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Liberal Accuses ABC of “False News” On Adani While Christensen Causes The Liberals Damage By Threatening To Stay

Earlier this morning I heard a rather strange interview with ACL head, Lyle Shelton, where he was suggesting that the police announcement that the explosion outside the Australian Christian Lobby office wasn’t motivated by politics or religion was “just a belief”. There was no way the police could know what motivated the perpetrator because they’d only spoken to him and that wasn’t enough to be sure so, while he hoped that they were right, he kept insisting that it was more likely to a result of their opposition to safe schools or marriage equality and until the police could prove otherwise, they were just acting on a belief.

Gee, I thought, the head of the Christian Lobby suggesting that a belief wasn’t enough – it’ll be a while before I hear anything as strange as that interview. I’d already read the news about George Christensen suggesting that the Liberal Party was “conservative” enough and that they had to start appealing to people like Bernardi and him or the party would be in trouble. He then tried to inflict maximum damage on the Turnbull government by announcing that he had no plans to leave the party.

But then I heard Matt Canavan.

Matt Canavan is a Queensland senator and a minister in the Turnbull government. He lives in Queensland. I know this because he made the point early in the interview by announcing that he could see the Great Barrier Reef from his house… Possibly sea levels are rising faster than thought.

Anyway, he was particularly upset with the ABC because of their reporting all this “false news” on Adani. Not a beat-up, but “false”. He then went on without telling us anything that was actually false. Things were just of no interest or consequence.

Ok, they are being investigated for various things which may be against the law, but that’s in India and nothing’s been proven yet. Besides, Australian companies get investigated all the time. That’s no reason not to give them a billion dollars. Or rather lend them a billion dollars interest free. Ok, they do have a very complex structure with lots and lots of separate Adani companies based in Singapore and the Cayman Islands and it’s not clear exactly which Adani company will get the loan but it’ll certainly be the same one who owes the money if it goes broke and not one of the other ones.

See the problem was that the ABC is ignoring all the jobs that Adani will create. And all the tax it’ll pay, even if it hasn’t actually paid much tax in India. Here in Australia, it’ll be different. Why, the head office of Adani Australia will be based in Townsville. Think of all the jobs that’ll create! A head office in Townsville. That should solve the GDP problem!

Senator Canavan felt that it was a problem that ABC was reducing services in Queensland and it was this lack of Queensland ABC people that failed to understand that for a mere billion dollars they could solve the unemployment problem because Adani had – at one point estimated that the mine would create 10,000 jobs, even if they did revise it down to 1400. That’s less than a million dollars a job! Not much less, mind you, but isn’t it worth the $700,000 plus for each job?

However, towards the end of the interview Senator Canavan started making less sense. He began to insist that the mine would actually improve the Queensland environment and, more than that, it would improve the world environment. So could the ABC stop all this “false news” and start reporting the truth which is that Queensland is a great place, with great people and great weather and there’s nothing to worry about.

At various times I’ve predicted that the Adani mine won’t go ahead, not for environmental reasons, but because the economics don’t stack up. Throw in announcements from the Indian government that they plan to phase out the importation of coal in the next couple of years and there’s even less of a market for Adani than currently. Unless our own governments back it, then it’s unlikely to get finance from any bank concerned about getting its money back. Unfortunately, this seems to be ignored when discussing the mine.

Whatever, Senator Canavan was a classic example of the maxim that it’s better to say nothing and have people suspect you’re lacking in intelligence than to speak and confirm it for everyone.

 

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27 comments

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  1. passum2013

    Have a Very Happy Christmas to all at the Aim Network.

  2. keerti

    There seem to be two possibilities with the lieberal “govt”, either they really are stupid and don’t do their homework on anything, or else they are an economic terrorist organisation. It is interesting to note that the Indian Government has uncovered adani links to Caribbean banking…

  3. John Ricgardson

    So, Lyle Shelton reckons the “belief” expressed by the Police, after they have conducted a preliminary interview with the driver of the vehicle, is less reliable than his “belief” that his organisation had been subjected to a terrorist attack, motivated by a desire to punish it for its opposition to same sex marriage & the safe schools initiative, even though there is not a skerrick of evidence to support that claim.

    I’ll take fact-based evidence gathered & produced by the Police over the hysterical “beliefs” expressed by a Christian zealot any day of the week!!

  4. kerri

    Matt Canavan is a very concerning individual. He possesses whatever ludicrous set of ideals and morals that are neccessary for advancement within the LNP. Think Joyce, Pyne, Brandis, Ley, Cash, Bishop etc. Whilst also possessing that weird capacity to call black white and white black at the same time as everything turns red.
    From day one I have never trusted this individual.
    He has aspirations beyond his capabilities and is willing to sell his arse for ………
    Mmmmm? Does that sound famiLIAR.

  5. billshaw2013

    I’m perturbed as to why the Queensland ALP government supports Adani and can only think that they are not convinced the mine will go ahead but they can harvest some of the mining industry donations to political parties. Am I too naive?

  6. babyjewels10

    I hope you’re right Bill. Very disappointed in Annastacia.

  7. Roswell

    “Christensen causes the Liberals damage by threatening to stay”.

    That’s brilliant (and I haven’t even read the post yet). Got a laugh out of that alone.

  8. PeterStevenson

    The the trouble is that the Liberals are so used to the biased Murdoch press that when they get an unbiased news item they can’t handle it pack of Hypocrits

  9. Rossleigh

    Clarification: Just heard Matt Canavan say that he’d spoken to Adani himself and they told him that they’d done nothing wrong.
    Phew!

    Boy, do I feel silly…

  10. Kaye Lee

    It astonishes me that this accusation of corruption against Adani is “breaking news” in Australia because I read about it in the Indian press months ago. Coal has been shipped direct from Indonesia to India but the invoices have gone through Singapore where they have been significantly inflated.

    From April 2, this year….

    “Forty of India’s biggest energy companies are being investigated by a wing of the Union Ministry of Finance for over-invoicing of imported coal. The artificially higher prices of coal have been passed on to electricity consumers across the country. The scam is conservatively estimated by government officials at no less than Rs 29,000 crore, a third of which is in the form of higher power tariffs. Big names from the corporate sector, notably the Adani group and ADAG, are being probed for their alleged involvement in the scandal.

    Among the private companies being investigated, the best known names include at least six firms belonging to the Adani group—Adani Enterprises Ltd, Adani Power Ltd, Adani Power Rajasthan Ltd, Adani Power Maharashtra Ltd, Adani Wilmar Ltd and Vyom Trade Link. The Adani group is headed by Gautam Adani who is known to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    According to the remand application, the modus operandi adopted was to create layers of invoicing between Indonesia and India. Intermediary firms, based in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai and other locations, were deployed to inflate the prices of coal in official billing documents. While cost, insurance and freight (CIF) prices or the landed prices per metric tonne of coal imported from any port in Indonesia to India were roughly around US$ 50 (at the time of writing in early-April 2016), the declared prices in India were inflated to over US$ 82 per tonne which was remitted out of India through banking channels.

    http://www.epw.in/journal/2016/14/web-exclusives/how-over-invoicing-imported-coal-has-increased-power-tariffs.html#sthash.DyENqoIe.dpuf

  11. brickbob

    Canavan also threatened the ABC this morning with more cuts to their budget in his gutless round about way,he said if the mine does’nt go ahead there will be less money for schools hospitals,infrastructure and the ABC.
    The person who interviewed him was too gutless or intimidated to remind him that there were no ABC staff past a certain point up north because his Government cut their budget.”””””

  12. David1

    Matt Canavan!!! Matt bloody ‘as useless as the ‘ay’ in ‘okay’ Canavan, He who was at the back of the intelligence queue and ended up with shite for brains. It shows just how Turnbull had to go to the bottom of the bin to give that useless fool a Ministry.
    If anyone hasn’t had the misfortune to hear him try to answer questions in the Senate’s QT don’t, he will send you into an imitation of the original political banshee Cash long before he has garbled and talked arrant nonsense in the first minute.
    What have we done to deserve such pain?
    I hope the ABC doesn’t cave in, he is just playing to his faithful in Queensland and the coal lobby.

  13. Kaye Lee

    Canavan’s route to the gravy train……

    “I really liked Tony Abbott because I was socially conservative, but all of this was before anyone thought Tony would be leader,” he says. “I emailed this bloke, an investment banker friend, and said that if Tony Abbott was made leader I would apply for a job with him. We thought that was unlikely.”

    Shortly after they made the bet, Abbott won the Liberal leadership and Canavan cold-called his office to ask for a job. “Tony didn’t need anybody but Barnaby had just been made shadow finance minister and so I was encouraged to consider that,” he says.

    “I really liked Barnaby. I also consider myself very loyal. I build up a relationship with people and I would go into the trenches for them. And he’d given me a go,” Canavan says.

    He credits Joyce with teaching him about politics and says he learned the importance of humility and the value of not taking oneself too seriously. It was Joyce who planted within him the seeds of political ambition.

    “I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t gone to him. I almost certainly wouldn’t have joined the Nationals. It’s made a huge difference in my life,” Canavan says. “I think we worked well together. He taught me a lot about politics, the pressures of it, how to communicate, the people you have to manage.”

  14. Matters Not

    Canavan will be the next leader of the Nats – therefore the next Deputy Prime Minister. He can add, subtract, multiply and divide with the best of them (politically speaking). Look out Barnaby – you have created your own political monster.

    But not sure whether he can ‘line dance’ as well as Barnaby.

  15. John Brame

    Canavan is just another short sighted, boring, yes man for the fossil fuel industry. He has as much knowledge about whats good for the Queensland environment as I would have about brain surgery.

  16. Brian Weavers

    I too listened to the interview with Canavan. Absolute nutter and truly representative of LNP ‘thinking’. And he is a minister?????

  17. Terry2

    The disturbing thing about Canavan’s attack on the ABC is that he is denigrating investigative journalism : he is implying that if you want information on Adani just read the Telegraph : ignorance is bliss.

    Michelle Guthrie has an enormous job to do at the ABC to fend off the attacks from the Far Right who are committed to dismantling the ABC and preventing it from being a reliable source of well researched news.

    Another example of the extent of media management by this government is the release yesterday by the Environment Department confirming that Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions are rising, and projections are that we will not get near our 2030 climate target under current policies. This report was actually given to the government in September but released within days of Christmas for minimum media coverage.

  18. Arthur Tarry

    This guy is a minister in the current Australian Govt. Can you believe it ? The LNP must be totally bereft of talent and common sense.

  19. Kronomex

    I’m going to be crude; if you did a thorough rectal examination on Canavan you will probably find hidden cash.
    Shelton must be just about having wet dreams…oh wait, ACL’s anthem Every Sperm is Sacred is playing…dry dreams about the chance to use the “victim of religious hatred” ticket and letting his paranoia run riot.

  20. Kaye Lee

    “We’ve got to work hard at it. I do think we have an opportunity in a leader in Barnaby Joyce who is a national superstar, to take those opportunities…,Barnaby has got profile” Canavan told Guardian Australia.

    “Doug Anthony might have been the last one who had that kind of profile … Barnaby is obviously a rock star in the bush but everyone knows him in the cities as well, and that is an opportunity for us.”

    In a wide ranging interview with Guardian Australia, Canavan said he would:

    champion the mining industry
    Maintain his support for Coalition’s 2013 “one stop shop” policy to devolve environmental approval powers to the states
    Maintain his opposition to tax deductibility for environmental groups involved in political campaigning.

    He also said he supported conservative third party organisations such as Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives.

    he said while he accepted the warming impact of carbon dioxide, he questioned the certainty of the science and believed some interest groups were exaggerating the effects of climate change.

    he rejects suggestions that previous attempts to develop the north have failed.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jul/22/matthew-canavan-barnaby-joyce-nationals-great-things

    A prime candidate for the suppositories.

  21. Zathras

    If it’s not the ritual “Happy Holidays” claim then it’s going to be ABC fake news somehow making Adani the victim.
    I would be surprised if the ACL claim of victimisation could be anything else.

    Well after all it IS the season for alleging persecution and seeking martyrdom after all.

  22. Kaye Lee

    When asked how the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility could do due diligence on a company with its base in the Cayman Islands, Senator Canavan said his department had advised him that “there’s nothing inconsistent with Adani’s company structure with Australian laws”.

    That’s the whole point!

  23. Matters Not

    Re the Cayman Islands – if it’s good enough for Malcolm Turnbull, then surely it’s good enough for Adani.

    As to whether it should be ‘good enough’ for either … And Turnbull of late is making ‘moral’ points. Hilarious.

  24. Dan

    Impossible to believe either Qld or Federal govts even googled Adani. It took 5 seconds to find this:

    https://www.newsrecord.co/adanis-corrupt-history-is-no-obstacle-for-new-monster-mine/

    “In 2011 Adani was investigated by the anti-corruption organization Lokayukta, from Karnataka, a state in south western India. Former Supreme Court Justice Santosh Hedge, a Lokayukta official, discovered evidence of bribery and theft in the export of iron ore that cost the Indian government $3 billion in royalties.”

    $3,000,000,000 in royalties NOT paid.
    Anyone at all believe Adani has any intention to pay tax here?
    Loaning Adani the $1,000,000,000 to build a rail line is naive.

  25. James O'Neill

    Rossleigh’s post and Kaye Lee’s various comments. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. What has Australia done to be inflicted with politicians of the calibre of Christensen, Bernardi and Canavan? And the latter is a Minister!!!

  26. crypt0

    I too heard the canavan interview …
    What a jerk !
    And he had the temerity to accuse the ABC of propagating “fake news” while simultaneously giving a fake interview !
    Pretty much par for the course though with the LieNP.

  27. John Passant

    Slight typo towards the end. Left out a word which completely alters the sense of the statement. I assume it should be … because the conflict DON’T stand up.

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