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The South Australian Liberal Government needs to stop fighting the SA Royal Commissioner and start fighting for our water if they are serious about saving the Murray, the Greens say.
“South Australian Environment and Water Minister David Speirs is in denial about the delivery of the 450GL of water promised to South Australia. The Royal Commissioner has confirmed we won’t see a drop of that water,” Greens environment and water spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“Arguing with the findings of the South Australian Royal Commission is not a good look for this rookie Minister who was sold a pup by the upstream states last year. He should be fighting for the water to be delivered, not lashing out at the Royal Commissioner.
“It’s clear the SA Liberal Government have no plan to secure the water South Australia is owed and the Murray needs. The Minister should get on the phone and demand that his Canberra Liberal National colleagues lift the ban on water buybacks and secure that water this year.
“Getting New South Wales and Victoria to the negotiating table was not a win when South Australia’s Minister was squibbed out of precisely what he was supposed to be fighting for. The delivery of the 450GL of water is contingent on conditions designed to be impossible to meet.
“If Minister Speirs wants to do the right thing by South Australia and the Murray, it’s time to take the blinders off and start standing up to the upstream states that are against any water coming over the border.”

Figures released today have revealed 22 million reasons why Bill Shorten continues to bend over backwards for his militant union masters.
The Australian Electoral Commission today revealed that unions donated more than $7.9 million to the Labor Party in 2017-18. In addition, they spent more than $14 million on their own campaigns in support of the Labor Party.
These figures include almost $1 million in donations to Labor from the militant CFMMEU, which currently has 78 representatives before the courts and has been fined over $16.5 million in recent years for law breaking.
“We now know why Bill Shorten continues to stand by the militant CFMMEU despite their appalling and ever-growing rap sheet of lawlessness,” Minister O’Dwyer said.
“But it’s not just the militant CFMMEU Bill Shorten and Labor continue to back. While the CFMMEU will get to axe the construction cop, the MUA will get to design their own shipping laws, and the TWU will get the return of the independent trucker destroying RSRT.”
“If you’re a militant union with cash to burn, Bill’s policy shop is open for business.”
“Bill Shorten should take a leaf out of Bob Hawke’s book, grow a backbone and stand up to militant unionists instead of making the law breakers the law makers.”
The figures released today come just a month after Bill Shorten and the Labor Party doubled-down on their support for their militant union bosses at the Labor Party National Conference, whe re they committed to:

• Keep under wraps their secret deal with the unions to allow economy-hammering, job-risking
  industry-wide strike action, leaving workers and businesses in the dark.
• Black ban certain lawyers and law firms that the lawbreaking CFMMEU don’t like.
• Resurrect their disastrous, family business destroying trucker remuneration rules – only this time also extending the pain to gig economy workers.
• Accelerate cuts to workers’ take-home pay and syphon off more of their hard-earned wages into superannuation funds, where retirement savings are drained by the rorts and rip-offs that Labor refuses to help address.
• Examine proposals to artificially boost union membership and clout through preferential tax concessions and incentives.
• Continue with their crazy policy to scrap the building and construction regulator, the ABCC.
• Cost the economy $1.3 billion by giving their union mates paid holiday l eave entitlements that no other worker will get.

“Instead of helping hard-working Australians, it is clear Bill Shorten is focused on one thing and one thing only – helping his militant union bosses,” Minister O’Dwyer concluded.

Today’s disappointing final report into the banking and financial services industry will slow, but not end decades of money grabbing and unethical conduct, the Australian Greens have said today.
“The enthusiasm from the Liberal and Labor parties to accept these recommendations tells you all you need to know. The financial services industry is one of the biggest donors to both old parties, and they will all be laughing all the way to the bank tonight,” Leader of the Australian Greens Senator Richard Di Natale said.
“Accepting all of these recommendations will go some way towards improving the system, but the system needs more than a tweak, it needs a complete shakeup.
“People have not only suffered from unethical conduct, they have been hurt as a result of limited competition and protected by a toothless watchdog. Under these recommendations people will continue to be locked into that rotten structure, and bankers will only be forced to rein in their profit forecasts.”
“This Royal Commission has shone a welcome ray of light on the practices of the banks, and there is undoubted political momentum for reform – but we cannot consider the job to be done,” Greens Banking spokesperson Peter Whish-Wilson said.
“The Greens would like to have seen more focus on structural reform, rather than just conduct reform. The Commission’s failure to resolve the issue of vertical and horizontal integration is a notable example of an inquiry that has been constrained.
“Sadly the Commissioner’s brief was limited from the outset, as was his time to consider detailed policy issues.
“The historical significance of today’s report depends on what unfolds from here. Will long suffering victims of financial misconduct now be appropriately compensated? Will the regulators take up Justice Haynes challenge and pursue criminal charges against the banks?
“The Greens will be watching closely and won’t be taking a backward step in holding the next government to account, and leading on the push for reform and policies that transform our economy”.
The Greens welcome the thrust of the recommendations, and are particularly pleased to see some of the Greens’ recommendations adopted, including:

• Ending bank commissions for mortgage brokers
• Ending grandfathered commissions that involve conflicted remuneration
• Expanding the scope of the executive accountability regime to all APRA regulated institutions
• Establishing a ‘regulator’s regulator’ to ensure they are doing their job properly
• Establishing a last resort compensation scheme

However, the Greens proposal to fix Australia’s banking sector would:

• Establish a people’s bank that offers basic products at a competitive rate, putting people before profit
• Break up the banks, by separating retail banking, investment banking and wealth management arms
• Cap the obscene pay packages that banking executives receive
• Replace a weak and compromised ASIC with the ACCC to fight for the rights of banking customers

Every asylum seeker child has now been removed from Nauru or has had their claim processed and has a clear path off the island.
Our strong border protection policies mean we’ve been able to stop the boats and work through the backlog of cases Labor created when 50,000 people arrived on 800 boats on their watch.
There were 109 asylum seeker children on Nauru at the end of August 2018 at the time we took on our respective roles as Prime Minister and Minister for Immigration.
Since then, and as was made clear at the time, we have been working quietly and methodically through this process without compromising the integrity of Operation Sovereign Borders. There are now only four asylum seeker children on Nauru and they have all been approved for departure to the United States of America with their families.
We have got all the children Labor put in detention centres out, and we have shut down all the detention centres Labor opened, including on Christmas Island.
Australia has one of the most generous humanitarian immigration programs in the world, but we can only do it by maintaining strong borders and insisting people come the right way.
We have secured our borders, we stopped the boats and the tragic drownings at sea. And we have been supporting children compassionately without putting our strong border security at risk.
We have got the balance right.
You don’t get all children off Nauru by putting more on. That is why we must maintain the integrity of Operation Sovereign Borders. Labor’s policies will unravel the strong border protection framework we have put in place.
Labor’s laws currently before the Parliament would end offshore processing as we know it, tearing apart our strong border policies. This would only see the horror start all over again.
On our watch we will never let Australia get back into the mess Labor left us when they locked up nearly 8,000 children in detention.