Turnbull government faces questions over Snowy Hydro 2.0 as firm banned over corruption allegations

An arm of the company tasked with advising the Turnbull government on its signature infrastructure project, Snowy Hydro 2.0, has been banned by the World Bank for alleged bribery and corruption, prompting further calls for a federal anti-corruption watchdog.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull poses for a
photo during his announcement of Snowy
Hydro 2.0 in March. 

Federal Labor has demanded the Turnbull government reassure taxpayers the project remains on track, and the Greens have suggested the matter underscores the need for a corruption commission to oversee government agencies.

Engineering company SMEC had five of its subsidiaries banned by the World Bank last week after an investigation into "inappropriate payments" linked to projects in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. 

SMEC was chosen to undertake the $29 million feasibility study back in May and the work is due to be finished by the end of the year. The firm was selected by the state and federal government-owned Snowy Hydro corporation, which runs the current power plant.

Read the story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Turnbull government faces questions over Snowy Hydro 2.0 as firm banned over corruption allegations.”

Combatting climatre change demands WW2-like national unity

Donald Trump has turned the Republican Party
upside down by appealing directly to the voters
 and rejecting many of
the principles of the party that he will represent.

Here in Australia, we continue to witness the negative consequences of factional party politics and the corruption of good government by the money of vested interests. The Australian community is disaffected and relatively uninvolved in the decisions which will determine our future.

And yet we urgently need a government that can take firm decisions, supported by the population, about a number of issues that are being largely ignored. Ian Dunlop, ("Citizens awake – we are being taken for fools") argues that the climate crisis is so important that we need a government of national unity of the kind that we had during World War II, where all parties worked together to help to win the war.

Read The Sydney Morning Herald story - “Has party politics become destructive to the public interest and the public good?”