Politics

The kangaroo kleptocracy

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(Cartoon by Mark David / @MDavidCartoons)

How can companies associated with a cabinet minister receive millions in government subsidies, while this self-same minister seeks to remove assistance for industries other than fossil fuel industry donors?

How can a government that claims to be governing for all Australians justify not raising unemployment benefits, while at the same time making its own politicians the best paid in the world?

And how can the section of the community this Coalition Government (almost) exclusively represents rail against any public money being spent on anything other than their billionaire backers?

The answer to each of these three questions is, of course, that this Government is a kleptocracy — a Government run by corrupt politicians who use their political power to receive kickbacks, bribes and special favours at the expense of the populace, and direct state resources to themselves, their relatives and their associates.

Angus Taylor is the current Energy Minister. Since 2010, over $98 million in government handouts has been issued to companies with which he has direct involvement.

Then there’s the scandal dubbed “Watergate”, involving an $80 million water buyback by Barnaby Joyce from a Cayman Islands company set up by Angus Taylor.

And there’s also “Grassgate”, in which illegal land clearing was linked to a company that just so happened to be owned by Taylor’s family.

Interestingly, Taylor has continued merrily as a front bench minister despite all of the above and it is, ironically, his attempt to discredit others for their use of public monies, which appears to be bringing him unstuck. Specifically, Taylor and his office are being investigated for presenting fraudulent documents in an attack against Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore. Moore seems to have incurred Taylor’s wrath when she declared a climate emergency in June, this year.

This is only half the story! Read the rest of this editorial in the IA members-only area. It takes less a minute to subscribe to IA and will cost you as little as $5 a month, or $50 a year — a paltry sum for superb journalism and a host of extras.

You can follow executive editor Michelle Pini on Twitter @vmp9.  Follow Independent Australia on Twitter at @independentaus and on Facebook HERE

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