LYNDAL CURTIS: Simon Birmingham and Nick Champion, welcome to News 24. NICK CHAMPION: Good morning [sic]. SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Good afternoon, Lyndal. G’day, Nick. LYNDAL CURTIS: The Government has not ruled out advertising to sell its carbon tax plan. That’s not something that has won the backing of either Tony Windsor or the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott,…
Labor and the Greens must rule out a taxpayer funded advertising campaign to sell their carbon tax, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment Simon Birmingham said today. It follows strong signals in the last 24 hours from Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Greens Senator Christine Milne that a carbon tax advertising blitz is…
LEON BYNER: We’re talking today about this proposed carbon tax, its impact on South Australia … let’s talk to Simon Birmingham, Senator in South Australia for the Opposition. Good morning. SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Good morning, Leon, and good morning to your listeners. Leon, you and Haydon Manning [Department of Politics and Public Policy, Flinders University] this morning…
It is untenable for the Water Minister and his newly appointed Chair of the MurrayDarling Basin Authority to neither express confidence in the Authority’s board nor explain why or how they plan to fix it, Coalition Basin spokesman Simon Birmingham said today. Tony Burke and Craig Knowles were both interviewed for a Four…
Water Minister Tony Burke must guarantee that neither he nor Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) Chair Craig Knowles encouraged Dr Diana Day to resign from the MDBA board, Coalition Basin spokesman Simon Birmingham said today. “Given recent media reports that Mr Knowles has been planning to sideline the board and Mr Burke planning to…
A Parliamentary inquiry should consider whether Water Minister Tony Burke has interfered with the independent Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s (MDBA’s) preparation of its Basin Plan, Coalition Basin spokesman Simon Birmingham said today. Senator Birmingham has written to the chair of an inquiry into the Basin Plan’s effects on regional Australia, Independent MP Tony Windsor,…
Water Minister Tony Burke must rule out interfering in the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s (MDBA’s) decision making surrounding last year’s release of its Guide to the proposed Basin Plan or else explain why he did interfere, Senator Simon Birmingham said today. It follows revelations in Senate Additional Estimates this morning that the Authority only…
The Coalition has called for an urgent inquiry into a renewable energy scheme after authorities were forced to cancel permits worth approximately $113 million because of compliance problems. Andrew Livingston, the Renewable Energy Regulator, told a Senate Estimates hearing on Monday that he had cancelled 3.3 million Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). RECs…
Water Minister Tony Burke should state clearly whether the Government expects to spend all of the amounts budgeted for water buybacks in this and future years, Coalition Murray-Darling Basin spokesman Simon Birmingham said today. It follows Mr Burke signalling changes to the Gillard Government’s buyback program despite having criticised the Coalition’s proposal to…
HAYDEN COOPER: Gentlemen, thanks for joining us. SIMON BIRMINGHAM: A pleasure, Hayden. DAVID BRADBURY: Afternoon. HAYDEN COOPER: Well timing is everything and Scott Morrison has admitted that he got it wrong. You’ll remember that yesterday he raised questions about the cost to taxpayers of flying relatives to Sydney for the funerals of some of the Christmas…