The failure to include water issues and management of the Murray-Darling Basin on the agenda for tomorrow’s COAG meeting will cost taxpayers millions in legal fees, according to Liberal Senator for South Australia Simon Birmingham. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meets in Hobart tomorrow. “With South Australia threatening to take Victoria…
DetailsSenator Simon Birmingham said members of the public with a Centrelink, Child Support or Medicare enquiry needn’t bother turning up to Steve Georganas’s office any more after the Minister for Human Services scrapped a vital program. “Anyone who goes into Steve Georganas’s office with a Centrelink, Child Support or Medicare enquiry will now…
DetailsPlans by the Prime Minister to talk about alcohol warning labels at the COAG meeting in Adelaide today but not the River Murray just aren’t good enough according to South Australian Senator Simon Birmingham. “Making alcohol producers put warning labels on their products is an easy decision for a Prime Minister looking for…
DetailsA Federal Labor MP’s attempts to claim credit for driving a water plan being held up by the Rann Government were laughable, Senator Simon Birmingham said today. In his latest newsletter, Labor MP Steve Georganas says he “…has ignited State Government interest in a water plan that would provide as much as…
DetailsSenator Simon Birmingham today called for ongoing monitoring of the impact on rural and regional Australians of Telstra switching off its CDMA mobile phone network later this month. It follows today’s decision by the Communications Minister to allow closure of the network on 28 April, on the basis that Telstra had met the…
DetailsLiberal Senator Simon Birmingham has described State and Territory Labor Governments, including in his own South Australia, as “weak and gutless” for their failure to bring Victoria into line in supporting comprehensive national management of the Murray-Darling Basin. Speaking during today’s hearings of the Senate Environment Committee into the Water Bill 2007, Senator…
DetailsSenator Simon Birmingham said today the Rann Labor Government’s belated commitment for a water recycling project that will save thousands of litres of wastewater being pumped out to sea was better late than never. A multi-million dollar project for the wider reuse of water from the Glenelg Wastewater Treatment Plant, including watering the…
DetailsKevin Rudd needs to urgently set a date for a meeting with the states on saving the Murray-Darling Basin, Senator Simon Birmingham said today Senator Birmingham said with the Murray-Darling left off of this week’s COAG meeting agenda, Mr Rudd needs to immediately set another date to bring the states into line and…
DetailsSenator Simon Birmingham wants to hear from South Australians having difficulty with the transition from the soon to be closed CDMA mobile phone network to Telstra’s Next G network. It follows Communications Minister Stephen Conroy’s decision today to push back by three months to 28 April the switch off of the CDMA network.…
DetailsOn the first anniversary of the ambitious $10 billion plan to take national control of the Murray-Darling Basin, Senator Simon Birmingham has called on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to get on with the job of resolving the management of the Murray before it’s too late. Senator Birmingham said the stubborn and recalcitrant approach…
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