The Gillard Government is keeping taxpayers in the dark on its carbon tax agenda to such an extent that it’s now being selectively secretive about the timing of decisions supposedly taken by its so-called ‘multi-party’ committee, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment Simon Birmingham said today. “As if it isn’t bad enough that…
DetailsLabor is refusing to comply with the requirement of a Senate Estimates Committee in its latest attempt to shield the National Broadband Network (NBN) from proper scrutiny, Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham said today. Senator Birmingham described a letter* from the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy stating its refusal to meet…
DetailsLYNDAL CURTIS: Welcome to Capital Hill, where the attention’s been split today between Canberra, Perth and Indonesia as the regional processing centre gets discussed in Canberra but not necessarily in Indonesia and the Prime Minister has announced a review of the way the Goods and Services Tax is distributed between the states. To discuss these many…
DetailsSIMON BIRMINGHAM: The Labor Government’s carbon tax arrangements are unravelling before their very eyes already. What we see today are revelations that Ministers don’t think tax cuts are possible as part of compensation. Now, I stood here just a couple of days ago and predicted that there would be absolutely no reduction in income tax rates…
DetailsSIMON BIRMINGHAM: Stephen Conroy clearly thinks the communications industry is his own little plaything. Well, it’s far from a plaything it’s an industry that employs tens of thousands of Australians that turns over billion upon billion of dollars in revenue. This is a very serious industry and it deserves to be treated as far more…
DetailsKIERAN GILBERT: Welcome back to AM Agenda. With me now from Adelaide, the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change [Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment], Simon Birmingham, and from our Sky News Centre I have Labor MP Ed Husic. Gentleman, good morning to you both… ED HUSIC: G’day. KIERAN GILBERT: Senator Birmingham… SIMON BIRMINGHAM: G’day.…
DetailsSENATOR BIRMINGHAM: (South Australia) (4:33 PM) -It is a pleasure to lead the debate on this outstanding submission of Senator Fifield’s in relation to the matter of public importance debate, which is to focus on and highlight the Gillard government’s continued failure to accept responsibility for its broken promise not to introduce a carbon tax.…
DetailsSENATOR BIRMINGHAM: (South Australia) (10:02 AM) -As the first speaker on a Monday morning in this place it would usually be a pleasure to rise and say, ‘It is a pleasure to speak on this legislation.’ Unfortunately, however, this is flawed legislation designed to pursue and implement a bad policy. It is not a pleasure…
DetailsSENATOR BIRMINGHAM:(South Australia) (7:01 PM) -I rise to speak on a matter of great importance for Australia-that is, foreign aid. Foreign aid is truly a tale of hopes and despairs. Hopes spring within people who can see a glimmer of light at the end of a long tunnel of suffering, while despair crushes those enduring…
DetailsThe Greens’ hypocritical new-found support of wasteful Government advertising is another sign Australia is governed by a Labor-Greens coalition, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment Simon Birmingham said today. The Senate today passed Senator Birmingham’s motion* stating its clear opposition to any taxpayer funded advertising campaign related to the Government’s planned carbon tax…
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