund at a summit attended by farmers, economists, industry bodies and state and federal ministers in Canberra....promising measures to drought-proof the nation's agriculture sector. The first $3.9 billion of the scheme, which would operate similarly to the Medical Future Fund, is to be paid for out of a pool of money originally intended for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
What a brilliant idea.
Rob an already underfunded disability sector and the vulnerable people who depend on its services in order to beef up a proposed drought future fund,
What can possibly go wrong?
Well, on past history it will likely take National politicians and their mates about two years to empty this new fund - with little to no drought-proofing to show for the taxpayer dollars they manage to redirect towards their own businesses.
The
Age, 26
October 2018:
The Nationals' federal
treasurer Peter Schwarz is accused of gouging much of the $850,000 he was
paid by Australia’s largest drought-proofing project and calling
in favours when pressed to account for the taxpayer cash.
As Prime Minister Scott
Morrison launches his drought summit, leaked government files reveal that Mr
Schwarz banked the taxpayer subsidies in November 2011 and then spent years
resisting efforts from water officials to get him to or use it for its intended
purpose – saving water.
The frustration of the
Goulburn-Murray Water authority with the conduct of Mr Schwarz – who as well as
being the Nationals key federal fundraiser is also running in next month’s
Victorian election – is exposed in dozens of damning leaked authority files.
The files provide a case
study of issues which are front and centre at Mr Morrison’s drought summit and
which are being examined by drought envoy and Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce: using
taxpayer funds to help farmers deal with drought, and, questions about whether
backroom favours or mismanagement are undermining drought-relief efforts.
Among the leaked files
is a July 15, 2016 memo from a water authority lawyer summing up his view of Mr
Schwarz’s conduct after he joined hundreds of other farmers given cash incentives
as part of Australia’s largest water saving initiative, the Connections
Project. The project aims to help restore the Murray Darling water system.
The lawyer stated that
after Mr Schwarz received $850,505 in 2011 – divided into $473,000 for on-farm
water-saving measures and $300,000 to buy a neighbouring property – he ‘‘failed
to perform any of the obligations despite having received the payment … in
full.’’
‘‘The Schwarzes have
spent much of the ensuing period attempting to make a case that, notwithstanding
they entered into the agreement and received payment, they should not be bound
to perform,’’ the July 2016 legal memo states.
The leaked files also
reveal that Mr Schwarz sought to call on his personal relationship with a
controversial high-ranking water official, Gavin Hanlon, and an unnamed
‘‘minister’’ to ‘‘support [his] cause’’.
Mr Hanlon was a senior
Victorian water official who was headhunted by the NSW government as its
irrigation chief. He quit his NSW post in 2017 after revelations of questionable
dealings with farm lobbyists, sparking an ongoing
investigation by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption……..
In a statement to
Fairfax Media, the water authority said that seven years after it gave Mr
Schwarz the funds, the stand-off over with him has been "substantially
resolved." It is understood that Mr Schwarz and Goulburn-Murray Water have
finally agreed that he will use the funds for water savings, but no work has as
yet been done.
The files reveal intense
frustration inside Goulburn-Murray Water not only about Mr Schwarz’s conduct
but the authority’s inability to recoup taxpayer funds.
A note written by an employee
in April 2014 states that: ‘‘Peter told me on a number of occasions he would
prefer to deal with higher GMW management and would not be accepting the
agreement he had previously signed.’’.......
BACKGROUND
SBC
News, 1
December 2018:
The NSW public has a
right to know whether a senior government executive, fired over her alleged
involvement in the Murray-Darling water theft scandal, received a six-figure
payout, the opposition says.
A report into water
theft in the Murray-Darling Basin, released on Thursday, confirmed that along
with top bureaucrat Gavin Hanlon's public resignation, a second executive was
fired for her role in the alleged misconduct.
AAP understands the
senior executive is a former National Party staffer and irrigation lobbyist,
who was appointed to a senior job within the Department of Primary Industries
in 2015.
Opposition water
spokesman Chris Minns said the Berejiklian government should confess whether
the executive had received a golden handshake on her way out the door......
In September, NSW
Minister for Primary Industries Niall Blair said misconduct proceedings had
started against Mr Hanlon.
Mr Hanlon was forced to
resign as the Department of Industry director general in September following
allegations of misconduct, including promising to share internal government
documents with irrigation lobbyists in 2016.
Thursday's independent
investigation into NSW water management and compliance report, authored by Ken
Matthews, said the second senior executive is alleged to have also been
involved in the teleconference.
According to her
LinkedIn profile, the executive was a policy officer for lobby group Southern
River Irrigators between 2011 and 2013 before becoming an advisor to federal
senator Simon Birmingham for a year......
Thursday's report comes
less than a week after both NSW and Queensland were slammed by a Murray-Darling
Basin Authority (MDBA) review into water theft and regulation.
That inquiry found both
states regularly failed to make sure irrigators complied with the
Murray-Darling Basin Plan, and weren't transparent about their failures......
The
Guardian, 27
September 2018:
A former water industry
lobbyist preselected by the New South Wales National party to
lead its Senate ticket in the next federal election has suggested examining
Barnaby Joyce’s proposal to release more water for irrigators.
Once a lobbyist for
Murray Irrigation, Perin Davey won the No 1 spot on the NSW National party’s
Senate ticket earlier this month, after the longtime Nationals senator and bank
campaigner John “Wacka” Williams retired and the former Nationals deputy leader
Fiona Nash resigned over her dual citizenship.
Davey was part of the
teleconference with NSW government water official Gavin Hanlon, when he
allegedly offered documents stripped of the department logo to help irrigators
lobby against the Murray-Darling basin plan.
Hanlon resigned
following the revelations, which were referred to the NSW Independent
Commission Against Corruption. The former water minister Kevin Humphries was
also referred to the state watchdog. Icac makes it a practice not to
comment any current investigations. Davey said she had not been interviewed by
Icac and Guardian Australia does not allege any wrongdoing.
The meeting was exposed
in the 2017 Four
Corners episode that reported allegations
that water was being harvested by some irrigators in the
Barwon-Darling region of the Murray-Darling
basin to the detriment of the environment and downstream communities.
Joyce, the former
agriculture minister, had nominated
Davey to the board of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority but, as a
result of the fallout from the program, Davey
asked Joyce to withdraw her nomination.
Davey, who now runs her own government
relations company, said she was simply participating in a teleconference
and that it was not unusual......
North Coast Voices:
13 MARCH 2018
Only
a handful of NSW landowners to face court over Murray-Darling Basin water theft
allegations? The NSW Government will prosecute several people over alleged
water theft on the Barwon-Darling, eight months after Four Corners investigated
the issue. WaterNSW has named the people it is taking to the Land and
Environment Court over alleged breaches of water management rules.
13 APRIL 2018
Alleged
irrigator water theft heading for the courts? A
cousin by marriage of the current Australian Minister for Agriculture and
Water Resources David Littleproud, John Norman, finds his agricultural
business practices under scrutiny...
30 APRIL 2018
What
the Australian Government didn’t want the UN to publish During Nationals
MP for New England Barnaby Joyce’s disastrous sojourn as Australian Deputy
Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources the federal
government began a successfull campaign to have the United Nations delete
all criticism of Australia’s $13bn effort to restore the ailing Murray-Darling
river system from a published study.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)