More Civil Societies: Contempt
There are calls to investigate whether funds were misused by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, which is registered as a charity, after they were awarded a $444 million government grant in the May budget. In particular, the foundation’s recent ‘Chairman’s Panel Weekend’ for its 56 members at a $2000-a-night resort on Hamilton Island.
The grant was awarded without a tender process, and, while the foundation says their work will look into water quality, reef protection and reef restoration, there is no mention of addressing climate change.
Which comes to no surprise to Julie Macken — she calls out Malcolm Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg for redistributing taxpayer funds to a foundation with climate-denial links — Peabody Energy, which has funded anti-climate pro-coal activism around the world, serves on its Chairman’s Panel, and the chairman is John Schubert, former chairman of Esso, who has links with fossil fuel companies such as BHP, Rio Tinto and AGL.
Trying to come up with a word to describe the situation, Julie Macken says she considered ‘nepotism’ and ‘corruption’ before settling on ‘contempt’.
“This is an example of the extraordinary contempt this government has for the Australian community,” she said.
