SCOTT BEVAN: Time now for our daily ‘pollies panel’. Political correspondent Gillian Bradford is joined by Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham and Labor MP Andrew Leigh. … GILLIAN BRADFORD: Simon, three of Joe Hockey’s Nine Point Plan [the Coalition’s Nine Point Plan to Stand up to the Banks] pop up in this Government package so, with that…
GLENN RIDGE: It’s been reported that over the past year something like $750 million more have been spent on water buybacks than was originally earmarked, while something like 300 million less than was budgeted for was directed to water saving infrastructure. The thing which hit me was as at October, as in two months ago,…
MATTHEW ABRAHAM: Simon Birmingham is a Liberal Senator for South Australia, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment. Good morning, do you concede that moving to renewable energy is the way of the future and that South Australia is setting the pace here? SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Look, we obviously need to do all we can…
KIERAN GILBERT: More now on the resignation of the Chair of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. Senator Simon Birmingham is the spokesperson for the Murray-Darling for the Opposition. I spoke to him a little earlier. Senator Simon Birmingham, thank you very much for your time. We’ve known for some time that there have been differences of…
ALEXANDRA KIRK: Mike Taylor says in a statement that a sustainable plan for the Murray-Darling Basin will need far more than a decision on how much water should be transferred from human uses to the environment. He says it requires the Commonwealth and states to work together with the communities, industry and environmental groups…
LEON BYNER: Just taking you back a little bit. We established when I say ‘we’, the Government under the suggestion of everybody who thought that we need this independent group of people that would decide the fate of water and how it ought to be used, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, they went…
MATTHEW ABRAHAM: … twitter.com/kevcorduroy where the news has flashed up while we were broadcasting that interview that the Murray-Darling Basin Authority… this is from ABC News, their Twitter feed… the Murray-Darling Basin Authority head, Mike Taylor, has resigned, and we’ve heard that … information from our newsroom as well. DAVID BEVAN: This is…
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: The resignation today by Mike Taylor, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority chairman throws into crisis Murray-Darling reform in Australia. This is a resignation that couldn’t have come at a worse time and the statement he has issued comes with very serious implications for the reform process. What we see from the resignation statement by Mr…
DAVID LIPSON: Let’s hear what our panel makes of these reports [that the Government is preparing to reintroduce a finance guarantee scheme for building societies and credit unions], we have Liberal MP Simon Birmingham in Adelaide, also Ed Husic from the Labor side, he’s joining us from our Sydney newsroom, thank you gentlemen, both…
ALI MOORE: The Federal Opposition says the internal debate within Labor over nuclear energy shows the Prime Minister is losing control of the party. For more on where this debate may go we’re joined by political correspondent Lyndal Curtis, who’s talking to Labor MP Michael Danby and Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham. LYNDAL CURTIS: Michael Danby and…