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Jenny West ‘verbally’ offered New York role but offer was retracted after government decision, inquiry told
Michael McGowan
Investment NSW chief executive Amy Brown has just told an upper house inquiry into John Barilaro’s appointment to the New York job that it was “verbally” offered to another candidate last year.
But that decision was rescinded, she said after “a decision of the government” including “an instruction to me to unwind all contracts for those yet to commence”.
That instruction – given late in September last year – came from the office of John Barilaro, Brown said, because, she said, the government intended for the roles to be filled by ministerial appointment.
Brown earlier said Barilaro’s office had asked her for advice on whether the trade commissioner jobs at the centre of an upper house inquiry could be made via “ministerial appointment” in September of last year.
Barilaro was eventually appointed as the New York-based trade commissioner role, after he created the roles as minister. It has previously been revealed that staff in Investment NSW, the agency responsible for making the appointment, investigated whether the roles could instead be made by ministers.
On Wednesday, Brown said the agency made that request after a request from John Barilaro’s office. She said:
In the first instance I was asked what is the mechanism by which [the trade commissioners] are employed and I explained they were public servants employed under the Government Sector Employment Act and I was asked what are other mechanisms by which they could be employed [including] ministerial appointments.
Energy minister Chris Bowen has begun his National Press Club address by rattling off all the “failures” of the previous government in climate, adding that he believed the May election saw a “gale” (not wind) of change in Canberra:
It’s tempting to say May 21 saw the winds of change blow through our country but in fact a gale blew away nine years of climate delay, denial and dysfunction. After years of climate change being weapon used, after years of baseless fear campaigns about the cost of climate change election there was an election and that resulted in a Labor victory with a climate agenda.
We have seen in dramatic form in the last few weeks the real life results of delay, denial and dysfunction when it comes to energy policy. This really has been a Taylor made crisis.
Nine years of stop start policy making, direct action and an attempt to water down the renewable target and abolish arena and the CFC and aborted Clean Energy Target, a discarded National Energy Guarantee, the disparagement of storage as being as effective as big prawn, campaigns of denigration against companies and CEOs who dare to argue that a well managed transition to renewables was important.
The former government’s signature energy investment Snowy 2.0 running 18 months late. They knew this before the election but hid it from the public and the market which needs this information to make decisions about new investments in their final year in office they oversaw a big spike in emissions, 4.1 million tonnes. That is their legacy.
Tory Shepherd
Kaurna ancestral remains returned to their lands in Wangayarta Memorial Park
200 Kaurna ancestors have been laid to rest in the Wangayarta Memorial Park, which was created so the Aboriginal people of the Adelaide Plains could be returned to their lands.
The SA Museum is the custodian of about 4,500 ancestral remains, remains that were stolen from traditional burial grounds, used for “research” in universities and by medical practitioners, and traded around the world.
More than 100 were repatriated in a ceremony late last year, brought home to rest in the soil of their Country, soil brought from around the state to Wangayarta by Uncle Moogy Sumner.
Sumner said he had been involved in repatriating ancestors for 40 years, travelling around the world to bring them home. It’s not easy, he said, and he talks to them:
You know, you went across there a long time ago on a big sailing ship. You’re coming back now on a 747.
Kaurna and Narungga elder Rosalind Coleman said the repatriation was important because of the respect it showed for ancestors, for cultural beliefs, and for the hurt that has been caused.
We are the descendants of the people, our Kaurna people, our Kaurna ancestors … we have obligations, cultural commitments, and the responsibility to make sure they come home.
Repatriation is about restoring dignity and making right the wrongs of the past.
University of Adelaide professor Benjamin Kile, the head of health and medical sciences, apologised for the role his institution played in keeping the remains from their rightful place.
We are expecting energy minister, Chris Bowen, to address the National Press Club shortly:
Elias Visontay
Air New Zealand to install economy bunk beds on long-haul flights
Air New Zealand will soon allow economy passengers to lie down and take a nap in communal, bunk bed-style sleeping pods on its planes, as it attempts to entice passengers on to its more than 17-hour ultra-long-haul flights.
In what the airline says will be a world first when its new cabins are installed by 2024, premium and regular economy passengers will still be sold traditional seats that do not recline into a bed.
However, these passengers will be able to book four-hour sessions in lie-flat sleeping pods – which the airline has named “Skynest” – at an additional cost.
Pods will have a mattress and sheets – which will be changed by cabin crew after each booking – and will be stacked on top of each other to take advantage of the height of the cabin.
Each pod will have a privacy curtain, USB charging and “ventilation outlets”.
Read more about the pods here:
Defence minister says expecting operational nuclear subs by 2030s would be ‘optimistic in the extreme’
Earlier this morning, acting prime minister and defence minister, Richard Marles, told RN Breakfast that it was “optimistic in the extreme” to expect Australia to have an operational nuclear submarine by the 2030s.
Marles told host Patricia Karvelas that the previous government was to blame for failing to land on a deal on the submarines within a reasonable timeframe, and defended the two year extension handed to chief of the defence force, General Angus Campbell and the vice chief of the defence force, Vice Admiral David Johnston:
I think you need to look at the personnel that you have that you can put on the field and the way in which we can get the best use from them.
It’s not them who oversaw the issues and the problems that we now face. It was the former government. I mean, the former government’s handling of national security, specifically defence procurement and specifically the procurement of submarines was one of the worst failures in defence procurement that we have seen in our history.
They went about matters in an entirely political way. But they went with an option with Japan and then abandoned it. They went with an option with France, spent billions of dollars, abandoned [it].
The truth of where the former government left us at the time of the election is that they were looking at a new nuclear submarine in the 2040s. That’s where they were at.
We will be looking at every option available to try and bring that time forward. I think bringing it forward to eight years from now would be extremely optimistic.
Good morning, Mostafa Rachwani with you for a short while, and a quick thanks to Stephanie Convery for her stellar job this morning.
And that’s where I’m going to sign off for the day. I’m leaving you in the capable hands of Mostafa Rachwani, and later this arvo you’ll have Elias Visontay to keep you company too. See you tomorrow morning!
Benita gets it.
Michael McGowan
Deputy Liberal leader told Investment NSW boss of Barilaro’s interest in trade job
Deputy Liberal party leader, Stuart Ayres, told Investment NSW chief executive, Amy Brown, that John Barilaro might apply for the New York trade job.
Brown, giving evidence to an upper house inquiry into Barilaro’s appointment to the plum $500,000 job, said Ayres gave her a “heads up” that the former deputy premier might put his hand up for the job.
Ayres did not inform her about any other potential candidates, she said.
Brown said that Ayres did not indicate any preference or otherwise about his candidacy, though, saying he is “very respectful of the public service and our processes and so he was very cautious about not having those conversations”.
As we’ve previously said, Brown has told the inquiry that the job was previously offered to Jenny West in August last year, but the offer was rescinded after an instruction from Barilaro’s office.
Brown said the instruction came from his office after a government decision to make the jobs ministerial appointments. Brown says West was “extremely upset” when she was told she would not be taking up the position. She said:
The relationship declined quite quickly once she was informed she may not be going to New York … The whole situation felt quite irreconcilable.
Some minor to moderate flooding in parts of rural NSW – check the warnings for your area.
New eradication zone set up in race to control bee parasite
NSW authorities racing to stop the spread of the deadly varroa mite threatening the bee industry have discovered the parasite in three new locations and established another biosecurity zone, AAP reports.
A total of seven infested premises have now been discovered through contact tracing, including the initial detection at sentinel hives near the Port of Newcastle last week.
The NSW minister for agriculture, Dugald Saunders, says a new eradication zone has been set up at Bulahdelah on the NSW Mid North Coast:
This means a new 10km eradication zone, 25km for surveillance and an extended 50km biosecurity zone have been implemented to rapidly shut down that new incursion and stop further spread.
Critically, this case is directly linked to a previously identified property, which shows the prompt and efficient response by the Department of Primary Industries is working well.
Saunders says the expansion of the biosecurity zones is no cause for alarm.
The other two new cases identified on Tuesday are located at Newcastle and at Seaham.
What’s expected to be hundreds more beehives around the NSW city of Newcastle and town of Bulahdelah will now be destroyed in coming days.
An emergency order remains in place prohibiting the movement of bees in the state after the varroa mite was found at hives near the Port of Newcastle last week.
Last Saturday, taking the stage at Glastonbury, Sampa the Great made history. A vision in bright red, the Zambian rapper and songwriter, born Sampa Tembo, addressed the crowd with a sly grin on her face:
I’m standing on this stage with the first Zambian band to perform at Coachella. The first Zambian band to perform at the Sydney Opera House … and the first Zambian band to perform at Glastonbury!
Shaad D’Souza spoke to her, exclusively, for Guardian Australia immediately after her set. You can read that interview here:
Jenny West ‘verbally’ offered New York role but offer was retracted after government decision, inquiry told
Michael McGowan
Investment NSW chief executive Amy Brown has just told an upper house inquiry into John Barilaro’s appointment to the New York job that it was “verbally” offered to another candidate last year.
But that decision was rescinded, she said after “a decision of the government” including “an instruction to me to unwind all contracts for those yet to commence”.
That instruction – given late in September last year – came from the office of John Barilaro, Brown said, because, she said, the government intended for the roles to be filled by ministerial appointment.
Brown earlier said Barilaro’s office had asked her for advice on whether the trade commissioner jobs at the centre of an upper house inquiry could be made via “ministerial appointment” in September of last year.
Barilaro was eventually appointed as the New York-based trade commissioner role, after he created the roles as minister. It has previously been revealed that staff in Investment NSW, the agency responsible for making the appointment, investigated whether the roles could instead be made by ministers.
On Wednesday, Brown said the agency made that request after a request from John Barilaro’s office. She said:
In the first instance I was asked what is the mechanism by which [the trade commissioners] are employed and I explained they were public servants employed under the Government Sector Employment Act and I was asked what are other mechanisms by which they could be employed [including] ministerial appointments.
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