Shock and Gore: Clive Palmer shows his hand
Clive Palmer has thrown into chaos Tony Abbott's plan to abolish the carbon tax, demanding the Prime Minister instead create an emissions trading scheme that would swing into action when Australia's major trading partners adopt similar measures, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
A day before Palmer sits down with Abbott to discuss the federal budget and the government's signature pledge to repeal the carbon tax, the erratic Palmer United Party leader was joined by former US vice president Al Gore to announce his position on a suite of climate change legislation.
Palmer said his trio of senators would move to enshrine in law a guarantee that energy producers pass on to households the benefits of repealing the carbon tax, while they would also move to block the government's plans to scrap the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and potentially wind back the Renewable Energy Target, which mandates 41,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity be produced by large clean energy sources by 2020.
NAB to hand over Palmer documents in Citic Pacific row
Clive Palmer’s bank at the heart of a row over his company’s alleged wrongful siphoning of more than $A12 million of Chinese funds will hand over key documents and account information that so far has been withheld from a secret ongoing probe, according to The Australian.
New legal documents, part of a Supreme Court hearing in Brisbane yesterday, show Palmer’s bank has decided to disclose all the account information.
‘No reason to panic' over $US97 WA iron ore forecast
Western Australia’s iron ore price forecasts increasingly appear optimistic following a decision by the Canberra-based Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE) to cut its price predictions amid surging output of the key steel-making material
The WA Liberal government is relying on the key commodity spot price to average about $US122 in 2014-15 – almost $30 above current prices.
The current $30 differential, if maintained over 2014-15, would mean the state would receive $A1.47 billion less than forecast in its state’s May budget. This would plunge the state into deficit unless dramatic remedial actions were adopted.
WA Treasurer Mike Nahan has consistently said that he trusted the state’s forecasters and that there was no reason to panic.
