In Estimates a fortnight ago, Treasury confirmed its "minimal" role in figuring the gov's 2050 Net Zero plan. Modelling instead came from private US consultancy McKinsey & Co. That's the same company Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor was a partner at in the early 2000s.
Angus' brother Charlie was, until recently, a senior partner with McKinsey. Now brother Charlie is the Liberal Party's federal treasurer. An old student rowing-buddy of Angus', Christopher Gradel, ended up at McKinsey too...
Years later an investment fund run by McKinsey put money into a company run by Gradel, who in turn invested $5m in one of Angus Taylor's Cayman Is companies, EAA, which made donations to the Liberal Party...
4 yrs ago Barnaby Joyce signed off on paying EAA $80m - double market value - for a water buyback, then refused to release documentation for 2 yrs claiming "public interest immunity", & this is all fine & normal & definitely not stinking like a fecalfeliacs party in a vomitorium.
So, McKinsey has now been paid $6m by the Morrison gov to provide modelling for its Net Zero Planphlet. The initial contract was $1.9 million for "professional advice", but it soon ballooned & became a “bottom up” analysis of multi-sector abatement, with a way bigger price tag.
Must be top work, if Treasury wasn't capable & it underpins Australia's vital climate policy. Be great to see it & examine the solid figures behind the government's unlikely pronouncements about tech that doesn't exist yet or work so far, saving us from climate collapse, right?
Well, funny story, but Minister Simon Birmingham says a bunch of the modelling/fig-leafing from McKinsey - along with the minimal advice from Treasury - simply couldn't be disentangled from "very extensive Cabinet deliberations"... and therefore it's Cabinet-in-confidence.
Yes, the $6m 2050 Net Zero "modelling" is secret. Public Interest Immunity again, says Birmingham. Oh - unless, says Simon, the relevant Minister decides to release it. And who is the relevant Minister? Well, Diedre Chambers what a coincidence - it's Angus Taylor.
Pressure on the government means Morrison has taken to saying that modelling (likely parts, rather than the whole) WILL be released. In backrooms right now they're pretty obviously scrambling to throw together some bits that look passable...
The answer to the question of exactly when it'll be seen by the public is an increasingly testy & dismissive: "Soon".
It can surely only be hoped that's also the answer to the question: when will this rank stagnation of dregs be finally removed from office?
#AusPol2021 #Scammo
It can surely only be hoped that's also the answer to the question: when will this rank stagnation of dregs be finally removed from office?
#AusPol2021 #Scammo
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