Category Archives: Angus Taylor

Icac queries Barilaro grant to company linked to Angus Taylor’s family

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Icac refuses to confirm or deny if it’s investigating, but has asked questions about the $107,000 grant

New documents reveal the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption has asked detailed questions about a $107,000 grant made by the former deputy premier, John Barilaro, to Monaro Farming Systems, a company linked to the family of federal cabinet minister Angus Taylor.

The grant was paid out of Local Land Services funds – part of Barilaro’s then portfolio of regional NSW – in 2018, and was announced by the deputy premier.

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Projections suggest Australia could meet 2030 emissions target without using Kyoto credits

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Prime minister Scott Morrison wanted to announce the policy shift at a weekend summit but he’s not yet secured a speaking spot

The Morrison government will release updated national greenhouse gas emissions projections that claim Australia is nearly on track to meet the target for 2030 it set under the Paris agreement.

An annual emissions projection report to be released on Thursday shows the government now estimates emissions in 2030 will fall just short – by 56m tonnes – of meeting its target of a 26-28% cut compared to 2005 levels if Australia doesn’t deploy Kyoto credits to hit the target.

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Australian politics live: Coalition to put forward IR changes; cruise ship ban extended

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Fair Work Commission to be given power to approve agreements that don’t guarantee workers are better off overall. Follow all the latest updates

Earlier, the Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary, Sally McManus, set out the union movement’s objection to the “extreme” industrial relations bill.
Those are:

On the other side of that debate:

Take the sand out of your ears – and let's hope we can soften your hearts. Because all this legislation does is push people further and further in the ground. Please Senators, vote no to this horrendous legislation. My full speech: https://t.co/MTYbj02hyw

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Labor calls on Josh Frydenberg to front Covid-19 inquiry to explain jobkeeper ‘$60bn black hole’

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Penny Wong says treasurer should have ‘the courage’ to take responsibility for error as Coalition faces calls to expand wage subsidy

Labor will attempt to pressure the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, to appear before the Senate’s Covid-19 inquiry to explain the “$60bn black hole” in the jobkeeper program.

The move comes as the Morrison government faces growing calls to expand the wage subsidy to cover a wider group of workers, after revelations on Friday that the six-month program is now expected to cost the budget $70bn rather than $130bn.

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Coalition credibility is only as strong as its weakest link – and right now that’s Angus Taylor | Malcolm Farr

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There’s no evidence the minister did the dodgy document deed himself. But someone did and it’s hard to believe he doesn’t know who

There are 13 people who should be able to help resolve the Angus Taylor mystery – and help the energy minister get it off the political agenda.

They are the 13 who downloaded the Sydney City Council annual report 2017-18 between Friday 6 September and Monday 9 September last year.

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Angus Taylor and Scott Morrison won’t be able to brush off uncomfortable questions much longer | Malcolm Farr

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As Australia moves back to normal activities, the Coalition will be held to account on standards of integrity

It has taken a cruel and untamed global disaster to draw attention from the government’s record of questionable integrity standards.

That record is bulging with episodes of controversial conduct, and they are not going to disappear into post-coronavirus history.

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No evidence doctored documents Angus Taylor used to attack council existed on website, NSW police say

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NSW police also say they asked to interview energy minister, but all questions were answered by his lawyers

New South Wales police says it found no evidence that the document Angus Taylor’s office used to attack City of Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore ever existed on the council’s website, casting renewed doubt on the minister’s explanation.

Taylor has repeatedly insisted that the false document he used to wrongly attack Moore for her travel-related emissions was downloaded from the council’s own website.

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Liberal MP says Coalition needs to look at a 2050 net zero emissions target – politics live

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Trent Zimmerman says Australia needs to look beyond good target for 2030 as we head into Glasgow. All the day’s events, live

It’s time for who’s that MP?

It’s Andrew Wallace.

Asked about the Nationals (and some Liberals) who claim a net zero 2050 emissions target would bring about end of days, Trent Zimmerman tells the ABC:

No-one is saying that getting to 2050 with a net zero target is an easy task. It is a challenge.

We know in many areas we are doing really well.

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Chaos in parliament over Coalition’s union-busting bill – politics live

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Scott Morrison announces cut in number of government departments as part of public service overhaul. All the day’s political news, live

Labor is moving a motion saying the government’s attempts to push the union-busting bill through without debate was “anti-democratic”.

Better still is this bit of the motion:

This is a prime ministerial tantrum, with the prime minister of Australia behaving like a juvenile schoolyard bully just because he didn’t get his way last week.

We’re now moving through the votes for the government’s union-busting bill.

A side note - this is the 100th division to take place in the House for this sitting fortnight.

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Police ask Clover Moore for statement on Angus Taylor – politics live

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Sydney lord mayor approached by police investigating accusations the emissions reduction minister relied on a falsified document to attack her. Follow all the day’s political news live

That’s where we’ll leave the live blog for the day. Thanks for following along.

It’s been another messy day. Many say the medevac repeal has made it one of parliament’s darkest.

Another development on the Angus Taylor front.

The City of Sydney’s lord mayor, Clover Moore, has been approached by police to provide a statement for their investigation into accusations Taylor relied on a falsified document to attack her travel-related emissions. The council said in a statement:

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Labor calls for royal commission into defence veteran suicide – politics live

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The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, says there have been more than 400 ‘senseless loss of life’ since 2001. Follow all the day’s politics – live

Cormann’s full response to the order to produce the Morrison-Fuller transcript has been tabled. The full text of the letter is below.

Dear President

I refer to the motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Senator the Hon Penny Wong, and agreed by the Senate on 2 December 2019, requesting documents associated with phone call between the Prime Minister and the Commissioner of the New South Wales Police Force that took place on Tuesday, 26 November 2019.

Labor is furious at the government’s response to an order to produce the transcript of the Morrison-Fuller phone call about the Angus Taylor police investigation.

The Labor leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, read the government’s response to the Senate after it was provided to her at the outset of Senate proceedings by the finance minister, Mathias Cormann. The letter simply referred the Senate to previous answers and said the documents would be subject to a public interest immunity claim because they relate to a police investigation.

This is transparency from the Morrison government. This is the transparency and integrity, or lack thereof from the Morrison government.”

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Naomi Wolf accuses Angus Taylor of ‘antisemitic dogwhistle’ and false claim about Oxford University

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Author says she was not at Oxford with Australia’s energy minister, and his implication she was part of an ‘elite’ attacking Christmas is an ‘antisemitic dogwhistle’

The American author Naomi Wolf has accused Australia’s embattled energy minister, Angus Taylor, of an “antisemitic dogwhistle”, and of falsely claiming they were at Oxford University together.

In his maiden speech to parliament in 2013, Taylor told a story about “political correctness” and a dispute over a Christmas tree at Oxford in 1991, when he was a Rhodes scholar at the university, mentioning that Wolf lived on the same corridor.

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Scott Morrison still under pressure over Angus Taylor response – politics live

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PM concedes a misstep in his defence of minister as Labor continues its attack. All the day’s events, live

From Peter Dutton’s office:

The Australian Government has declared three terrorist attacks for the purposes of the Australian Victim of Terrorism Overseas Payment (AVTOP) scheme.

The Senate is finishing up its divisions on the ensuring integrity bill. That’s brought on the second reading debate, where we go into the amendments.

We’ll be in amendment hell until about 11.45am. Then it’s usual Senate business for a bit, and then straight back into the IR bill. The only thing that will interrupt it then, is question time.

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Mystery of the doctored documents: Angus Taylor and the climate attack on Sydney’s lord mayor

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Exclusive: story published in Daily Telegraph was based on false figures for travel expenditure purporting to be from council’s annual report

Angus Taylor baselessly accused Sydney’s lord mayor of driving up carbon emissions by spending $15m on travel, a claim that was later backed up with a doctored council document provided to the Daily Telegraph, which reported the figure.

On 30 September, the Telegraph reported on page three that the “City of Sydney Council’s outlay on flights outstrips that of Australia’s foreign ministers”.

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PM’s department evades question on Brian Houston’s White House invite – politics live

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ALP requests documents about Barr investigation into the Mueller report. Plus, new AFP commissioner faces Senate estimates, and media companies unite against secrecy laws. All the day’s events, live

Scott Morrison adds to the answer to Warren Snowdon’s question:

On 13 September of this year, I can confirm that the tender was awarded to Australian company Oricon an engineering company that, will lead the Kakadu road strategy and they’ll work in a consortium with PwC, and PwC Indigenous consulting, beginning the work immediately.

The roads of strategy will be developed in.conjunction with the tourism master plan, access to key sites and planned upgrades. I thought the member would be interested in that additional information.

The folders are stacked.

We are done as soon as Greg Hunt finishes this dixer.

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Angus Taylor says Josh Frydenberg knew of family interest before grasslands meeting

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Then environment minister knew of Taylor family’s interest in farm being investigated for alleged illegal clearing

Josh Frydenberg, then the environment minister, knew his ministerial colleague Angus Taylor had a family interest in a farm being investigated for alleged illegal clearing of grasslands when Taylor met with environment department officials to discuss endangered grassland regulations, according to Taylor.

The 2017 meeting between Taylor – then the assistant minister for cities – and environment department officials over critically endangered grasslands came while Taylor’s family’s company, Jam Land Pty Ltd, was being investigated for allegedly illegally poisoning grasslands on property on the Monaro plains of New South Wales.

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Coalition backbenchers sign off on ‘big stick’ energy laws but fear amendments

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Some Liberals are concerned about the power to break up big companies being extended economy-wide

The Morrison government’s backbench economics committee has signed off on the long telegraphed “big stick” package but MPs, already uncomfortable about the proposal, have expressed reservations about how it might be amended in the Senate.

The package, which contains a power to break up big energy companies if they engage in price gouging, will go to the Coalition party room for approval on Tuesday.

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Environment officials sensitive about Angus Taylor grasslands meeting, emails show

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Before the meeting an official asked about the Taylor company being investigated for alleged illegal land clearing

Department of the environment officials were acutely sensitive about meeting Angus Taylor over critically endangered grasslands while his family’s company was being investigated for alleged illegal land clearing in New South Wales, according to internal emails.

The information is revealed in correspondence that had previously been partially redacted from documents obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws in June this year.

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Angus Taylor says unnamed Yass farmer, not his family, spurred grassland meetings

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Minister tells parliament he requested briefings because of constituents’ concerns, not family business interests

A conversation with an unnamed Yass farmer, not the interests of his farming family, had spurred the minister for energy, Angus Taylor, to seek briefings from the environment department about a listing to protect native grasslands, he told parliament on Monday.

In a personal explanation to the House of Representatives, Taylor sought to deflect further questions and a possible Senate inquiry into meetings he had with bureaucrats on the grasslands laws in 2017.

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Angus Taylor remains in Labor’s sights over grasslands and power prices

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Push to set up Senate inquiry takes a step forward, as Coalition faces questions on why energy prices keep rising

Labor will continue to target the energy minister, Angus Taylor, as the government’s weak link, citing power price rises since 2015 and renewing its push to set up a Senate inquiry into his meetings with the environment department over endangered grasslands.

On Sunday the mooted inquiry took a step forward with Rex Patrick reversing Centre Alliance’s position and pledging to support the move, although Labor and the Greens still need Cory Bernardi or One Nation’s votes to succeed.

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