Coal Deal in Distress: desperate Dalrymple’s dodgy debt dump
Brookfield’s make-up artists are hard at work. They’ve taken “coal” out of the title, hired every broker in town to flog the thing and, in the most telling move, are rushing to get the deal done before the end of the year. Michael West reports on the ASX float of Dalrymple Bay Infrastructure, which looks set to siphon off Aussie cash to an offshore haven, with yield-hungry retirees paying the price.
Featured Stories
The Coonan Conundrum: PR role puts Crown chairwoman in a morass of conflicts
Crown chair Helen Coonan is chair of a PR firm whose clients have been involved in questionable financial transactions including money-laundering and stumping for shady sharemarket promoters and mortgage brokers fighting commission bans. Her PR role is in conflict with her position as chair of financial complaints ombudsman AFCA
Another Australian miner sues another poor country, this time Barrick’s Porgera in PNG
Investor State Dispute Settlement processes in trade agreements hit the headlines when US multinational Philip Morris tried to sue Australia over its tobacco plain packaging laws. Australian mining companies are increasingly using ISDS processes and are being awarded billions based on dubious calculations of potential lost profits by unaccountable international tribunals. Patricia Ranald reports.
BossKeeper: how JobKeeper lined the pockets of top ASX directors, executives and shareholders
New Zealand and the US compile public registers to ensure their Jobkeeper-type subisidies are not rorted by businesses. But no such transparency for Australians. As the Government singles out bureaucrats such as Australia Post chief Christine Holgate for corporate excesses, Tasha May shines the torch on pandemic rorting at the top end of town.
Poor culture, rich pickings: Crown chair Helen Coonan too quick to slam banks for poor culture
Crown profits from the hardship of problem gamblers, the banks refuse to stop credit cards for problem gamblers. Helen Coonan is chair of both Crown and bank ombudsman AFCA (Australian Financial Complaints Authority). It is a conflict which makes her position untenable writes Elizabeth Minter.
Murder, corruption, bombings – the company at centre of Australia’s submarine deal
The arms company at the centre of a deadly criminal saga and numerous global corruption scandals, Naval Group, was selected by the Australian government to build our new fleet of submarines – a deal heralded as ‘one of the world’s most lucrative defence contracts’. How did this happen? In this special investigation Michelle Fahy discovers significant gaps in anti-bribery and corruption measures
Coal Deal in Distress: desperate Dalrymple’s dodgy debt dump
Brookfield’s make-up artists are hard at work. They’ve taken “coal” out of the title, hired every broker in town to flog the thing and, in the most telling move, are rushing to get the deal done before the end of the year. Michael West reports on the ASX float of Dalrymple Bay Infrastructure, which looks set to siphon off Aussie cash to an offshore haven, with yield-hungry retirees paying the price.
The Coonan Conundrum: PR role puts Crown chairwoman in a morass of conflicts
Crown chair Helen Coonan is chair of a PR firm whose clients have been involved in questionable financial transactions including money-laundering and stumping for shady sharemarket promoters and mortgage brokers fighting commission bans. Her PR role is in conflict with her position as chair of financial complaints ombudsman AFCA
Another Australian miner sues another poor country, this time Barrick’s Porgera in PNG
Investor State Dispute Settlement processes in trade agreements hit the headlines when US multinational Philip Morris tried to sue Australia over its tobacco plain packaging laws. Australian mining companies are increasingly using ISDS processes and are being awarded billions based on dubious calculations of potential lost profits by unaccountable international tribunals. Patricia Ranald reports.
BossKeeper: how JobKeeper lined the pockets of top ASX directors, executives and shareholders
New Zealand and the US compile public registers to ensure their Jobkeeper-type subisidies are not rorted by businesses. But no such transparency for Australians. As the Government singles out bureaucrats such as Australia Post chief Christine Holgate for corporate excesses, Tasha May shines the torch on pandemic rorting at the top end of town.
Poor culture, rich pickings: Crown chair Helen Coonan too quick to slam banks for poor culture
Crown profits from the hardship of problem gamblers, the banks refuse to stop credit cards for problem gamblers. Helen Coonan is chair of both Crown and bank ombudsman AFCA (Australian Financial Complaints Authority). It is a conflict which makes her position untenable writes Elizabeth Minter.
Murder, corruption, bombings – the company at centre of Australia’s submarine deal
The arms company at the centre of a deadly criminal saga and numerous global corruption scandals, Naval Group, was selected by the Australian government to build our new fleet of submarines – a deal heralded as ‘one of the world’s most lucrative defence contracts’. How did this happen? In this special investigation Michelle Fahy discovers significant gaps in anti-bribery and corruption measures
‘Culture of Cosiness’: colossal conflicts of interest in Defence spending blitz
Michelle Fahy investigates the corporate influence on government policy and how weapons makers cultivate relationships with politicians and top officials in the public service.
Gutless Wonders: when will politicians demonstrate the accountability they foist on the rest of us?
From Robodebt to Ruby Princess, politicians are past masters at ducking responsibility, though busy prosecuting their perceived foes. Will they stop at nothing to avoid being accountable, asks Elizabeth Minter. Taxpayers are on the hook for $3 million in court costs fighting whistleblowers, and threatened High Court action to stop a federal employee giving evidence to the Ruby Princess Inquiry. All the while, in the absence of a federal anti-corruption commission, the political scandals unfold, and pass without consequence.
Snow Job: why the cover-up over Snowy Hydro 2.0?
The National Parks Association of NSW and ex-Energy Australia chair Ted Woodley are considering a legal challenge to the $10 billion Snowy 2.0, which they say will push back the transition to renewable energy and destroy thousands of hectares of national park, in light of the fact that the whole project hinges on a 30-year-old report. which is being kept secret writes Callum Foote.
Elite private schools join charities for children and the disabled in donating to Gladys Berejiklian
Several charities and Sydney’s elite private schools have been donating thousands of dollars to the NSW Liberal party over the past three years in the form of buying tickets to expensive dinners to gain access to Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Callum Foote reports.
Charities pay top dollar for dinner with Gladys Berejiklian despite regulator’s no-no to political donations
The Liberal Party is harvesting tens of thousands of dollars in donations from registered children’s charities and charities for the disabled. Michael West reports.
No strings attached: aged care providers have the Coalition wrapped around their little fingers
Locking out visitors has made it difficult for staff to meet the daily care needs of aged care residents. What an indictment on aged care providers. They receive billions a year in funding, yet rely on the unpaid work of residents’ family and friends and volunteers. Surely it is time for complete accountability for their government funding, writes Dr Sarah Russell.
The Trump Tax Returns: Donald deducts $US70,000 for hair-styling
“A serious tax cheat” is how his biographer David Cay Johnston describes Donald Trump. Johnston reports on the New York Times investigation into the finances of the US president, revealing Trump has previously lost two income tax fraud trials.
Tax shysters PayPal investigated by AUSTRAC for money-laundering, counter-terror financing
Hard on the heels of its Westpac sting, Austrac is close to prosecuting Paypal for offences under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing laws. Michael West reports.
Rich Thinking: Canberra Bubble wage delusions spawn a bizarre plan to flatten taxes
Forget the “average” wage, half of working Australians earn less than $57,000 a year. Rich think they are poor, poor rich. Elizabeth Minter reports on the government’s strange plan to flatten taxes so everybody who earns between $45,000 and $200,000 pays the same rate.
Memory Loss Masterclass: how Gladys Berejiklian’s astute performance at ICAC may save her
From a legal perspective, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian delivered a gala performance at ICAC. Citing a loss of memory more than 150 times to questions put by counsel allowed the Premier to distance herself from implications that she may have had knowledge of Daryl Maguire’s corruption. Daniel Anstey reports.
In for a penny, in for a pound: $90 billion for an obsolete submarine fleet
So much for sovereignty. Australia is locked out of repairing key US components of our submarines’ computer systems, and the government has committed our fleet to the extraordinarily dangerous role of helping the US conduct surveillance in the South China Sea. Brian Toohey reports.
Megaphone Madness: how reckless media impeded Victoria’s Covid-19 recovery
The media we consume influences our compliance with Covid-19 recommendations. The unbalanced media coverage in Victoria is impeding the state’s recovery, writes Michael Tanner.
Anthony Albanese coy on gas as Scott Morrison locks in Australia’s fossil fuel future
Australia’s carbon-belching future is surely being sealed by the Coalition with the acquiescence of Labor. As the world turns from coal, gas is almost as toxic for the climate. Callum Foote reports on Labor’s capture by the gas lobby capture while Angus Taylor appoints Macquarie’s Shemara Wikramanayake and former Origin chief Grant King to advise on his Energy Roadmap even though they are smack-bang in the middle of a billion-dollar gas deal.
Government wants military response to climate change breakdown
A bill being rushed through federal parliament is raising concerns that the Government is preparing for a militarised response to climate breakdown. Lawyer and human rights advocate Kellie Tranter reports.
Emails show Qantas promotes climate action in public, betrays carbon commitments in private
In public, Qantas professes an absolute commitment to reducing carbon emissions. In private, it lobbies the government to weaken the global scheme for airlines to commit to offsetting their emissions. Elizabeth Minter reports.
The Coonan Conundrum: PR role puts Crown chairwoman in a morass of conflicts
Crown chair Helen Coonan is chair of a PR firm whose clients have been involved in questionable financial transactions including money-laundering and stumping for shady sharemarket promoters and mortgage brokers fighting commission bans. Her PR role is in conflict with her position as chair of financial complaints ombudsman AFCA
BossKeeper: how JobKeeper lined the pockets of top ASX directors, executives and shareholders
New Zealand and the US compile public registers to ensure their Jobkeeper-type subisidies are not rorted by businesses. But no such transparency for Australians. As the Government singles out bureaucrats such as Australia Post chief Christine Holgate for corporate excesses, Tasha May shines the torch on pandemic rorting at the top end of town.
Budget unanimity – a spending feast of least resistance, devoid of ideas and vision – and little ingenuity
A few days after the “budget to beat all budgets” was announced, what is most noticeable is not the expected magnitude of spending, deficit and debt, but the consensus among commentators, analysts and economists. “Underwhelming”, “opportunity missed” and “hope and a...
Pearls & Irritations
Morrison courts danger with his male supremacist budget
While many have described the 2020 budget as designed for men (Ross Gittins, Blokey budget reflects core values, SMH, 21 October 2020), it goes deeper than that. This budget was not crafted from...
Pope Francis on just wars, capital punishment and voluntary assisted dying
Pope Francis and his Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith have recently made pronouncements on these life and death issues. The Church’s teaching on the taking of human life has never...
Who runs Crown? Packer’s enablers
The latest revelation is that Crown is being formally investigated by AUSTRAC for breaches of money laundering regulations. But these are the tip of what is becoming a fairly substantial iceberg....
Exorbitant cost of the Coalition’s renewed interest in manufacturing
Before the budget Scott Morrison announced through Michelle Grattan a $1.5 billion plan to boost manufacturing in six priority areas – resources technology and critical minerals processing,...
China is not the urgent threat; climate change is
Spending priorities by the federal government are increasingly questionable, if not indefensible; they raise fundamental questions about the competence and intelligence of our policymaking elites....
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