The Rudd Government must use today’s Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting to make decisions that deliver immediate certainty for the solar industry, Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham said today. With support for solar installations listed as an agenda item for today’s meeting in Perth, Senator Birmingham said the Rudd Government also needed to…
Environment Minister Peter Garrett has cynically approved a pipeline allowing Victoria to rip more water out of the Murray before a relevant Parliamentary Committee reports, Senator Simon Birmingham said today. “In approving the north-south pipeline, Mr Garrett has today put water for Melbourne ahead of water for the Murray,” Senator Birmingham said today.…
The Rudd Government continues to avoid taking immediate steps to provide immediate assistance to the Coorong and Lower Lakes, Senator Simon Birmingham said today. “Today’s announcement of a tender to purchase water entitlements in Queensland and northern New South Wales is welcome, but it will do little to address the immediate needs of…
The Rudd Government is refusing to take the Australian people into its confidence in relation to the Lower Lakes and Coorong, even defying a Senate order to do so, Senator Simon Birmingham said today. The Senate yesterday passed a ‘return to order’ for Water Minister Penny Wong to disclose the emergency advice she…
Senator Simon Birmingham today welcomed the Senate’s decision to refer the dire situation facing the Murray-Darling, particularly the Lower Lakes and Coorong, to an urgent committee inquiry. The inquiry by the Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport will report by 30 September, giving it a shorter than usual time…
Peter Garrett continues to be in denial as the only person in Australia who still thinks imposing a means test on the solar panel rebate scheme will somehow help to combat climate change. Today’s report by the Senate Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts confirms the negative impact the means test…
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy needs to explain how he will provide broadband in a timely manner to underserved areas of regional South Australia, Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham said today. Senator Conroy is part of celebrations in Minlaton today for the Broadbanding the Yorke Peninsula project, funded by the Federal and State Governments as…
Taxpayers are spending more to install smaller solar systems thanks to the Rudd Government’s means testing of the $8000 solar panels rebate, Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham said today. Environment Department officials responsible for administration of the rebate scheme made the revelations at hearings in Brisbane today of a Senate inquiry into the much…
A Senate inquiry today has an opportunity to make the Rudd Government come clean on the impact of its much criticised means test on solar panel rebates, Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham said today. Environment Department officials responsible for the rebate program’s administration are scheduled to appear today, after they were an eleventh hour…
Western Australian solar panel installers will today tell of the damage caused to their business by the Rudd Government’s means test on solar panel rebates, Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham said today. Today’s Senate committee inquiry hearing follows those in Adelaide, Melbourne and also Canberra, where Environment Department officials responsible for the rebate program’s…