ELIZABETH JACKSON: With many communities still dealing with the damage from widespread flooding, the Federal Opposition has accused the Government of failing to reveal warnings that its plan to put more water back into the Murray-Darling river system could increase the risk of flooding. A document the Coalition has obtained under Freedom of…
DetailsSCOTT 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…
DetailsWILL GOODINGS: … someone with quite strong opinions on this matter and others is Senator Simon Birmingham for South Australia. Senator, welcome to the program. SIMON BIRMINGHAM: G’day, Will, pleasure to be here. WILL GOODINGS: Simon, can you tell us your reaction to Mike Taylor stepping aside. SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Well, look, I feel very…
DetailsGLENN 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,…
DetailsMATTHEW 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…
DetailsKIERAN 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…
DetailsALEXANDRA 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…
DetailsLEON 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…
DetailsMATTHEW 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…
DetailsSIMON 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…
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