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Showing posts with the label Kevin Rudd

Overseas aid advisers to lose 25pc of salaries

CANBERRA TIMES The Gillard Government must stop paying huge salaries to aid officials working in poor countries, Australia's main foreign aid group said yesterday.  The strong reaction from the Australian Council for International Development came after Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said the huge salaries paid to Australians administering aid programs would be trimmed by one-quarter. He confirmed the Government would axe 257 long-term positions from 11 different programs over two years. Council executive director Marc Purcell said reducing advisers must be the first step as part of a larger reform and questioning of what made foreign aid effective. Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop said the high level of advisers' salaries had been raised with her by heads of state and foreign ministers from the region. ''This is a matter of concern to them, that Australian aid is being absorbed by payments to the officials in charge of the aid program an

Overseas aid advisers to lose 25pc of salaries

CANBERRA TIMES The Gillard Government must stop paying huge salaries to aid officials working in poor countries, Australia's main foreign aid group said yesterday.  The strong reaction from the Australian Council for International Development came after Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said the huge salaries paid to Australians administering aid programs would be trimmed by one-quarter. He confirmed the Government would axe 257 long-term positions from 11 different programs over two years. Council executive director Marc Purcell said reducing advisers must be the first step as part of a larger reform and questioning of what made foreign aid effective. Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop said the high level of advisers' salaries had been raised with her by heads of state and foreign ministers from the region. ''This is a matter of concern to them, that Australian aid is being absorbed by payments to the officials in charge of the aid progr

Climate change expert Ross Garnaut behind controversial PNG mines

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AAP September 09, 2010 CLIMATE-change expert Ross Garnaut is linked with two companies accused of using a controversial method of releasing mine waste into rivers and the ocean in Papua New Guinea. Professor Garnaut conducted the Rudd government's 2008 climate-change review which urged action on the issue, including an emissions trading scheme. But the economist also chairs Lihir Gold, a mining company which has merged with Newcrest Gold, and he is a director of OK Tedi Mining Limited. Lihir was the subject of a takeover bid by Newcrest Mining and Prof Garnaut will relinquish his $US300,000 ($A327,225) role as a result of the merger. The Lihir group is set to produce one million ounces of gold a year on Lihir Island, 900km north of Port Moresby. OK Tedi extracts copper, gold and silver from its remote Star Mountains operation in PNG's Western Province where it reportedly discharges 56 million tonnes of metalliferous waste into local rive

Climate change expert Ross Garnaut behind controversial PNG mines

Image
AAP September 09, 2010 CLIMATE-change expert Ross Garnaut is linked with two companies accused of using a controversial method of releasing mine waste into rivers and the ocean in Papua New Guinea. Professor Garnaut conducted the Rudd government's 2008 climate-change review which urged action on the issue, including an emissions trading scheme. But the economist also chairs Lihir Gold, a mining company which has merged with Newcrest Gold, and he is a director of OK Tedi Mining Limited. Lihir was the subject of a takeover bid by Newcrest Mining and Prof Garnaut will relinquish his $US300,000 ($A327,225) role as a result of the merger. The Lihir group is set to produce one million ounces of gold a year on Lihir Island, 900km north of Port Moresby. OK Tedi extracts copper, gold and silver from its remote Star Mountains operation in PNG's Western Province where it reportedly discharges 56 million tonnes of metalliferous waste into local rive