SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Later today, Tony Burke will address the National Press Club and, as I understand it, will outline what the final Murray-Darling Basin Plan looks like. The fact that we’re reaching a point of finality is welcome because this is a long overdue reform. It’s more than five years since the Howard Government…
ELEANOR HALL: A compromise between Australia’s major parties has seen the Senate pass a key piece of legislation* on the management of the Murray-Darling Basin but the compromise doesn’t extend to the states and now the New South Wales Government says it is considering its own legislation to limit water buybacks. In Adelaide, Rebecca…
LYNDAL CURTIS: The Federal Government has released draft legislation [Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012 Exposure Draft] to consolidate Australia’s discrimination laws. The changes are designed to provide more protection and a simpler regime, although the Opposition worries about shifting the burden of proof onto the respondent and some elements of the consolidation. Both…
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: I think there’s a couple of things out of today firstly, the question of: where was the South Australian Government? The initial programme for this hearing had the South Australian Government listed as the first item up sure, ‘to be confirmed’ but they were expected to be here. They were…
DAVID BONE: Well, as I mentioned, South Australian Coalition MPs have threatened to cross the floor and vote with the Government to ensure that the Prime Minister’s changes to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan make it through the Parliament. Simon Birmingham is a Liberal Senator for South Australia. Simon Birmingham, would they really cross the…
MATTHEW PANTELIS: Big day on the River Murray, Keith of course, 3200 more gigs [gigalitres]. KEITH CONLON: Yeah, Prime Minister about to announce it on the Lower Lakes but of course it’s got to get through Federal Parliament. For a look at the Opposition stance on it, Senator Simon Birmingham of…
LYNDAL CURTIS: One of the central planks of the Government’s latest policy on asylum seekers is what’s called the ‘no disadvantage’ test for the time it takes to process asylum claims but it’s still a test without a firm definition. The President of the Human Rights Commission has told a Senate Estimates hearing in…
DAVID LIPSON: Well, it’s been a while since we’ve seen Labor MP Craig Thomson on the doors of Parliament House arguing the Government’s case but today he felt that he was on a winner after a letter was sent to him this week from the Opposition, courting his vote on the matter of superannuation.…
LUKE GRANT: … more details about the botched Home Insulation Program have emerged in Senate Estimates hearings, showing just how poorly run the Federal Government’s scheme was. We can’t forget the money wasted here. We can’t forget that people died here, either. I mean, we really cannot. The failed program has cost Australian taxpayers…
TREVOR SCOTT: … we’re going to catch up with Senator Simon Birmingham. Basin modelling… the MDBA [Murray-Darling Basin Authority] have put out yet some more modelling on the flows in the River and ‘what could be achieved if’. Let’s find out what this is really trying to tell us with Simon Birmingham. Good morning,…