Sue Boyce is a good friend and wonderful colleague who I will miss greatly when she retires as a Senator for Queensland in 2014. I have always enjoyed a special connection with Sue, the two of us having been sworn in at the same time on 8 May 2007 to fill casual vacancies.…
Taxpayers deserve explanations from Federal and SA Labor about the spending of both federal and state taxpayer dollars on a mothballed desalination plant, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray-Darling Basin Simon Birmingham said today. It follows SA Water’s shock announcement today that intends to ‘mothball’ the $1.8 billion Adelaide Desalination Plant until at…
Electricity prices would be lower under a Coalition Government and without Labor’s carbon tax, an independent state regulator has confirmed today. Paul Kerin, Chief Executive Officer of the Essential Services Commission of South Australia, was commenting this morning in the wake of this week’s draft determination by the Commission on standing contract prices…
Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham is urging South Australians to photograph their favourite river location as part of a competition coinciding with World Rivers Day this month. Senator Birmingham, the Coalition’s spokesman on the Murray-Darling Basin, is proudly supporting the “Rivers Matter” initiative, created by Australian not-for-profit group the International RiverFoundation. People are…
LYNDAL CURTIS: The Federal Opposition Leader outlined some of his plans for defence should he win the next election. There are some concrete plans, such as buying unmanned aircraft to patrol northern Australia, but there are also some aspirations or decisions yet to be taken. The Federal Government has announced some plans of its…
JAMES CARLETON: Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce has been ‘slapped down’ twice this week for his comments on the pending sale of Cubbie Station, in south-east Queensland, to Chinese interests. First up was the Opposition Treasury spokesman, Joe Hockey, and then yesterday former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer joined in. Now Barnaby Joyce’s junior colleague, the…
Decisions made in the European Union will now have a direct impact on the rate of Australia’s carbon tax, as a result of the linkage announced by the Gillard Government this week. Business and economic leaders have today confirmed that the linkage means decisions made in Europe will impact how much more households…
DAVID LIPSON: Welcome back and welcome, also, to Labor MP Rob Mitchell and Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham. Thanks for your time today, gentlemen. SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Good afternoon, David. ROB MITCHELL: Good afternoon, David. DAVID LIPSON: First to you, Senator. I want to ask you about this dental scheme $4.1 billion…
JASON MORRISON: Look, I’m going to spare you the jargon in trying to explain this because jargon is how the political class nowadays confuse you into thinking they’re doing something good for you. Essentially, yesterday the Federal Government decided to ditch part of its carbon tax policy and that was as far as they…
STEVE PRICE: Listening to that interview with Greg Combet is the acting Environment spokesman for the Coalition, Simon Birmingham Greg Hunt is on location in East Timor. Simon, thanks for your time. SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Good evening, Steve. Good evening to your listeners. STEVE PRICE: A $29 price where we’re going to…