Coalition Senators think the Lower Lakes can be saved, despite the Rudd Government waving the white flag on preserving them as freshwater. Coalition Senators have issued Additional Comments to the Government-controlled majority report of a Senate committee inquiry into water management of the Lower Lakes and Coorong, released today. The most damning…
DetailsThe 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…
DetailsEnvironment 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.…
DetailsThe 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…
DetailsThe 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…
DetailsSenator 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…
DetailsPeter 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…
DetailsCommunications 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…
DetailsTaxpayers 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…
DetailsA 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…
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