Even in despair, there are people who try to profit in a major way and we are seeing that now at the highest levels of politics with the drought and bushfires in Australia. An issue that is being missed and that needs to be put on the table is what impact, if any, the mining industry has had on the drought, bushfires and climate change and who has potentially profited from it.
So, let’s have a look at Matt Canavan and his mining executive brother John Canavan, Managing Director at Winfield Energy, who made a $435 million takeover offer for Stanmore Coal in August 2019.
Matt Canavan, who is the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, was recently in Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s office giving him a mouthful because the approval for a new coal-fired generator wasn’t happening as quickly as he wanted.
The New Daily reported on the 29/10/19:
Scott Morrison has copped the f-bomb in a 20-minute spray from a Nationals frontbencher – and the unrepentant MP has declared he is “guilty as charged”.
Matt Canavan is accused of confronting the Prime Minister during a closed-door meeting over a new coal-fired generator at Collinsville, in central Queensland.
According to some reports, the blow-up was so loud that the Resources Minister could be heard down the hallway.
“I don’t go into details of conversations with my colleagues. But, yep, guilty as charged. I passionately and forcefully argue for the great things the coal industry does for our nation,” Senator Canavan told The New Daily. (Click here to read more)
Why was Matt Canavan so aggressive is his conversation with the Prime Minister? It sounds like he has skin in the game as we know his mining executive brother John Canavan does. John is a multi-millionaire who has made his money buying and selling coal mines and in August 2019 he was involved in a $435 million takeover offer for Australia’s Stanmore Coal. (Click here to read more)
The obvious question: Is or was Matt Canavan’s brother John involved in the new coal-fired generator at Collinsville? One thing we know for certain is that coalition MP’s don’t let a conflict of interest get in the way of a good deal. Just ask federal MP Angus Taylor and his $80 million watergate scam.
There are no further reports on what happened to the $435 million takeover bid so it looks like it never succeeded. Whatever the case there has to be a huge question mark over whether or not Matt Canavan should be the federal Resources Minister when his brother is looking to become filthy rich from the resources sector.
I previously showed the below video, “Dirty Power” featuring investigative journalist Michael West, before the last federal election but it is probably even more relevant now. It is a must-watch as it exposes the power and control the mining industry has over our federal government.
The video shows the former mining industry executives who are now politicians and the former politicians who are now mining executives and it’s very disturbing and leaves the viewer with no doubt that our democracy has been highjacked by big business. And it wouldn’t be the only industry that has infiltrated the government to a similar degree.
A lot of the mining companies are foreign-owned so it could be argued it is a type of backdoor foreign intervention in Australian politics.
While the video is focused on the coalition government the mining industry has a long history of also having a huge influence over the Labor Party as well.
Barnaby Joyce again blames everyone except the government
The Greens have never controlled any government, federal or state, so to blame them for the bush fires because of a lack of back burning is a scandalous attempt to avoid taking responsibility which Barnaby Joyce has down to an art form:
The Australian reported (12/11/19):
Barnaby Joyce says the policies of the Greens have increased the bushfire threat, as he claims a lack of hazard reduction burning has helped fuel fires in regional NSW and Queensland.
The former deputy prime minister said “people are once again talking about indigenous land management” because there were too many regulations around controlled burning ahead of bushfire season.
“The problems we have got have been created by the Greens,” Mr Joyce told The Australian.
“We haven’t had the capacity to easily access (hazard) reduction burns because of all of the paperwork that is part of green policy.
“We don’t have access to dams because they have been decommissioned on national parks because of green policy. We have trees that have fallen over vehicles and block roads, so people cannot either get access to fight a fire or to get away from fires. And we can’t knock over the trees because of Greens policy.
“So many of the practicalities of fighting a fire and managing it have been stymied by the Greens.
Mr Joyce said it was “infuriating” the Greens were attempting to score political points by saying the government’s “inaction” on climate change had contributed to the fires that have killed three people.
He said climate change action in Australia would do nothing to reduce the bushfire risk unless there was also action taken by China, India and the United States.
“There is nothing we have done in the Australian parliament that has brought about the absolute devastation on so many people’s lives,” Mr Joyce said. (Click here to read more)
Barnaby says it was ““infuriating” the Greens were attempting to score political points” regarding the bush fires but he spent the whole interview blaming The Greens which was a deceptive and deceitful way for Barnaby Joyce to try and score political points. And Barnaby tells us we have to wait for “China, India and the United States” to do something otherwise we are wasting our time.
Gina Rinehart and Barnaby Joyce
Today (12/11/19) Barnaby Joyce has continued with attempts of political point-scoring and has been quoted as saying in relation to two people who died in the bush fires: “I acknowledge that the two people who died were most likely people who voted for the Green party so I’m not going to start attacking them. That’s the last thing I want to do.”
It is well known that Barnaby Joyce is close friends with mining billionaire Gina Rinehart who also helps fund Barnaby’s political career. What impact does Gina Rinehart and her money have on Barnaby Joyce’s political views, his views on the environment and his influence in the federal government?
At the time of writing this article and with bushfires still raging in NSW and Qld the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her coalition government have introduced a bill that “would weaken environmental protections in the state.”
The bill in question, introduced by Planning Minister Rob Stokes, would remove the requirement for planning authorities to consider downstream greenhouse gas emissions when approving development applications for coal mines, making it harder for authorities to block mine developments on environmental grounds.
Parliament is set to debate the bill as NSW braces for ‘catastrophic’ bushfire danger, the highest fire danger rating. This is the first time that the greater Sydney region has reached this danger level. (Click here to read more)
One has to suspect that the coal mining industry has greased some Liberal Party palms to get the proposed new laws into parliament. It’s interesting that the “NSW government prepared sweeping climate change policies to decarbonise the state’s economy only to have the plans shelved when Gladys Berejiklian became Premier in 2017.” Premier Gladys Berejiklian has been a godsend for the coal industry.
When there is a review on the drought, bushfires and climate change one key issue that needs to be on the table is the impact that the mining industry corrupting politics has or hasn’t had on drought, bushfires and climate change. We know the coal mines use a lot of water that farmers could otherwise use, we know that coal-fired power stations pollute the air and water and it could be argued the mining companies also have had an indirect influence on the bushfires by corrupting the politicians to downplay environmental issues.
Mining has been a huge income earner for Australia but that doesn’t give the mining companies the right to bribe the politicians and highjack democracy.
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