Australian Electoral Commission 2012-13 financial year annual returns by political parties, donors and others

The Australian Electoral Commission’s has released the 2012-13 financial year annual returns by political parties, donors and peak industry bodies/unions/political lobbyists.

Some interesting snippets.....

Universities Australia spent $4.75 million on opinion polling and broadcasting, printing, production, publication or distribution of political comment.

GetUp! spent $3.03 million on opinion polling and broadcasting, printing, production, publication or distribution of political comment

Phillip Morris Ltd spent $30,382 on public expression of views on a political party, candidate in an election or member of the Federal Parliament by any means and a further $19,359 on opinion polling and broadcasting, printing, production, publication or distribution of political comment. This company also donated $82,040 to the Liberal Party and $25,000 to the National Party.

Roslyn Packer (widow of Clive Packer) donated $580,400 to the Liberal Party, with the bulk of this money going to the Liberal Party national body and only $400 going to the NSW division. However, the national body only appears to have recorded a donation of $570,000. This would leave a discrepancy of $10,000 between these annual returns.

Lachlan Murdoch donated $22,000 to the Liberal Party.

Gina Rinehart through Hancock Coal Pty Ltd donated $44,880 to the National Party and $55,000 to the Labor Party. While Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd donated $55,000 to the National Party and $8,250 to the Liberal National Party of Queensland. The national body also listed under "Other" an additional $22,000 received from Hancock Coal Pty Ltd (GVK).

International Motors Pty Ltd of Coleshill U.K. donated $76,000 to the Liberal Party of Australia and Impellam Group PLC of Luton U.K. has a little over $12,000 listed under "Other" by the party.

The Sydney Small Business Club (The Warringah Club) - Tony Abbott’s support group – declared $14,000 in gross cash/non-cash benefits received.

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Associated entities submitting annual returns totalled 185.

Donors declaring numbered 787.

According to The Age on 3 January 2014; the Liberal Party's total revenue was $73.1 million last financial year, compared with $54.7 million for Labor. The Nationals further bolstered the Coalition's haul with $8.3 million. The Greens recorded $8.1 million in revenue.

The Sydney Morning Herald on 5 February 2014 reported; New Liberal MP Angus Taylor has been described as an asset to his party. News reports after his pre-selection for a country NSW seat in 2012 described the then candidate as ''smart'' and ''charming''. Financial disclosure documents reveal Mr Taylor is also an uncommonly valuable – perhaps uniquely valuable – financial asset to his party. The Liberal Party's annual dump of political revenue and donations, records a man named Angus Taylor, at an address in Sydney's Woollahra, who gave the Liberals $155,000 in five separate tranches in 2012-13. A call to Mr Taylor's office revealed the generous giver was the same man. The Woollahra address was an investment property, Mr Taylor said, adding that he had lived in his electorate, near Goulburn, and had been there for a long time. Mr Taylor, who won the safe Coalition seat of Hume at the September election by a margin of 11.5 per cent, concedes much of what he contributed to the party went towards his campaign including a car and petrol to get around the electorate, which is one of the largest in the country....

Talk about un-Australian!

Putting the heat on

It is not just the ABC that needs to have a long hard look at its inherent anti-government bias. Recently, another taxpayer-funded agency, also with a three-letter acronym, has been guilty of politically motivated bias. You can tell just by its name that "the BOM" (the Bureau of Meteorology) is a doubtful organisation with anti-establishment tendencies. Its preoccupation with storms and freak weather events is unbalanced. For example, how often do you hear talk of "an unusually pleasant string of Sunday afternoons"? This may well have happened, but oh no, you won't see that on the BOM website.

The BOM finally went too far this January. Allegedly the temperature in Melbourne was 41, 42, 44, and 45 degrees on four consecutive days. This is so biased it is laughable. For example, in my airconditioned living room it was under 30 the whole time, until the power failed, and even then it only reached 39 degrees. It is time the BOM was broken up and privatised, so instead of just one narrow view that serves only the anti-economic interests of greens and other looney-tunes, mainstream voices can be heard. We need choice, not depressing and frankly un-Australian weather "facts".

Paul Johnson, Clifton Hill

Source: The Age, 10/2/14

Coal Seam Gas: Leave It In The Ground

http://youtu.be/gsQvtfo_Qh0

Published on Apr 2, 2012

'The Mighty Dollar' Ep available from

http://lukevassella.bandcamp.com/
http://www.lukevassella.com/

TOP 10 RESULTS, AUSTRALIAN SONGWRITING CONTEST 2013

AUSTRALIA

1 The Mighty Dollar Luke Vassella
2 Ankle Deep Dani Karis
3 The Gold Luke Vassella
4 Wattarka Aubrey Beggs
5 Eleven Long Years Eden Parris
6 Rose Matilda Matt Zarb
7 River Luke Vassella
8 Speargrass Loren Steenkamp
9 Casino Luke Vassella
10 If I Were A Swagman Matt Zarb

Australian Parliament: Draft Legislation Programme For The House Of Representatives & Senate, 11-13 February 2014

For all the political tragics..........

House of Representatives

Click on images to enlarge

Senate timetable can be found here.

Time for Joe Hockey to put his money where his mouth is

Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey has declared that; the age of entitlement is over, and the age of personal responsibility has begun.

Joe Hockey and his wife reportedly have a property portfolio which includes a 200ha cattle farm in North Queensland, a six bedroom heritage-listed family home in Hunters Hill that cost $3.5million in 2004, a home in Canberra and some properties worth more than $750,000 at Stanwell Tops.

Both he and his wife are reported to be millionaires in their own right, with the Treasurer thought to be personally worth at least $4.4 million and his wife considerably more.

So perhaps in this new age of personal responsibility, Mr. Hockey should abandon at least one of his own taxpayer-funded entitlements – those thousands of dollars he has taken to claiming in recent years from the Dept. of Finance and Deregulation for family travel.

Activists write to Metgasco investors and one shareholder is not amused

Poor, poor John Vaughn. First fighting on one front to try and protect the value of his Metgasco Limited shares and now launching a second move.

The life of a Metgasco shareholder must be an unhappy one.

Echo NetDaily 4 February 2014:

There’s a new approach by activists battling against the planned natural gas industry expansion in the region: a number of Metgasco’s largest shareholders have been sent a letter advising them about the size and effectiveness of the social movement that opposes its operations.
It comes as protesters gear up for a fight against proposed drilling operations at Bentley, near Lismore.
Michael Qualmann, on behalf of Gasfield Free Northern Rivers, sent the letters last week saying that Metgasco had been understating the scale of public opposition and that the regional community was well organised and had undertaken training in non-violent direct action.
Mr Qualmann says Byron Bay resident John Vaughan, whose super fund is listed in Metgasco’s 2013 annual return as its eighth largest shareholder, contacted Mr Qualmann after the letter was sent and told him that he may lose his home in litigation.
‘I don’t know why anyone would consider this litigious,’ Mr Qualmann told Echonetdaily, ‘I’m actually doing the shareholders a service by providing them with information about risks to their investment that they may not be aware of’......

So does Cadbury Australia really deserve $16 million from taxpayers?

In August 2013 then Opposition Leader Tony Abbott announced that if the Coalition won government he planned to fund what he described as the Cadbury Chocolate factory to the tune of $16 million as part of a planned $66 million company upgrade, he stated that it would be used for a Ord River cocoa tree planting trial, a new factory visitors centre, increased chocolate production and be the first step toward producing a 100 per cent Australian-made chocolate bar.

This is not the first time growing cocoa in northern Australia has been been mooted by Cadbury, feasibility studies occurred in the 1990s. Cadbury walked away from this project and independent growers are now established in Queensland.

Daintree Estates chocolate in Queensland is a single origin chocolate and therefore the first 100% Australian-made chocolate.

On 2 February 2010 Cadbury Australia Pty Ltd became part of the multinational company, Kraft Foods Inc., as Kraft Australia Holdings Pty Ltd.

On 1 October 2012 Kraft Foods Inc. changed its name to Mondelēz International Inc. and Kraft Australia Holdings Pty Ltd became Mondelez Australia Holdings Pty Ltd.

Mondelez Australia Holdings Pty Ltd current directors are:

Simon Edmund Talbot

Gunther Burghardt

Lisa Leanne Keogh

Darren Francis O'Brien

Mauricio Giorgano Ferreira

Amanda Jane Banfield

Karen Yvette Perret (Alternate Director)

All of whom (except the Alternate) state their addresses as being in different streets in Brighton, Victoria.

Mondelēz International Inc. has 1,101 institutional shareholders, a list of which can be found at http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/mdlz/institutional-holdings.

Its top five shareholders are:

State Street Corp

Vanguard Group Inc

Investco Ltd

Barclays Global Investors UK Holdings Ltd

Trian Fund Management, L.P.

In 2013 Mondelēz International announced its intention to invest $190 million in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh to establish the company's largest manufacturing plant in Asia Pacific and over $100 million in a state-of-the-art biscuit manufacturing plant at its Opava site in the Czech Republic.

In 2012 it stated it had global net revenues of $35 billion and boasted that it held the No. 1 position globally in Biscuits, Chocolate, Candy and Powdered Beverages as well as the No. 2 position in Gum and Coffee. In the third quarter of 213 the company's net revenues were $8.5 billion, up 1.8 percent. Its 2013 fourth quarter and full year results will be published on 12 February 2014.

Enterprise agreements with the Fair Work Commission show Cadbury employees received incremental pay rises totalling 12.25 per cent between December 2008 and March 2010. The current deal, approved in 2011, provides for annual pay rises of 4 per cent. Hourly rates at the Claremont chocolate factory appear to range from $25.61 to $53.03.

Coca Cola Amatil Limited's subsidiary SPC Ardmona Limited (and SPC Ardmona Operations Limited) also has plans for a $ 200 million company expansion and asked the Abbott Government for a $25 million grant.

Now in government Prime Minister Tony Abbott said no - because it was not the government's job to restructure a particular business and, because he thinks the company's Fair Work-endorsed enterprise agreement is excessive even though workers only receive a 2.5 per cent annual pay rise, all full-time employees receive a modest 28 consecutive days annual leave (inclusive of weekends) and production stream hourly rates for working in a non-air conditioned Shepparton complex range from $24.56 to $32.06.

In 2012 Coca Cola Amatil (Asia - Pacific) made a net profit of $558.4 million and $225.1 million in 2013. The Coca Cola Company reportedly owns a 29 per cent share in Coca Cola Amatil and is represented on the board. Coca Cola Company's net income in 2012 was $9.06 billion.

Coca Cola Amatil Limted's current directors are:

Mr David Michael Gonski, AC

Mr Terry James Davis
Ms Ilana Rachel Atlas
Ms Catherine Michelle Brenner
Mr Anthony (Tony) Grant Froggatt
Mr Martin Jansen
Mr Geoffrey James Kelly
Mr Wallace Macarthur King, AO
Mr David Edward Meiklejohn, A.M.

On 18 February 2014 it is expected that the Coca Cola Amatil board will decide the fate of SPC Ardmona, with some analysts expecting the business will be placed on the market.

So what makes Cadbury Australia so different from SPC Ardmona? What makes it right to help with the restructuring of Cadbury Australia but not SPC Ardmona?

In fact if this is the Coalition's new age of personal responsibility, why on earth did it announce on 3 February that it was also giving Huon Aquaculture Group Pty Ltd $3.5 million so that it too can expand its business?

I rather suspect that there are more people associated with Cadbury Australia who are in or have access to the Coalition old boys network than do those associated with SPC Ardmona.

Starting with the Prime Minister who participates in Pollie Pedal which is co-sponsored by Cadbury.

Perhaps readers might like to explore that issue.

The last word goes to the Federal Liberal MP for Murray, Sharman Stone.

ABC Rural 4 February 2014:

A Liberal backbencher has accused the Prime Minister and the Treasurer of lying about union conditions at SPC Ardmona.

Sharman Stone, the Member for Murray, says the Federal Government is using excuses that are 'wrong' to justify the decision to reject a bid from the northern Victorian food processor for $25 million in assistance.

Union conditions of workers have come under fire from the government for being too extravagant, with pay well above the award.

Dr Stone says leaders of her party are deceiving the public debate.

"It's not the truth. That's right, it's lying," she said.

"The independent panel, their own independent panel, I understand recommended that this industry be supported."......

SPC Ardmona’s point-by-point rebuttal of recent claims here.
* Photograph found on Twitter