Friday 29th of March 2024

where's the money?...

scott washing-machineson...

Liberal party claims declaration of a $165k donation by Morrison ally was a mistake

Exclusive: Scott Briggs, bidding for the visa privatisation contract, denies claims he made the donation through the company Southern Strategy.

The Liberal party is refusing to say why it scrubbed records of a $165,000 donation from a company run by Scott Briggs, a key Scott Morrison ally who is currently vying to win the government’s $1bn visa privatisation contract.

On Monday, the Liberal party declared it had received $165,000 from a company named Southern Strategy, a largely inactive political consultancy business Briggs started four years ago.

Briggs is a close friend and confidant of Morrison, a former New South Wales Liberal party deputy state director, a former colleague of immigration minister David Coleman, and a director of the Cronulla Sharks, where the prime minister is the number one ticket holder.

He is also leading a bid to win a highly lucrative but controversial contract to privatise Australia’s visa processing system on behalf of a consortium named Australian Visa Processing Pty Ltd.

Labor has previously raised concerns about a conflict of interest in the procurement process, given Briggs’s relationship to Morrison and the Liberal party, claims that have been strongly denied by Coalition ministers.

When the Guardian queried the $165,000 donation, Briggs said Southern Strategy had never made it and that the Liberal party had made a mistake.

The Liberal party also said the disclosure was a mistake.

“The Liberal party’s return will be amended to reflect this,” a spokesman said.

But neither the Liberals nor Briggs would answer questions on how the Liberal party happened to accidentally declare to the Australian electoral commission a specific donation of $165,000 from Southern Strategy – a company that has never donated before – including the company’s full address in the process.

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/06/liberal-party-ref...

 

it's all suds, no substance...

The first meeting of Coalition MPs after Michael McCormack's re-election as Nationals leader points to trouble for the Prime Minister.

Scott Morrison has spent months crafting his message on climate change and energy, but conservative Nationals MPs have made it clear that they will not stand by quietly as he shifts his language and policy in an ever-so-slightly more progressive direction.

There are Nationals who are unafraid to bend the Coalition until it breaks, and part of their drive is fuelled by fears they are on the nose in electorates where coal means jobs and environmental green tape drives people to distraction.

The two Coalition partners met for a joint party room meeting soon after the Nationals had dealt with their leadership saga.

Nationals MP George Christensen took that opportunity to speak out against climate change policy and talk up the importance of coal, particularly in the context of the Government's prospects in northern Queensland.

The ABC understands he was slapped down by moderate Liberals who are frustrated and fed up with the endless debate. Liberal MP Trent Zimmermann said climate change was a big issue in his North Sydney electorate and the party needed to take it seriously.

 

Read more spin:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-05/nationals-turmoil-threatens-to-sp...

 

 

Don't panic, Akubra hatted good people of beyond the black stump. Morrison has no intention of changing anything... What he does now is the spin cycle to whitewash the dirty greens off his COALition with some ScottySan... He stays clean as whistle... while the climate-change believers look like coal dust in a dark tunnel.

mixing dunnies and swimming pools...

The Coalition has quietly spent another $150m sports grant fund promised in last year’s budget without opening up the process to public applications.

The $150m female facilities and water safety stream program, announced by the Coalition less than two months before the election, was funded in the 2019 budget for the purpose of female changerooms and swimming pool upgrades.

While there was an expectation among sports clubs that the program would be open for applications in the wake of the sports rorts scandal, the Department of Health has revealed that the $150m fund was all spent during the election campaign.

“The projects funded through the $150 million Female Facilities and Water Safety Stream Program were announced by the Australia Government in 2019,” a spokesperson for the department said.

“The FFWSS Program was not open to applications for grants. The projects were selected as election commitments.

“Projects eligible for funding included those that supported the development of female change room facilities at sporting grounds and community swimming facilities.”

The Department of Health formally advised successful recipients on 23 October 2019 and additional information was requested “as part of standard due diligence that would support contract execution”

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/07/coalition-quietly...

 

the FFWSS Program otherwise now known in some circles as a buy-votes-now-pay-later program — as a lesser proud new deputy Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has conceded the partisan allocation of projects by party representation in marginal seats is not “the best way to do it”, despite Morrison repeatedly defending the "sportsrort" program.

miracle cure pools...

It was the multi-million-dollar sports program without any rules — except to win with a cash splash.

Key points:
  • The PM announced a $150m fund for female change rooms and swimming pools on the eve of the election
  • Guidelines were promised but never published and the scheme was never open for applications
  • Two Liberal-held seats received 40 per cent of the funding

 

No guidelines. No tender process. No application form. Some recipients didn't know they'd even been given money until they read about it in the local paper.

And at $150 million, it's worth more than the scandal-plagued community sports grants programthat cost the ministerial career of former Nationals deputy leader Bridget McKenzie.

Projects funded under the so-called Female Facilities and Water Safety Stream (FFWSS) were even more heavily skewed towards Coalition-held marginal seats than the controversial sports grants program it was meant to complement.

And rather than being a nationwide program aimed at encouraging women in sport — as Prime Minister Scott Morrison and then-sports minister Senator McKenzie claimed — the great majority of funding has been pledged towards swimming pools in just 11 Coalition-held seats.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-07/government-cash-splash-swimming-p...

 

 

Read from top.

Scummo re-election was not a miracle... It was a massive rort and Scummo's god would be angry at him. Be prepared for BIBLICAL floods, tornadoes and cyclones, then MORE BUSH FIRES... and Adani going broke... and someone at the AFP finding the origin of the fake document used by Angus Taylor, charging him with deceit. Meanwhile a big tree in Scummo's electorate would fall on his house — undermined by the recent wet weather. His office in Kanbra is raided by the AFP to find all the rorts suggestions... etc... But god is lazy and does not care much about the plebs who don't "believe". Scummo knows this...

enough to fill 10,000 scomo swimming a...holes...

A torrential downpour has descended on coastal areas in NSW, with massive rainfalls prompting flood warnings across several regional centres and Sydney.

Key points:
  • Public transport across some parts of Sydney has been delayed or diverted
  • Yesterday, parts of the North Coast got more than 280mm of rain
  • The SES says rescue crews are working along the entire coastline, with the weather event going "border to border"

 

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has issued a severe weather warning for heavy rainfall and damaging winds from Goulburn to the Queensland border today.

Several roads in Sydney have been closed due to flooding and there were also delays on the city's public transport network.

Yesterday, parts of the North Coast received more than 260 millimetres of rain and more is expected today and over the weekend.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-07/bom-forecast-heavy-rain--and-floo...

 

 

Read from top.

scotty from marketing and scotty from donations...

The electoral commission has said it will look into the Liberal party’s bizarre declaration and subsequent removal of a $165,000 donation from a Scott Morrison ally who is also vying for a $1bn visa processing contract.

The Liberals still have not explained how they came to mistakenly declare the donation from a largely-inactive company named Southern Strategy, which had never donated to any political party before.

The party’s declaration to the electoral commission included Southern Strategy’s business address, the specific amount donated and the date of the donation, but it now claims the donation did not happen and was mistakenly reported.

Southern Strategy is a dormant political consultancy business set up by Scott Briggs, a friend of Morrison’s and former deputy director of the NSW Liberals, who is part of a consortium bidding for the controversial contract to privatise the Australian visa processing system.

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/07/australian-electo...

 

 

Read from top.

 

Though Gus has no idea, it is possible that the money was promised, delivered then retrieved because the connection to the scandalous "privatisation of allocating visas" was a "bit too obvious"... But the transaction had already been entered in the books by a diligent triumphant Liberal (CONservative) accountant, in order to show a nice cash balanced cow to his/her bosses... Only a Gustaphianic theory...

tidal pool of cash... another miracle...

The Morrison government pledged $4.5m to build a tidal pool in Port Macquarie before the 2019 election as part of a controversial $150m grants program with no open application process despite the opposition of the local council and no site having been chosen for the pool.

The grant was made as part of the female facilities and water safety stream (FFWSS), announced in the 2019 budget, which went on to fund Coalition election commitments, with 73% of the projects which received funding in marginal or under-threat seats.

On Thursday the health department told Guardian Australia the tidal pool grant is to be paid to the Port Macquarie Hastings council, but when contacted on Friday the council was not even aware the department has listed it as the recipient. In May 2018 the council explicitly warned that a tidal pool “is not a priority”.

On Friday the department clarified the “administrative error”, stating the intended grant recipient is not the council but the Port Macquarie Tidal Pool Committee Incorporated, a charity formed in July 2018 to lobby government for funding for the pool that received $50,000 from the New South Wales government for a feasibility study.

Scott Morrison and Nationals candidate Pat Conaghan announced the $4.5m grant on 9 May, 2019, citing a 18,000 signature petition to the council as evidence of community support for the project.

Port Macquarie is in the seat of Cowper, which was held by retiring Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker on a 4.5% margin but was once again under threat from the former independent MP for Lyne, Rob Oakeshott.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/08/coalition-pledged...

 

 

Read from top.

 

OMG, another miracle!... Does the pool needs the council approval though? Is it going to destroy the natural beauty of the area? How many swimsuit-changing females per square metres allowed? How many signatures were fraudulent? Could a 50,000 signature "green" petition opposing the pool reverse the process?

more about the mula pool...

A Queensland community on the receiving end of controversial federal funding to build a new school swimming pool says it did not want the pool anyway.

Key points:
  • Money from the 'Female Facilities and Water Safety Stream' was sent to Mango Hill State Secondary College for a pool that will not be built
  • The school is in the Petrie electorate, which Luke Howarth was at risk of losing in last year's federal election
  • Mr Howarth has claimed the Queensland State Government has made excuses to not build the pool

 

Coalition MP Luke Howarth announced the $2 million for a new pool at the Mango Hill State Secondary College in his electorate of Petrie just a week out from last year's federal election.

The money came from a now-controversial Commonwealth sports program worth more money than the grants scheme that landed Bridget McKenzie in trouble.

But months later, the pool is not going ahead.

Parents said there were concerns about the cost and space required.

"My understanding was that the majority of people at the P&C (Parents and Citizens group), if not all of them, were against the pool," said Karel Rees, who has two children at the school and is a member of its parents and citizens association.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-08/queensland-school-got-funding-to-...

 

 

 

Read from top.

it's public money...

Back in October, the nation's often-warring media companies joined forces in a rare display of unity. As part of the "Right to Know" campaign, newspaper front pages were blacked out and TV ads ran across the networks. 

It was an attempt to harness "people power" behind the cause of press freedom.

The rival bosses of News Corp, the ABC and Nine Entertainment even shared a stage, giving a joint address to the National Press Club.

So, what did this powerful campaign achieve? Absolutely nothing, if this week was any guide.

In fact, it feels like we've regressed when it comes to transparency. 

We're more in the dark than ever before.

The Gaetjens report won't be released

On Sunday, the Prime Minister rejected the auditor-general's finding of blatant political pork-barrelling in the Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program.

Conveniently, the head of his own Department (who also happens to be his former Chief of Staff) apparently found the independent, highly respected Audit Office was wrong.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-09/we-have-regressed-on-transparency...

 

The government reports are paid by the public. In a decent democracy, the people should have access to the reports. Ipso facto, the Scummo, sorry I should be polite — I promised, government isn't decent. Either or, it's obvious the COALition is doing every fudge in the book to snooker us, the sheep of the flock.

 

May Scott Morrison's house be flooded, by god.

colour-coded rorts...

Prime Minister Scott Morrison's office was involved in suggesting which projects should be approved under a controversial sport grants scheme, a Senate inquiry has been told.

Key points:
  • Senate hears the offices of the PM and sports minister shared "dozens" of versions of colour-coded spreadsheets
  • Audit Office officials said the Prime Minister's office made direct and indirect representations to Bridget McKenzie's office
  • Officials said the PM's office indicated projects that should be included in the list of approved grants

 

The evidence paints a picture of Mr Morrison's office being more heavily involved than the Government has admitted to date.

More than 40 per cent of the projects were ineligible for funding by the time agreements were signed, the hearing was also told.

That was mostly because many sporting clubs had started work — or even finished projects — before inking deals with the Commonwealth.

The $100 million grants scheme has been condemned for favouring marginal Coalition seats and Labor electorates the Government wanted to win at last year's election.

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) found then-sports minister Bridget McKenzie overlooked worthy applications, as assessed by officials, after her office ran its own assessment process.

Appearing before a parliamentary inquiry, the audit office said Senator McKenzie's office worked with Mr Morrison's office from October 2018 until April 2019.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-13/sports-grants-senate-auditor-gene...

 

It's time for this prime minister, Scott Morrison, to miraculously disappear... 

 

Read from top.

moving south...

 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/10145

 

Liberal (Conservative) tenets (from Moses on the Mount). Number 10:

 

10. Never EVER compromise on anything, especially an ETS, or admit being wrong... Being wrong with elegant hypocrisy is an excellent way to be right. The freedom to be wrong is to be cherished, but the Liberals are always right, even if we, liberals (CONservatives), are wrong. Labor is always wrong.