Former federal Water Minister Penny Wong’s warning today to South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill over Murray-Darling Basin reform has been welcomed by the Coalition’s Basin spokesman, Simon Birmingham. Asked about Mr Weatherill’s threats of a High Court challenge to a final Basin Plan, Senator Wong delivered a clear warning to Mr Weatherill and…
DetailsThe Senate has today paid tribute to the late Senator Jeannie Ferris and urged all Australians to support this month’s Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. A motion* from South Australian Coalition Senators and the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Status of Women, passed unanimously by the Senate this afternoon, highlights Ms Ferris’s work in…
DetailsTOM TILLEY: Now, first to Canberra and you’ve probably been back at work for quite a few weeks already since your Christmas break but for our politicians today is their first day back in Federal Parliament and our reporter John Barrington has been walking and stalking the halls of power, finding out which issues…
DetailsDivisions within South Australian Labor on Murray-Darling Basin reform are now spreading into federal Labor, putting at risk the entire reform process, Coalition Murray-Darling Basin spokesman Simon Birmingham said today. “Premier Weatherill’s threats to challenge the Basin Plan in the High Court have been rejected by most SA federal Labor MPs, who have…
DetailsMisleading Labor campaign material has demonstrated how ineffective for the Murray SA Labor has been at both state and federal levels, Coalition Murray-Darling Basin spokesman Simon Birmingham said today. The postcard* distributed in the state electorate of Port Adelaide by the Labor Party for its by-election campaign claims that “Jay Weatherill’s Labor Party…
DetailsTaxpayers are footing a multi-million dollar travel bill as part of Labor’s clean up of its disastrous $2.5 billion Home Insulation Program or ‘Pink Batts’ scheme, linked to at least four deaths and more than 200 house fires. The Gillard Government has revealed and detailed more than $3.4 million in travel costs for…
DetailsMoney earmarked for returning water to the Murray-Darling Basin has started flowing towards an unrelated project offering no such benefit, Coalition Basin spokesman Simon Birmingham said today. In response to questions from Senator Birmingham through Senate Estimates, the Gillard Government has confirmed[1] it has begun handing over $20 million to the New South…
DetailsSTEVE CANNANE: Our panel tonight: Miriam Lyons from the Centre for Policy Development, Marius Benson from ABC NewsRadio, and economist and contributing editor to The Australian newspaper Judith Sloan. … STEVE CANNANE: Well, the future of Australia’s car industry has become the latest battleground for Labor and the Coalition. The Opposition has…
DetailsELEANOR HALL: Let’s go now to the debate inside the federal Coalition about whether it should maintain the hefty Government subsidies to the car industry in Australia. The Federal Government says that every country that makes cars props up its local industry, and it’s accusing the Opposition of putting auto industry jobs at…
DetailsAustralian taxpayers are wearing a double hit from the carbon tax thanks to the high spending bureaucracy administering it, according to Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment Simon Birmingham. It follows revelations of Departmental staff and office arrangements in answers* to questions asked by Senator Birmingham through Senate Estimates. “Not only will…
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