Federal and State Labor Water Ministers must urgently clarify the status of federal funding for Adelaide’s desalination plant, Coalition Murray Darling Basin spokesman Simon Birmingham said today. It follows South Australian Minister Paul Caica’s insistence, contrary to Federal Minister Penny Wong’s public statements, that a federal condition to reduce reliance on the River…
DetailsLabor has once again failed to deliver on Murray Darling Basin reform, with delays to the release of the proposed Basin Plan creating yet more uncertainty for everyone. Labor has massively underspent and under-delivered on budgeted water saving infrastructure throughout its term, failing to deliver priority water saving infrastructure programs and failing to…
DetailsALEXANDRA KIRK: Coalition senators who formed a majority on the Senate inquiry want a royal commission into the home insulation program. They say the scheme was open to an unacceptable level of fraud and abuse and the Government had “clear and unambiguous warnings” that rolling out such a big program so quickly would be…
DetailsNothing less than a Royal Commission is needed into the Rudd/Gillard Government’s disastrous Home Insulation Program, according to a damning Senate inquiry report released today*. Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Action Simon Birmingham moved for and participated in the Senate’s inquiry into the Energy Efficient Homes Package, a key measure of which was…
DetailsSONYA FELDHOFF: We’ve been waiting for these particular reports on the Green Loans scheme and I don’t think anyone expected that it would continue but now we have a definite time frame for the phasing out of this program, Simon. SIMON BIRMINGHAM: We have been waiting for these reports for some months. I’ve…
DetailsEnergy Efficiency Minister Penny Wong must commit to publicly releasing a further report on the failed $300 million Green Loans program following yesterday’s damning findings, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Action Simon Birmingham said today. A further audit was conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in February, with its findings still to be released. …
DetailsDamning reports released today into the failed $300 million Green Loans affair confirm that the Rudd-Gillard Government can’t be trusted to run a major environmental program. It’s a trifecta of trouble coming after the debacles of the Home Insulation Program and repeated scrapping and suspension of solar programs. The one thing in…
DetailsAccusations about the extent of water theft in the Murray Darling Basin highlight just how ineffective Water Minister Penny Wong has been at addressing issues she’s long known about, Coalition Basin spokesman Simon Birmingham said today. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority estimates enough water has been diverted to private dams to more than fill…
DetailsHome sustainability assessors left out of pocket through the Rudd/Gillard Government’s mismanagement of its Green Loans Program are among those giving evidence to a Senate inquiry hearing in Sydney tomorrow. The Senate’s Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts is inquiring into the Green Loans Program, which delivered less than one per…
DetailsEnergy Efficiency Minister Penny Wong is embarrassingly sitting on a long overdue review into the Rudd/Gillard Government’s failed Green Loans Program, it has been revealed today. As thousands of trained assessors misled by the Government remain in limbo, the so-called Faulkner Review is among several that Senator Wong has indicated she would consider…
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