Stuart Robert MP - the archetypal Liberal Party politician

Stuart Rowland Robert, Liberal MP for Fadden (QLD) since 2007, is truly the archetypal Liberal Party politician - in parliament for his own personal financial advancement, less than transparent about his investments and business connections or gifts he receives, as well as being quite comfortable with those dodgy political donations schemes operating at state and federal level.

Now it seems that the LNP Fadden Forum, which reportedly has a $12,000 annual membership fee, is in the news again.

The Australian, 30 September 2016:

A well-connected lobbyist gave more than $110,000 of her “own money’’ to the fundraising entity of federal Liberal MP Stuart Robert as her company was being wound up with unpaid debts.

Simone Holzapfel, a former longtime adviser to Tony ­Abbott, owed more than $430,000, including $355,000 to the Australian Taxation Office, when she donated $114,000 in 12 separate payments to Mr ­Robert’s “Fadden Forum’’ in mid-2013, ahead of the federal election.

Ms Holzapfel was then a lobby­ist for Gold Coast developer Sunland Group, now at the centre of the latest controversy to embroil Mr Robert, the Gold Coast MP sacked last year from the Turnbull ministry.

Months before the donations were made, Mr Robert had ­defended Sunland in parliament over its involvement in the ­detention of two Australians in Dubai, with a speech largely lifted from briefing notes supplied by Ms Holzapfel.

The notes had been sent to both Mr Robert and Mr Abbott’s chief of staff, Peta Credlin, on the morning of the November 26, 2012, speech to parliament.

It can also be revealed that Ms Holzapfel sent the notes to Mr Robert and Ms Credlin while working as Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate’s media officer.

She left the council in February 2013 to pursue “commercial ventures’’ and reboot lobbying and PR company Shac, which had been set up in 2005.

The $114,000 donation in 2013 and Mr Robert’s bankrolling of “independent’’ candidates ahead of the Gold Coast council elections in March this year — as revealed by The Australian — are now part of an investigation by Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission.

Ms Holzapfel has previously told The Australian the donations were her “own money’’ and rejected suggestions she had given the money to Mr Robert’s Fadden Forum on behalf of clients.

“I ­donated because I wanted my ­former boss (Mr Abbott) to ­become prime minister, and that is my right to do,’’ she said then.

It has now been confirmed that at the time of making the donations — between July and September 2013 — Ms Holzapfel’s company was in external administration, with $437,000 in debt.

Ms Holzapfel was the sole directo­r of the company, Coolabird, which had changed its name from Shac months earlier and was eventually wound up.

Administrators confirmed yesterday that the company had debts of $437,000 when it was put into ­liquidation, including a debt of $355,000 to the ATO……

The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 September 2016:

A speech Turnbull government MP Stuart Robert gave to Parliament defending the Gold Coast property developer Sunland was substantially written by the lead lobbyist for the company.

Fairfax Media can reveal that former Tony Abbott staffer-turned-developer-lobbyist Simone Holzapfel was the true author of whole sections of the speech that Mr Robert delivered in November 2012.

Ms Holzapfel wrote a four-page defence of Sunland after a November 17 newspaper article scrutinised the company's dispute with an Australian man who spent five years trapped in a legal nightmare in Dubai.

Seven sections of that response - provided to various government officials and obtained by Fairfax Media - subsequently found their way into Mr Robert's adjournment debate speech on November 26.

Ms Holzapfel's words make up more than half of the speech.

Mr Robert has refused to comment on the revelation, which once again puts the spotlight on his connections with Sunland. Mr Robert's links to the company have come under scrutiny as part of a Queensland corruption inquiry into political donations to Gold Coast City Council candidates, which involves his fundraising body, the Fadden Forum......

UPDATE

The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 October 2016:

Turnbull government MP Stuart Robert has close ties to an African church that supports harsh anti-gay laws and is run by a preacher described as "one of the most homophobic people in the world".

Mr Robert was a founding director of Watoto Australia, an offshoot of the Ugandan-based pentecostal Watoto Church, and has called church leader Gary Skinner one of the "great influences" on his life…..

Gay and lesbian activists say Watoto and Mr Skinner are virulently anti-gay and have contributed to violent homophobia in Uganda. Mr Robert – who was also a member of Watoto's International Board – has travelled to the Ugandan capital Kampala many times to meet Mr Skinner, who says homosexuality is "degrading" and an "inhuman sin" that brings disease and destroys families.

Just in case you thought the Australian Minister for the Environment and Energy retained the brains he was born with.....

The 1 in 50 year storm, 28 September 2016

Gannawarra Times

This is Liberal MP for Kooyong and Minister for the Environment and Energy, Josh Frydenberg, writing in The Australian on 30 September 2016:

Public expects energy security

The total loss on Wednesday of South Australia’s electricity supply was a seismic event.

People were stuck in lifts, there was chaos on the roads and residents were huddled around candles while they were confined to their homes.

This is unacceptable in modern Australia and there must be a better way.

Energy security is non-negotiable and we are unapologetic in making it our foremost priority.

For too long much of the debate in this country regarding energy policy has focused on emissions reduction, namely how to reduce our carbon footprint to meet our climate change goals, as well as an ideological debate about increasing renewables, whatever the cost.

While a lower emissions future is undoubtedly important, it counts for little to the public if they are sitting in the dark.

We cannot trade away the reliability of the system as we transition to a low-carbon future because to do so would be far costlier in the long run.

This is why we need to understand what exactly took place in South Australia and the reasons behind it.

The preliminary advice to me from the Australian Energy Market Operator is that a once-in-50- years weather event, which included more than 80,000 lightning strikes across the state in one day, blew over more than 20 electricity transmission towers and “tripped” the two interconnectors — Heywood and Murraylink — that send electricity from Victoria to South Australia. But for that weather event, the blackout would never have occurred.

Questions, however, will be asked as to why the initial outage couldn’t be contained, preventing the blackout cascading across the state, and what measures should now be implemented to enhance the resilience of the system.

But regardless of the specific cause of this event, there are significant broader questions about the impact of the changing energy mix on the stability and reliability of the grid; in particular, how the increasing percentage of power generation from intermittent sources such as solar and wind creates large fluctuations in voltage and frequency, challenging the system.

In the words of the Australian Energy Market Commission earlier this month, “the system strength has been reducing” as wind and rooftop solar “have low or no physical inertia and are therefore currently limited in their ability to respond to sudden large changes in electricity supply or consumption”. This is unlike hydro, gas and coal, which by their nature “maintain a consistent operating frequency and maintain the strength of the system in localised networks”.

It was this issue that AEMO identified as most acute in South Australia, as its reliance on wind and solar at 41 per cent of power generation is extremely high and coal and gas-fired power stations at Northern and Pelican Point recently closed.

With South Australia and other states hurtling towards ever higher and aggressive state-based renewable energy targets, it is now time they heed the warnings of our independent energy market experts.

It is quite irresponsible for the Queensland government, with 4.4 per cent of the state’s power presently generated by renewable energy, to commit to a 50 per cent target by 2030; or for the Victorian government, with 12 per cent renewable energy today, to commit to a 40 per cent target by 2025 without a clear and practical road map for getting there with energy security guaranteed.

At the last Council of Australian Governments energy ministers meeting, the commonwealth, states and territories agreed to work on better understanding the impacts state-based renewable targets are having on stability and pricing in the system.

This work may be very important in the federal government’s attempt to harmonise the renewable targets…..

What an utter load of political tosh. Renewable energy targets had nothing to do with what went down in South Australia on Wednesday, 28 September 2016.

It was a large and violent weather event that took out the means of power transmission which led to that widespread power outage not the method by which energy is generated.

In other words, electricity transmission towers were being turned into scrap metal by the mega storm (including three out of the four transmission lines moving power between Adelaide and the north of South Australia), sub stations were being fried by lightning strikes and electricity poles and wires connecting homes/farms to the grid were being brought down by destructive wind gusts up to 130km/h and falling trees.

Images found on Twitter

UPDATE

The Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed that the mega storm included several confirmed tornadoes.

A look at US presidential candidate Donald Trump

Letting the man's words speak for themselves……

* "My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body."

* "Part of the beauty of me is that I am very rich"

* "The point is, you can never be too greedy."

* "I am the king of debt," he said. "I love debt. I love playing with it. I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal. And if the economy was good, it was good. So therefore, you can't lose."

* "I will build a great wall – and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me – and I'll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." 

* MATTHEWS: Where would we drop — where would we drop a nuclear weapon in the Middle East?

TRUMP: Let me explain. Let me explain.

Somebody hits us within ISIS — you wouldn`t fight back with a nuke?....

MATTHEWS: OK. The trouble is, when you said that, the whole world heard it. David Cameron in Britain heard it. The Japanese, where we bombed them in 45, heard it. They`re hearing a guy running for president of the United States talking of maybe using nuclear weapons. Nobody wants to hear that about an American president.

TRUMP: Then why are we making them? Why do we make them?

* TRUMP: If we cannot be properly reimbursed for the tremendous cost of our military protecting other countries, and in many cases the countries I'm talking about are extremely rich. Then if we cannot make a deal, which I believe we will be able to, and which I would prefer being able to, but if we cannot make a deal, I would like you to say, I would prefer being able to, some people, the one thing they took out of your last story, you know, some people, the fools and the haters, they said, "Oh, Trump doesn't want to protect you." I would prefer that we be able to continue, but if we are not going to be reasonably reimbursed for the tremendous cost of protecting these massive nations with tremendous wealth — you have the tape going on?

SANGER: We do.

HABERMAN: We both do.

TRUMP: With massive wealth. Massive wealth. We're talking about countries that are doing very well. Then yes, I would be absolutely prepared to tell those countries, "Congratulations, you will be defending yourself."

* Nuclear is the single greatest threat. Just to go down the list, we defend Japan, we defend Germany, we defend South Korea, we defend Saudi Arabia, we defend countries. They do not pay us. But they should be paying us, because we are providing tremendous service and we're losing a fortune. That's why we're losing — we're losing — we lose on everything. I say, who makes these — we lose on everything. All I said, that it's very possible that if they don't pay a fair share, because this isn't 40 years ago where we could do what we're doing. We can't defend Japan, a behemoth, selling us cars by the million… All I said was, they may have to defend themselves or they have to help us out. We're a country that owes $20 trillion. They have to help us out.

*  "I, Donald J. Trump, am calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”

* I think my strongest asset, maybe by far, is my temperament. I have a winning temperament. I know how to win.

* "And by the way, with Iran, when they circle our beautiful destroyers with their little boats, and they make gestures at our people that they shouldn't be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water. Okay, believe me."

* “Google search engine was suppressing the bad news about Hillary Clinton”

But wait, there's more!

* “I fight very hard to pay as little tax as possible.”

* “As a businessman and a very substantial donor to very important people, when you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do. As a businessman, I need that.” 

* “Every time I said something, she would say something back. It was rigged.”…. “I have said time and time again that I would only do these debates if I am treated fairly. The only way I can be guaranteed of being treated fairly is if Hillary Clinton is not there.”

* “She [Hillary Clinton] could be crazy. She could actually be crazy.”

* “I’ve gotta use some tic tacs, just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything. … Grab them by the p—y. You can do anything.”

Hopefully the Yamba Mega Port proposal is dead in the water for the foreseeable future

After five years of wondering if the NSW Government would be mad enough to consider an unsolicited proposal to industrialise the Clarence River estuary by constructing a privatised international mega port built on the back of foreign investment, concerned Clarence Valley native title holders, residents, business owners, commercial fishers and farmers now appear to have an answer.

After a number of local people decided to make their concerns as visible as possible through word of mouth, the creation of a credible Facebook presence, distribution of factual leaflets outlining the proposal, the sale of bumper stickers,  a pop-up protest, a science-based information night, writing letters to politicians and lobbying to make the mega port scheme a local issue at both the July 2016 federal election and recent local government election, many more people began to discuss the issue and three things came to pass:

* eight of the nine recently elected Clarence Valley councillors have stated their opposition to the mega port proposal and, both state and federal MPs representing the valley also publicly indicated their lack of support for the scheme;

* the unsolicited proposal is in disarray with Australian Infrastructure Developments Pty Ltd having to admit that it cannot progress the proposal due to state government planning policies and strategies relating to NSW ports; and

* the NSW Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight, Duncan Gay, has now stated the following.

Letter from NSW Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight on the subject of the Port of Yamba, 2016

https://www.scribd.com/document/325740039/Letter-from-NSW-Minister-for-Roads-Maritime-and-Freight-on-the-subject-of-the-Port-of-Yamba-2016

This letter expands on a previous letter from Minister Gay to a NSW Greens member of parliament advocating on behalf of yet another concerned local resident.

As the contents of both letters correspond with the view of the Dept. of Premier and Cabinet directly put to a Lower Clarence resident on 17 August 2016, I am hopeful that the proposal for an international mega port in the Clarence River estuary - as envisaged by either Australian Infrastructure Developments Pty Ltd or United First Peoples Syndications Pty Ltd in conjunction with United Land Councils Ltd - will not be considered during the life of this current state parliament.

Once again Clarence Valley communities have demonstrated that when it comes to protecting the Clarence River system on which we all depend; they can act swiftly, with purpose and to effect.

Tony Watch (3)

Given that there is currently not a single politician in Liberal or Nationals ranks who would make even a half-decent Australian prime minister, speculating on who might replace Malcolm Bligh Turnbull is to venture down into the dark pages of a horror story.

However, I’m willing to wager that the right-wing nutters currently infesting both parties will be whipped into a frenzy if polling numbers like those set out below continue.

Former Liberal prime minister John Anthony "Tony" Abbott was first out of the barrier with a 'helpful' comment to journalists. 

Skilfully he wielded a sharp blade by pointing out that his government's lowest polling occurred at after an "excellent" trip to Asia in 2014 to finalise the Japan free trade agreement and making "giant strides" towards one with China, then contrasting 
Turnbull's even lower polling as having come after what Tony reportedly described as a modest but significant move towards budget repair.

The  Australian reporting on Newspoll results, 26 September 2016:

The Coalition’s primary vote has tumbled below 40 per cent for the first time under Malcolm ­Turnbull’s prime ministership and is now lower than when Tony Abbott was dumped as leader a year ago.

The latest Newspoll, taken ­exclusively for The Australian, also reveals Labor has seized a two-party-preferred lead of 52 per cent to the Coalition’s 48 per cent — the opposition’s biggest lead since Mr Turnbull took power.

Mr Turnbull remains the preferred prime minister over Bill Shorten, but less than a third of voters are satisfied with his performance while more than a half are ­dissatisfied.

The poll of 1662 voters, taken from last Thursday to Sunday, shows the Coalition’s primary vote has fallen three points in the past fortnight to 38 per cent and is down four points since the election 12 weeks ago.

Aside from the post-election slump for Julia Gillard’s government, which took only three weeks to lose four points after the 2010 election, it is the quickest ­decline in primary vote by a re-elected government in the 32-year history of Newspoll.

In the final Newspoll under Mr Abbott’s leadership in September last year, the Coalition’s primary vote was 39 per cent. It peaked at 46 per cent under Mr Turnbull, was 42.1 per cent at the election and has now fallen to 38 per cent.

Support for Labor has risen one point in the past fortnight to a four-month high of 37 per cent, while the Greens have gained one point to 10 per cent and other parties and independents have climbed a combined one point to 15 per cent.

Based on preference flows from the July election, Labor has a two-party-preferred lead of 52 per cent to the Coalition’s 48 per cent…….

When Mr Turnbull launched his challenge against Mr Abbott, he cited the fact the Coalition had lost 30 consecutive Newspoll ­surveys.

Mr Turnbull has now been leader for 21 Newspoll surveys and the Coalition has won nine, Labor has won five and there have been seven tied.

Mr Turnbull’s own standing with voters has continued to fall to new lows. Satisfaction with his performance fell two points to 32 per cent and dissatisfaction rose two points to 55 per cent.

It leaves Mr Turnbull with a net satisfaction rating of minus 23 points, a deterioration of four points in the past fortnight and a 61-point drop from his honeymoon peak last November of plus 38 points.

Mr Shorten has a higher ­satisfaction rating of 36 per cent, up one point, and a lower dissatisfaction measure of 51 per cent, down one point.

The Labor leader’s net satisfaction rating has improved from minus 17 to minus 15 points.

The only measure where Mr Turnbull has consistently remained ahead of Mr Shorten is on the question of who is the better prime minister, where his support rose one point to 44 per cent while Mr Shorten gained two points to 33 per cent.

Mr Turnbull has lost 20 points since his peak of 64 per cent last December while Mr Shorten has more than doubled his support since reaching the equal-record low for a Labor leader of 14 per cent…..

Queensland Government being sued to finally return other people's money

ABC News, 23 September 2016:

Lawyers say a class action in Queensland over unpaid wages to Aboriginal people is setting a national precedent, as dozens more come forward in other states to say they were not paid properly.

More than 300 people are suing the Queensland Government in the Federal Court, which held money in a trust that should have been paid to them as labourers or domestic workers more than half a century ago.

Rebecca Jancauskas, from Shine lawyers, said the class actions first directions hearing this week had revealed that the litigation proceedings would be speedy because of the advanced age of the claimants.

"It was clear that these claims are being taken seriously by federal court bench," she said.

"And proceedings have set the tone for litigation in other states where protectionist legislation was in place and wages were withheld from Indigenous people.

"So what we're doing at Shine is investigating bringing proceedings in other states — including the Northern Territory, Western Australia and NSW."……

The Queensland Government did set up a reparations scheme in 2002, but Ms Jancauskas said claimants only received between $2,000 and $7,000 for decades of work as labourers, stockmen or domestic servants.

"The amount they received through the reparations scheme was but a fraction of the money that the Government is holding in trust for them," Ms Jancauskas said.

"Had people received their entitlements through reparations schemes, then there would be no need for litigation to be pursued."

Those who took part in the scheme had to sign a deed of release, stopping them from taking further action.

But Ms Jancauskas said that would not stop them from participating in the litigation.

The perception of Coalition corruption and rorting continues to grow.......

The longer this generation of Liberal and Nationals politicians hold sway at either state or federal level the more apparent it becomes that they have little to no understanding of business ethics or civic responsibility, nor any regard for the damage that even a perception of a conflict of interest can do to the level of public trust in political institutions.

Here is yet another example……

ABC News, 22 September 2016:

John Cotter Jnr.

A company run by prominent Queensland Liberal National Party members was part of a consortium awarded $3 million under a federal infrastructure program, the ABC can reveal.

The money is for a feasibility study for the proposed Urannah Dam in north Queensland.

The $3 million was secured by a consortium that was made up of the community group, Bowen Collinsville Enterprise Inc, and the Brisbane-based venture capital group, Initiative Capital.

Initiative Capital is owned by its chief executive John Cotter Jr and its executive director Gerard Paynter, who say the bid was made through an independent and transparent assessment process, with all funds to be managed by the state.

But the Queensland Government has told the ABC successful funding bids were selected by the Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and that the Urannah Dam was not even listed as a state priority.

The $3 million for the Urannah Dam study came from National Water Infrastructure Development Fund. The fund called for applications late last year, with a panel of technical experts assessing the bids.

But the fund guidelines state "the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources [Barnaby Joyce] will be the final decision-maker".

John Cotter Jr is a member of the powerful Queensland LNP state executive and a regional party chair.

LNP sources said he was heavily involved in fundraising at all levels of the party.

When asked by the ABC about fundraising and his roles with the LNP, Mr Cotter said he was not allowed to comment.

"I can only confirm I am [an LNP] member," he said.

But a spokesman for the Queensland LNP confirmed Mr Cotter was on the state executive.

His partner in Initiative Capital, Gerard Paynter, is the Queensland managing director of LNP-aligned lobbying firm Barton Deakin.

Its website describes him as "an experienced Liberal National Party figure having been a Queensland and Federal Young Liberal president and a member of the Queensland state executive for five years".

It says he also has extensive experience in managing LNP state and federal campaigns, including holding a "central campaign role within the LNP for the 2013 federal election".

Mr Paynter told the ABC he did not hold any executive positions within the LNP.

He did not respond to follow up questions……..

The Australian, 27 July 2013:

MEMBERS of Queensland's GasFields Commission and their families enjoy lucrative financial interests in the state's controversial coal-seam gas industry that endanger the statutory body's independence, landholders and activists claim.

The commission, an election commitment by Campbell Newman's Liberal National Party, purports to promote sustainable co-existence between CSG miners and farmers - but critics say it is captive to industry……

Mr Clapham said landholders were concerned about the commissioners' links to gas companies. "To many people it appears the commission is there to facilitate the industry, not to even up the power imbalances. It's there to grease the wheels of the industry," he said.

The son of commission chairman John Cotter is the founder and major shareholder of a Brisbane-based consultancy that has close links to the British-owned Queensland Gas Company, one of four firms developing the state's $65 billion CSG industry.

John Cotter Jr's Flinders Group is involved in the $100 million construction of a jetty at Curtis Island at Gladstone, from where exports of liquid natural gas will begin next year. The Flinders Group has also advised resource firms, including QGC, on accessing land in more than 10 major projects, involving agreements with 1000 landholders.

Mr Cotter Jr said he no longer dealt directly with landowners because of his father's commissioner role and the group had created "Chinese walls" to avoid potential conflicts.

Activist Drew Hutton said the Flinders Group "scopes areas where coal-seam gas companies might need to target properties for gas wells and other infrastructure".

This was in direct conflict with Mr Cotter Sr's role in assisting farmers in dealing with mining companies, he said. "It's another case of where the Queensland government has structured things so landholders are disadvantaged against the might of the coal-seam gas companies."

Mr Cotter Sr, a grazier at Goomeri northwest of Brisbane, said he had no role in his son's business…..

Following closely on the heels of John Cotter Jnr's latest issue came this report in The Age on 26 September 2016:

A Turnbull government MP is facing questions over a series of taxpayer funded travel claims, including more than $2000 for flights to his own wedding in Melbourne.

Western Australian Liberal MP Steve Irons charged taxpayers travel costs of $1346 for a flight on October 18, 2011, three days before he was married at Melbourne's Crown Casino.

The West Australian reported on Monday that following the October 21 ceremony, Mr Irons charged taxpayers $911 for a return flight to Perth on October 25.

The Swan MP said the money had been repaid to the Department of Finance after "a self-audit" of travel expenses in his office.

Mr Irons' wife Cheryle was a Melbourne-based real estate agent at the time of the couple's wedding.

The revelations come days after it was reported that he had also used taxpayer funds to pay for flights to a Gold Coast golf tournament in December 2015.

Mr Irons said he studied golf tourism opportunities at the first stage of the International Team Challenge, after being invited to attend by the Australian PGA.

As chair of the parliamentary friends of sport group, Mr Irons said the trip had not broken any rules on taxpayer funded travel, despite it being claimed as "electorate business".

The December trip included a $258 bill to taxpayers for three nights' travel allowance in Coolangatta and $1875 for a flight from Brisbane to Perth.

A further flight cost is expected to be reported in future releases from the Department of Finance.

Mr Iron's office did not respond to requests for comment…..