The Coalition says it is spending $7bn on drought – but can't back up the claim
theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/30/th...
theguardian.comPosted Sep 30, 2019, 12:18 PM UTC
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theguardian.comSurely Barnaby, as Special Envoy, costed all of this in his many reports/text messages that he submitted to the government. The same government that are afraid to make these "reports" public.
These would be the "reports" that he 'submitted' while spending 8% of his envoy time in drought affected areas.
One can only wonder what it'll take for country areas to face reality and realise that they're getting screwed by the coalition. Having spent a few years in a rural area, I won't hold my breath waiting for that realisation to kick in.
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Having grown up and spent my entire life in one of the safest Liberal seats in the country, I can tell you now it will never happen. Farmers on the whole aren't interested in changing because they are constantly bombarded with wedge issues that keep them firmly loyal. Why would they start voting Greens/Labor when all they'd be doing is supporting some other made up social woe by extension.
They also care about money too because these people are businessmen at the root of it all. Small business owners make up a big part of the LNP voting base because they are told Labor will run their businesses into the ground with taxes. It's easy to say on here that the Libs are piss-poor economic managers and even easier to prove it, but we're in a bit of a bubble here. Farmers don't spend their spare time reading economic articles, they work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week so their news source is 3AW.
If you gave them the numbers on "Barnaby's Drought Envoy Adventures" they'd reply with something like "well at least someone is giving a toss about the farmers, Bill Shorten wouldn't know the back end of a cow if it shit on his head"
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Maranoa?
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Wannon, dedicated blue electorates are all the same though. The only time they've had a change once was that one time a Nat got up and won and it's what people always say is proof that it's not a safe seat.
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and it's what people always say is proof that it's not a safe seat.
Comedy gold
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What is funny is I have lived not too far from Moyne Shire, and had a laugh seeing it being given $1m in drought founding when a) the average rainfall for where I lived was around 800-900mm and b) the south west region is strongly Liberal-party friendly.
Google "Australia Drought Map" and most results will show you that that region has had average or even slightly above average rainfall, while the rest SA, WA, NT and NSW/QLD border are far worse off.
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““If we’re being accused of being too supportive, too generous, too much on the front foot in helping rural districts when it comes to supporting them in the drought, well I’m happy to take that criticism because we are on the front foot when it comes to helping our rural communities,”
Because that is pretty much what the article is accusing you of Scott. (S).
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I'm sure the proof is in Barnaby's texts
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You can't buy rain
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But I know a Caymans company that will sell you potential rain.
Gimme a sec to call Angus and Barnaby. They might have some potential rain in the back room. Cheap rates, guaranteed!
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Another article on this has a more in-depth response from the government: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-30/moyne-likely-to-hand-back-drought-money-amid-government-review/11560156
The money quote:
Drought Minister David Littleproud called for the "audit" and said the decision had been based on the Bureau of Meteorology figures, showing 62 per cent of the region had been in drought as of June this year.
"I'll be asking for a forensic audit by the bureau to make sure their data collection was right," he said.
"But that is the science that we predicate our decisions on … it shouldn't be a politician's decision, it should be predicated off the best science and the bureau are the ones that provide that to us."
So if I am reading that correctly, they based their planning using drought data whose date range is only just the first half of this year - they then effectively blame the bureau because they used the a poor dataset? I refuse to believe the bureau would give them a single, limited dataset for such a high profile case.
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They are asking farmers to sell up and not mentioned was the selling up to foreign multinationals.
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You see, Barnaby and Angus set up this company called The Drought Pty Ltd, they’re based in the Caymans...