Australian Greens: Barnett, Woodside Cling to Plan to Wreck James Price Point while Industry Leaders Move On>> LNG World News:
“The world’s two biggest oil companies have decided floating LNG technology is the way forward for offshore Australian gas field developments, yet Woodside and the Premier are stuck in the past.
“The Premier’s intransigence on James Price Point defies the wishes of the majority of Western Australians, defies any kind of scientific understanding of the environmental impact on the area, and defies the advances in technology being embraced by gas industry leaders.
Photo Damian Kelly
ACTION OF THE DAY
A MAJOR national bank has been forced to remove more than 100 misleading out of order signs from its ATMs after being targeted by anti-coal activists.
A MAJOR national bank has been forced to remove more than 100 misleading out of order signs from its ATMs after being targeted by anti-coal activists.
A score of ANZ Banking Group machines sprawled across six capital cities were plastered with "out of order" signs on Sunday after campaigners launched their latest bid to draw attention to the bank's funding of the coal industry.
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Rob Johnson tells the truth about Barnett,well at least some of it.
ReplyDeleteWe need more of this speaking out his corruption exposed and him and his people prosecuted.
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Johnson launches scathing attack on Premier
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Jilted Liberal backbencher Rob Johnson has chosen the first day of the new Parliament to unleash a furious attack on Colin Barnett, declaring the Premier hates criticism, is too dictatorial and “above himself”.
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Mr Johnson nominated himself for the position of Speaker of the Legislative Assembly earlier today, in defiance of the Premier who wanted Mt Lawley MP Michael Sutherland for the job.
Mr Johnson lost the secret ballot but won 26 of 59 votes to Mr Sutherland’s 33. Assuming Labor’s 21 MLAs backed Mr Johnson and the former police minister voted for himself, that result means four Liberal or National MLAs cast ballots in defiance of Mr Barnett in the very first vote of the new Parliament.
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Outside Parliament, Mr Johnson launched a furious assault on the Liberal leadership, declaring his was worried about the level of State debt, said there was an “unelected government” of staffers in the Premier’s office pulling the strings and rounded on Mr Barnett for having too few women in his Cabinet.
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Mr Johnson admitted canvassing votes for the Speakership, and said his belief last night was that he might have enough votes to win.
“More members said they were going to support me up until last night but I think some of them were got at by the heavies who are associated with this type of thing and they were put off,” he said.
Mr Johnson said his decision to run had nothing to do with Mr Sutherland but he wanted to give MLAs a choice.
It is understood he was heavily encouraged by Labor MLAs to put his name forward.
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“I didn’t like the fact the Colin Barnett seemed to think he could dictate who would be Speaker,” Mr Johnson said.
“Constitutionally it’s the members of the Assembly who have the right to choose the Speaker, not the executive. Colin Barnett is not the Government, he is Colin Barnett.”
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Mr Johnson said he had 20 years experience in Government and Opposition.
“As far as experience goes I was the best person suited for the job – there’s no question about that,” he said.
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He then launched into withering critique of his own Government’s performance.
“Colin Barnett, he’s not been very friendly to me since he removed my ministries from me, he doesn’t like criticism – you saw that when he didn’t get his own way in Churchlands,” Mr Johnson said in a reference to a preselection battle for that seat where the Premier’s preferred candidate, restaurateur Kate Lamont, was rejected by local preselectors in favour of rookie MP Sean L’Estrange.
“And he didn’t like it when I said I felt betrayed,” Mr Johnson said, referring to his own comments after Mr Barnett dumped him as police minister. “Well, I was betrayed. There was an agreement, an understanding, and some journalists know that.”
Mr Johnson said he “absolutely” intended to remain in the Liberal party room.
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I’m just being honest and I think no matter if you’re in the governing party or not you’ve got to be honest. If things are not being done properly, you’ve got to speak out. OTHERWISE YOU'VE GOT WA INC ALL OVER AGAIN.
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“I’m not a vindictive person, I never have been. I think I’m the victim to some extent in some of these things that have happened.
“I just believe that I need to tell the truth, I need to tell people what concerns me.
“I’ve been constrained up until now, but I’ve made a decision that if I’ve got something that concerns me and I think it’s a serious issue for the people of WA, I should say so – even if it’s against our own Premier, Colin Barnett, or our Government.
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Johnson launches scathing attack on Premier
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“I will be a very good watchdog.
“Can anything shut me up? Nothing should shut me up. I think I have the right to say anything I think is relevant or important.”
“I’ve had 20 years experience in and out of government and I believe that too many people in Parliament keep quiet because their frightened, or the want to be a minister, or they get bullied.
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“You’ve got basically an unelected government running this place at the moment. Those people close to Colin Barnett, the spin doctor, the chief of staff, various other people – they are the unelected government.
“He takes notice of them and then he tells Cabinet what to do. He is the government.”
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Despite losing the vote for the Speakership, Mr Johnson said: “If nothing else it was worth it just to see Colin Barnett’s face in the chair when I nominated.
“It was pretty angry and not very happy but he’s not a very happy person a lot of the time, that’s the problem Colin has.
“I think he is (doing too much dictating). He’s a bit above himself these days. I think it will be very useful for me now (to be on the backbench) because I can keep a good watch on him and the Government to keep them honest.
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Mr Johnson said Mr Barnett had “insulted the women of WA” by selecting a Cabinet with “a token two women out of 17 Cabinet Ministers”.
“You’ve got a token one woman for each House. Not good enough, Premier,” he said.
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“I am really concerned about the State debt. It’s $18 billion now and it’s going to go up to $25 billion. With the election promises we’re looking at nearer $30 billion.
“It will take decades, decades to pay that sort of debt back and I’m not happy with that.
“We’ve got Joe Hockey complaining about the Federal Labor Government running up their debt of $140-odd billion, and yet we’re running up a debt of up to $25-$30 billion.
“My kids, my grandchildren, your kids will be paying that back for decades.
“Even if we had an extra surplus of $1 billion a year it would take 25 years to pay that off – but we’re increasing debt.”
Mr Barnett has declined to comment.
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Spratt welcomes police taser charges
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The man at the centre of the police lockup taser controversy says he is glad two police officers will be charged over the incident.
Kevin Spratt said today he had been told by police that the officers would be charged over their alleged involvement in the incident in which he was tasered 14 times in a 2008 episode caught on security cameras, which made headlines in 2010.
The WA Police Union confirmed this afternoon that Sen. Const. Troy Tomlin has been charged with three counts of common assault and Sgt Aaron Strahan with four counts of common assault.
Mr Spratt said: "This day has been a long time coming and I am pleased that there will finally be consequences of what happened to me that day," Mr Spratt said today.
He said he was still waiting for compensation.
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Police Union president George Tilbury said the officers had indicated they would defend the charges vigorously and they intended to plead not guilty.
"This has taken a long time. The officers have been punished twice," Mr Tilbury said, referring to previous fines the officers received after a police internal disciplinary hearing.
“It’s not good enough, these officers should not have been charged and we will be defending them right through the entire process,” he said.
The officers have not been stood down as a result of the new charges.
Their first court appearance will be next month.
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Mr Spratt's lawyers have contacted the State Government and requested Mr Spratt's medical records for the time he was in prison after the incident to help prepare for a request for an ex-gratia payment.
There have been several investigations since the incident and though internal disciplinary action had been taken against some of the police officers, no charges were. laid.
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Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan has previously said police initially decided to deal with the officers internally rather than criminally because he believed they were Mr Spratt's wishes at the time.
Mr Spratt has been jailed over separate matters since the incident.
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