The Luck Of The Taylors

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• with @jommy_tee   #grassgate   #watergate   #auspol   #grantgate

With all the recent talk of Angus Taylor and his brother Richard and the alleged poisoning of native vegetation, (charges withdrawn) it’s easy to suspect the Taylor family are being victimised.

After all, they are viewed by many as hard working country folk.

And hard working they are indeed, with members of Angus Taylor’s family establishing themselves across many facets of the business & political world. With his vast business experience & numerous companies behind him, Angus Taylor could even be described as a self-made man.

So too could Angus’s brother Richard Taylor, who among many other things, runs the brother’s joint venture Growth Farms. Growth Farms is remarkable for having $400 million worth of farming properties under their control, (remember that detail).

Most of the $400 million farm portfolio is owned by Australian born billionaire, Michael Hintze who happens to be a close personal friend of the Taylor brothers as well as a large corporate donor to the Liberal Party. And what a happy association that is.

 

With another brother at corporate behemoth McKinsey & Co, & yet another running educational institutions (Duncan) & Duncan Taylor’s wife Bronnie Taylor sitting as a member of NSW parliament, you’d think the enterprising Taylor family would need no assistance at all.

But . . . . you would be mistaken.

Feast your eyes on this chart.

A master class in accessing all that glorious government assistance.

 

From the time Angus Taylor entered parliament in September 2013, companies & organisations the Taylor family have managed, directed or are directly associated with have benefited from over $93,515,673 in federal & state government funds.

And yes – you read that correctly.

Let’s look at Monaro Farming Systems for example, situated in rural – & very, very grassy – South East NSW.

With Richard Taylor as the chairman, this group luckily received a $563,728 Landcare grant during the period b/w Joyce & Littleproud changing over the agriculture ministry.

Fascinatingly, this huge Landcare grant for weather monitoring & pasture improvement was awarded while Richard Taylor & several others were still under investigation for illegal land clearing, which is interesting criteria for a federal Landcare grant.

But who are we to judge?

Monaro Farming Systems states it is a non-profit group that boasts having received over $600,000 in grants & sponsorship, yet according to its website, it has 41 financial members.

It also employs an admin person who luckily, happens to work for the Taylor’s Growth Farms.

It’s heartening to know that such a small, isolated farm group that receives so many government funds for its research projects can then, well . . .

. . . roll all that knowledge over into Growth Farm’s $400 million management of farm properties for a billionaire.

 

 

Not to be outdone, Angus Taylor’s brother & Bronnie Taylor’s husband, Duncan, has been hard at work in the education sector.

Duncan Taylor heads up an organisation known as Country University Centres & in a time of TAFE cuts & closures, CUC has gone from strength to strength.

 

Duncan’s wife Bronnie Taylor, a Nationals MP in the NSW parliament, was once NSW parliamentary secretary to John Barilaro.

Barilaro also coincidentally helped Monaro Farming Systems with some of their successful grants.

The Taylors are very lucky like that.

 

 

Duncan Taylor had even more good fortune when CUC was registered as an umbrella group for rural education back in Feb 2017, the same time as his wife Bronnie became Barilaro’s parliamentary secretary.

Three months later, the CUC was the lucky recipient of an $8 million grant.

Not to be outdone, the fed govt awarded CUC a $5.1 million grant, although the grant is difficult to find as it was announced as part of a fund package in Nov 2108.

To date, the Duncan Taylor led CUC is one of the only NSW rural facilities to obtain funding from this fund pool.

 

Media releases show a grant pool of $7.5 million for 16 regional study hubs, making it clear that the Country University Centres luckily managed to grasp the lion’s share of the funds, with the majority of the other rural groups left to share in the remaining $2.4 million.

 

 

That same week, an excited Angus Taylor spruiked the federal grant to Goulburn’s CUC.

Unfortunately he forgot to mention his wife Louise Clegg sat on the Board of Directors & that his brother Duncan Taylor was the umbrella organisation’s CEO, which received the full $5,100,000.