From the (11/8/14) article: Energy giant supplier AGL gave almost $100,000 to the NSW Labor and Liberal parties while seeking approval to drill 110 coal seam gas wells near Gloucester on the mid-north coast, but only half of those donations were apparently disclosed to the Planning Department making the decision. AGLs then head of government affairs Sarah McNamara – now an adviser to Prime Minister Tony Abbott – declared on May 13, 2010, that the company had made four political donations over the “relevant” two-year period totalling $48,250. The funds were split $26,250 to Labor and $22,000 to the Liberals, who were then in opposition. However, the declaration omitted $11,000 donated for membership to the Liberal Party’s now discredited Millennium Forum on October 1, 2008. Between the application and its approval by the Planning Assessment Commission on February 22, 2011, AGL donated a further $39,300. Of that, Labor received two donations of $13,750 and the bulk of the remainder went to the Liberals, including for several meals with then opposition leader and later premier Barry O’Farrell, who won a landslide victory in the subsequent March 2011 elections. [Last week the Environmental Defenders Office NSW (EDO)] wrote to Planning Minister Pru Goward seeking an investigation by her department. ... By coincidence, the EDO letter was sent the same day Energy Minister Anthony Roberts extended AGL’s CSG exploration permit for Gloucester by six years and approved hydraulic fracturing – fracking – of wells within a few hundred metres of homes. “We call upon the Energy Minister to immediately suspend all AGL operations until there’s a full enquiry into the whole process of approval,” said John Watts, a barrister and Groundswell Gloucester spokesman. The probe should also include “whatever donations were received up until the renewal of the licence a few days ago, and the approval of the fracking”. ... smh.au/environment/water-issues/secret-agl-political-donations-while-seeking-csg-approval-20140810-101yrj.html#ixzz3A09wikJk
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 20:36:21 +0000
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