“The hottest play on the planet,” Keith Pitt calls it. Resources Minister Pitt and his government are keen to open up the Northern Territory to gas fracking but, if the NT’s Beetaloo Basin is so “hot” for investors, then why do they need public money to drill it? Even more bizarrely, the industry has made it clear that it does not want public subsidies but Pitt and Co appear determined to throw public money at the gas companies anyway. Callum Foote and Michael West report on another extraordinary case of corporate welfare, environmental destruction and the political donors and large US hedge funds who we are all subsidising.
The Pitts: Government gifts Woodside $130 million Christmas present
While most Australians were settling into holiday mode last week, the Government gifted another $130 million Christmas present to Woodside to help the oil and gas titan clean up its own mess. Callum Foote and Michael West report on the latest instalment of the Northern Endeavour debacle – a sneaky slug to taxpayers.
A Guaranteed Job? Radical idea to combat automation, alienation gathers momentum
A maverick Liberal MP crossed the floor of a state parliament this year to vote for a Job Guarantee. Callum Foote and Michael West report on the radical political outcome in Tasmania to address rising systemic unemployment, and the economic case behind it, MMT.
Copywrong: Nine sells photojournalists down river in Fairfax photo sell-off
Nine Entertainment pressures the government to get the tech giants to pay for local news content. Meanwhile, for three years, it has been playing Goliath in a fight with Australian freelance photojournalists, whose photos Nine sold even though it didn’t own the copyright. Callum Foote reports.
A Barilaro Affair: how the Barilaros ended up with the Clubhouse when the Club went under
Without the knowledge of its members, Queanbeyan’s Marco Polo Social Club was sold to a company controlled by NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro’s father Domenico. Domenico was president of the Social Club, an institution of the Italian community. The new owners introduced tough financial conditions and eventually the members had to give up their rights, and the property was later sold to an associate of the Barilaros in 2004. Callum Foote reports.
Woodside leaves oil rig for taxpayers to clean up; is Exxon next in the Bass Strait?
Thanks Woodside. Taxpayers are on the hook for the $200 million-plus clean-up of an ageing oil production platform moored in the Timor Sea. Is Exxon next to shirk its oil rig clean up in the Bass Strait? Callum Foote reports.
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.
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.
Feeding the Chooks: Scott Morrison’s marketing triumph over mainstream media
Scott Morrison has perfected the art of media manipulation by briefing a select club of Canberra correspondents on the same day, rather than leaking to individual media outlets. Callum Foote and Michael West report on the marketing genius of the Prime Minister and the increasingly meek mainstream media.
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.
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