Malcolm Turnbull defends surprise $444 million Government donation to tiny reef body

Malcolm Turnbull insists the Government's nearly half-a-billion-dollar donation to a private foundation with links to big resources companies has been done transparently, despite the body itself not asking for the money.

The PM has called the donation "a wonderful investment
in ensuring that we maintain the health of the Great Barrier Reef"

In April the Government announced it would give the Great Barrier Reef Foundation $444 million to fund projects to improve the health of the reef.

The foundation had only six staff when it was told it was getting the huge grant, which managing director Anna Marsden told Radio National was an "absolute surprise”.

Read the ABC News story by Louise Yaxley - “Malcolm Turnbull defends surprise $444 million Government donation to tiny reef body.”

(Responsibility for the demise and death of Australia's Great Barrier Reef can be laid at the feet of Malcolm Turnbull, in particular, and those of his coalition cohort - Robert McLean)

Energy policy architect plays down carbon price fears as Malcolm Turnbull calls for end to ‘climate wars’

An architect of the government's new energy policy has played down suggestions the scheme represents a carbon price.

And the lobby group representing electricity wholesalers and retailers, the Australian Energy Council, has provided cautious approval for the Turnbull government's National Energy Guarantee, while warning significant design work was still required and that a carbon price is an inevitable outcome of the scheme.

The council, which represents wholesalers and retailers such as AGL, Energy Australia and Origin Energy, said the proposal was "a considered attempt to deal with the issues of reliability and emissions reduction at least cost”.

On Thursday, Energy Security Board member John Pierce declared that "we are not pricing carbon. What we are pricing is reliability, what we are pricing is the ability for the mechanism to be dispatched.”

Read the story in today’s Melbourne Age by James Massola and Peter Hannam - “Energy policy architect plays down carbon price fears as Malcolm Turnbull calls for end to ‘climate wars’.”