The enormous cost of Labor’s green waste now includes empty desks with a million dollar price tag and many millions of dollars in bad debts, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment Simon Birmingham said today. Department officials have revealed through Senate Estimates hearings the gross underutilisation of hugely costly office space, while further…
DetailsThe Government’s own senior Climate officials have today confirmed that revenue projections for carbon permits contained in this year’s budget are double and triple what the market is predicting. The consequence is that there is $6 billion in phantom revenue and therefore a $6 billion budget black hole in a document that is…
DetailsFederal and State Labor are both treating taxpayers with contempt by refusing to release information surrounding decisions to fund the Adelaide Desalination Plant, the Coalition’s Murray-Darling Basin spokesman Simon Birmingham said today. It follows this month’s damning report of the Commonwealth Auditor-General* into $328 million in federal funding for the Desal Plant, including…
DetailsFederal Labor Government decisions to fund the Adelaide Desalination Plant have been slammed in a damning report by the Commonwealth Auditor-General. The Audit Report into $328 million of Commonwealth funding follows an October 2012 written request from the Coalition’s Murray-Darling Basin spokesman, Senator Simon Birmingham. “The Auditor-General has found that proper grants…
DetailsRising business costs, which are being exacerbated by factors such as the carbon tax and excessive regulation, have delivered a third major blow to the Whyalla region today. Arafura Resources’ announcement that they will not proceed with a $1 billion mineral processing plant at Whyalla citing increasing business costs, including transport costs…
Details“Labor’s failing of South Australians on broadband is plain for all to see and no amount of grandstanding by Senator Conroy and Kate Ellis can hide the truth,” Liberal Senator for South Australia Simon Birmingham said today. “NBN Co has confirmed a failure to connect any South Australians to the National Broadband Network…
DetailsThe Gillard Government spent nearly $17,000 of taxpayers’ money on a lavish party to launch its Carbon Cop, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment Simon Birmingham said today. The cost of the 4 April 2012 party on the banks of Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin has been revealed through FOI applications made by Senator…
DetailsAustralian taxpayers have footed a bill approaching $1 million to send an extravagant 52 person delegation to a single three-day conference in Brazil, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment Simon Birmingham said today. Details of the size and cost of Australia’s attendance at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, in Rio de…
DetailsThe Gillard Government should remove land use restrictions locking up thousands of hectares of previously irrigated land, Coalition Murray-Darling Basin spokesman Simon Birmingham said today. A condition of grants to landowners surrendering water entitlements under the Small Block Irrigators Exit Grant Package was that the land owned by the applicant would not be…
DetailsTony Burke must act to end the funding dispute engulfing the states and MurrayDarling Basin Authority (MDBA) which MDBA Chair Craig Knowles said, if unresolved, would see “the administration of the assets and functions of the Basin will rapidly deteriorate.” Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray-Darling Basin Simon Birmingham today called for Water…
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