Kurri Kurri conflicts: new gas plant is a field day for party donors
A $600 million subsidy for a gas plant in Kurri Kurri makes no commercial sense for the taxpayer, but there are plenty of windfalls for Liberal Party donors.
Former Newcastle mayor and property developer Jeff McCloy (Image: AAP/Dan Himbrechts)
Has there ever been a project that so neatly fits the government’s political agenda as well as the commercial interests of its mates?
The $600 million subsidy announced for a gas plant in Kurri Kurri makes no commercial sense for the taxpayer, but there are windfalls everywhere you look for Liberal donors.
The Morrison government has continued to hold out the prospect of Snowy Hydro building a new gas plant at Kurri Kurri to deal with any power generation gap created by Liddell’s exit. The government has identified the gap as 1,000MW.
But a taskforce advising governments about the impact of the Liddell closure did not back Scott Morrison and Angus Taylor’s insistence that 1,000MW of additional dispatchable electricity would be needed to replace the old coal plant. The taskforce listed a range of committed and probable projects that it found would be “more than sufficient” to maintain a high level of power grid reliability as Liddell shut.
3 May 2021
Federal officials from the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources have deflected questions at a Senate estimates hearing about the purchase from Liberal party donor and property developer Jeff McCloy of land earmarked for a new gas fired generator expected to be built by Snowy Hydro.
Snowy Hydro is proposing to build a gas fired generator of up to 750MW in Kurri Kurri, in the New South Wales Hunter region, at a site owned by McCloy’s property development company, the McCloy Group, which took over the redevelopment of the site of the former Kurri Kurri aluminium smelter last year.
majority again, asking these kind of tough questions. kagan, for example, hey, looking at menu on aereo and the controls, quote, it is exactly the same thing as watching cable. chief justice roberts saying that there is no reason for you to have thousands of small antennas, which is how this operate, rather than having one big antenna, there is no reason for aereo to have 10,000 antennas other than to get around the copyright laws. but the attorney for aereo, david fredericks said, listen if an individual can put a antenna on their home, digital antenna and run the line down to their tv and record shows, and not pay any kind of license fee to anybody, because it is an individual broadcast, why should aereo customers have to pay? so the justices now having to wrestle with this difficult question of, what, comes under copyright law, and, the impact that a decision could have on
this is a case of fraud. the nfl knew knew about the risk associated with concussions and hid it. so fraud case, the proper place right here in federal court. that really is what is at issue in front of senior this senior judge. what is also fascinating, the big guns, carol, out today. paul clements, who i know are you familiar with, he argued that doma case about a month ago in front of the supreme court. he is arguing on behalf of the nfl and you also have david fredericks, representing the players, someone who has argued many cases in front of the supreme court. have you a supreme court showdown with big guns right here in federal court. it s going to be an amazing day for the legal geeks like myself. i was going to say, i m sure you will have an update for us. just ahead on the newsroom, not a happy time at rutgers university. now the scandal that consumed