Australia politics live: Watt ‘not happy’ about new BoM site cost; NDIS a ‘trainwreck’, one of scheme’s architects warns

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Jumping back to Murray Watt: the environment minister was asked on ABC News Breakfast a little earlier about the extreme price hike on the Bureau of Meteorology’s website redesign.

The environment minister says he’s looking forward to more transparency and cultural change in the bureau.

We have had a new CEO of the BoM start only a fortnight ago. I met with him on his very first day to outline my concerns and my request for him to get on top of this. I’ve met with him again – twice in his first two weeks – so I’m looking forward to a bit of a change in the culture and the approach of the BoM.

It’s a matter for them why they chose to provide that figure rather than a broader figure. But there’s no doubt that there have been increases in the cost of this website as it’s been developed. One of the things that I’ve asked the new CEO of the BoM to get on top of is, what happened here?

The scope of the new environmental protection authority, the definition of “net gain”, and the definition of “unacceptable impacts” are in the top three. There are very many other measures that the minister needs to look at in order to come back to us with those amendments so we can find a pathway forward.

We’ll take the government’s amendments on their merit and make sure that we deliver, as a Coalition, good outcomes for jobs, in particular, across our country, to make sure that there is certainty around investment and productivity.

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Source: www.theguardian.com

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