I wrote earlier about my concerns of the extent of corruption in Australia. We now hear from ICAC in NSW of explosive allegations of corruption involving the former NSW Labor Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal. He is being investigated alongside such paragons of virtue as Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald. I don’t think allegations of corruption should be isolated to those three – it has grown through the union movement and throughout the Labor party.
Counsel assisting the inquiry, Geoffrey Watson, said of Roozendaal’s activities
The multiple handling of the ownership of the car is only consistent with a deliberate attempt to disguise aspects of the deal. The evidence suggests..the course of the transactions is incompatible with an honest intent.
That last sentence could well apply to the transactions we have seen involving the AWU Workplace Reform Fund.
Labor needs to expiate its sins. If it is unable to decisively investigate and destroy corruption within its organisation it will cease to exist. The loss of the next Federal election is the first step in a long voyage for Labor Party reform. I’m skeptical of its ability to root out corruption – it would involve taking down some very powerful individuals and nefarious groupings within the party. Perhaps the clean elements in the Labor movement should consider setting up a new party.
roozendaal was a contemporary of mine back in my university days. He was a marxist back then, of course – I was involved in the laybore right.
These scumbags reek.
Rabz
1 Nov 12 at 8:37 pm
That’s not corruption; it’s business the Labor way. It’s only a crime for conservatives.
Brett
1 Nov 12 at 8:41 pm
If Labor can’t or won’t root out corruption, then the Coalition must have a sacred obligation to investigate and prosecute without fear nor favour. The punishment must be extreme and severe to serve as a warning.
Samuel J
1 Nov 12 at 8:44 pm
Rabz – isn’t it interesting that Marxists are among the worst when it comes to greed
Samuel J
1 Nov 12 at 8:45 pm
Ex-marxists, Samuel!
Rabz
1 Nov 12 at 8:48 pm
It’s not
wrongobjected to because it is expected of them.Driftforge
1 Nov 12 at 8:49 pm
Institutionalised cronyism, corruption and patronage appears to be endemic throughout the union movement and hence the Labor party. Any Royal Commission that the Abbott Government sets up to investigate union corruption must have a wide ranging mandate to investigate and extirpate illegal activity and corrupt officials throughout the unions and Labor. Then, if anybody is left, the remnants might wish to set up a new party.
Cold-Hands
1 Nov 12 at 9:00 pm
They could get a minibus to travel in, like the Qld Parliamentary Labor Party.
Mother Hubbard's Dog
1 Nov 12 at 9:13 pm
The DLP perhaps?
Splatacrobat
1 Nov 12 at 9:14 pm
What was ICAC doing for all the long years of Labor government in NSW?
Tim
1 Nov 12 at 9:15 pm
Is that all he did? He should be thrown out of the ALP for incompetence. There must have been a union out there somewhere looking to be rorted for hundreds of thousands.
Tiny Dancer
1 Nov 12 at 9:18 pm
The serious high level corruption goes back at least thirty years, to the Balmain Welding Co and importation of certain illicit substances, and went right to the top of the NSW ALP.
Therefore it is probably systematic, and is rationalised as ‘spoils of war’ – an aspirational target for serious young machine politicians to assauge the demands of the political life and pay inequality – inequality compared to honest but successful people that they resent that is.
It is so deeply embedded I doubt any capacity of the machine to extract itself from criminality voluntarily.
Endless – literally endless – plot lines for the Underbelly producers being written daily in Sin City ( and Wollongong and on and on ).
Myrddin Seren
1 Nov 12 at 9:28 pm
They were investigating. This is the 21st century. Investigations are thorough these days don’t you know. Just because we have computers and instant communication doesn’t mean that these things don’t take time.
jupes
1 Nov 12 at 9:29 pm
We do know that will be trouble for the Coalition.
There will be members of the judiciary whose positions will need to be called into question if that occurs and we can expect them to act with extreme prejudice in return. How many rulings will be made where the officer does not like the tone as the basis of a ruling?
Token
1 Nov 12 at 9:31 pm
Unions should just be disbanded – how much of Aust’s work force do they represent, 35% or something
at one stage in history they were necessary but no more in my view
bring back work choices
val majkus
1 Nov 12 at 9:32 pm
18%
Mother Hubbard's Dog
1 Nov 12 at 9:35 pm
Individuals are more a product of their background, than their political party of choice, so whatever happened to the doctrine of individual responsibility?
Scapula
1 Nov 12 at 9:38 pm
There is a ‘class‘ that Religiously believe that “stealing as a servant” is ‘The Way’ to ‘get ahead’.
They’re of the same ‘class‘ who keep trying to stir up a ‘Class War’.
Govt workers charged with $82,000 thefts
From: AAP
November 01, 2012 8:35PM
TWO West Australian government employees have been charged with fraud and stealing, with one alleged to have fraudulently used more than $66,000 worth of Cabcharge vouchers.
Major fraud squad detectives on Thursday revealed that two separate government agencies had been investigated.
A 55-year old Wembley man has been charged with seven counts of fraud, following a probe into the misuse of corporate credit cards.
Police will allege that between 2007 and 2011, the man, who was employed as a senior manager, used his corporate credit card for unauthorised purchases worth more than $16,000.
He is due to appear in Perth Magistrates Court on December 5.
Those charges came after an investigation into corporate credit card misuse at a separate government agency, which resulted in allegations that a 60-year old Parkwood woman unlawfully used Cabcharge vouchers while employed as a senior manager.
The purchases were in excess of $66,000, police said.
The woman is due to appear in Perth Magistrates Court on January 16 to answer five counts of stealing as a servant.
true lilly
1 Nov 12 at 9:39 pm
If you lie with dogs you get fleas. The entire Labor organisation has fleas.
sfw
1 Nov 12 at 9:41 pm
“Labor needs to expiate its sins”
Not possible until it is subject to the same integrity test as the other side.
Until it is, why should it?
Labor politicians are no more inherently corrupt than any other, but when any person/side is systemically and consistently privileged in the application of principle, then it will eventually learn to act accordingly.
We have actually allowed a system to flourish where there is a sub conscious (or psometimes conscious) belief that the narrative is so self evidently correct for all “right minded” people that dissent is viewed as idiocy.
There is no longer an acceptance of the concept of a contest of ideas. Until this changes, nothing else does.
Jim from Brisbane
1 Nov 12 at 9:45 pm
ICAC could be very interesting over the next few months.
Some of the best entertainment your tax dollar can buy.
H B Bear
1 Nov 12 at 9:50 pm
$36 million compensation to clubs in the ACT gambling trial.
One club owned by the CFMEU? and 4 by the ALP.This according to ABC reports.
Compensation….hummm…..
murph the surf.
1 Nov 12 at 9:55 pm
Bullshit.
Have a look at the WA Inc Royal Commission for a start. Only Liberal convicted was deadbeat Ray O’Connor who was Alan Bond’s (dishonest as it turned out) bagman.
Joh Bjelke-Petersen and his cronies are the obvious exception to this rule.
One of the major risk factors is one side of politics remaining in power for any significant length of time and stacking the public service with friendly appointments.
H B Bear
1 Nov 12 at 9:59 pm
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/alp-owned-clubs-risk-breaching-the-terms-of-the-gillard-governments-mandatory-pre-commitment-trial/story-fn59niix-1226252305150
murph the surf.
1 Nov 12 at 10:01 pm
Wait until the ICAC get to the mining exploration leases. A free car is less than petty cash. The amounts of money involved are staggering.
Biota
1 Nov 12 at 10:04 pm
Now that is a delicious prospect.
Mother Hubbard's Dog
1 Nov 12 at 10:17 pm
“The loss of the next Federal election is the first step in a long voyage for Labor Party reform.”
The second step should be a competent investigation of the extent of criminal abuse of office committed by Gillard Government officials.
Leo G
1 Nov 12 at 11:05 pm
The mining leases are an interesting matter, not only for the Obeid clan but for a NSW CFMEU boss who will have to explain how he went from union wages to net worth of $16m in a few short years. I’d be packing my toothbrush, John.
mareeS
2 Nov 12 at 12:16 am
Was there a special on random bolding or something? Did I miss it?
Hi mareeS, how’s it going?
kae
2 Nov 12 at 12:25 am
Hi kae, all good, but would be better if the other redhead finally came a gutser. She has more lives than my 3-legged cat (who’s also a brazen hussy).
mareeS
2 Nov 12 at 1:22 am
I note that even the ABC felt compelled to cover the ICAC event featuring Eric & Eddy. Yes, there has to be years of hard slog investigation put in before an inescapable case can be presented. And there seem to be so many targets. Police work is not all car chases and tasers. For some jobs you need something like an investigative reporter with experience as a detective/investigator. Someone like, oh, Mike Smith?
Blogstrop
2 Nov 12 at 6:20 am
Ian Macdonald (the allegedly corrupt NSW former Minister involved in the coalmining leases) was aligned with the Melbourne Maoists as a student.
It doesn’t surprise me that several of the shonkiest figures in politics and the unions were extreme leftists in their youth. ‘Whatever it takes’, minus ethical boundaries, have always been their catchwords, whether for The Cause or for personal advancement.
In my youth, I was an ALP member and also active in student politics. There were actually genuine and honest people around in those days, in the mainstream of the ALP and of unions. They would never have taken a penny for themselves – on the contrary, they made personal sacrifices for what they believed in.
With a few notable exceptions, those kind of people now seem to be as remote as my youth.
As I was in NSW, I should mention that there were plenty of shonks and sleazes on the Right as well. Defamation laws prevent me from naming names, but one was not too flash on a bicycle and another certainly subscribed to the ‘whatever it takes’ mantra. But the mainstream membership and officials were mostly cut from more idealistic and honest cloth.
I seriously doubt that much can be saved from the rotten structure that remains of either the industrial or political wings of the labour movement.
johanna
2 Nov 12 at 6:58 am
I LOL’d hard.
.
2 Nov 12 at 8:20 am
Let’s apply the Fisk doctrine. The ALP ought to be banned and smahsed to bits by a RICO law.
.
2 Nov 12 at 8:22 am
Too bloody right.
Rabz
2 Nov 12 at 8:42 am
Socialists and Marxists are more likely to be corrupt since they don’t like private property
Samuel J
2 Nov 12 at 9:06 am
Yes – and their social models where implemented tend to thrive on graft and corruption, for example, rampant bribery, favours from your connections in positions of petty privilege, etc…
Rabz
2 Nov 12 at 9:09 am
Dot,
Their entire idiotology is corrupt, as are the methods they use to implement it – see taxmania and the “back to the wilderness” society…
Rabz
2 Nov 12 at 9:13 am
What a legend. Do you remember the time he was busted
stealing‘removing’ all his office furniture and fittings following his exit from politics?Rabz
2 Nov 12 at 9:14 am
They are corrupt in the same sense as Pol Pot, yes.
.
2 Nov 12 at 9:18 am
Actually, the Greens are overtly corrupt. They constantly misrepresent facts which undermine their mad ideology and pretensions to purity.
For example, they keep saying that ‘renewable’ energy is getting cheaper, when in fact they have loaded the subsidies up on proper energy sources to make them more expensive and their pals’ dodgy business ventures profitable. It’s straight theft from taxpayers and consumers into the pockets of their cronies.
All favoured forms of public expenditure are described as ‘investment’, especially the most wasteful. This is simply a lie. Their supporters are the beneficiaries of public monies spent in this way.
They received the biggest political donation in Australian history (from the Wotif guy) while blathering on about how the other parties were in the sway of corrupt donors.
There’s plenty more, including the donation they happily took from a unionist of doubtful reputation, but you get the idea.
johanna
2 Nov 12 at 9:20 am
Thanks Johanna, sound points.
Rabz
2 Nov 12 at 9:26 am
Gentlepeople – I have felt the need to cull some of the comments. If anyone has specific information relating to individuals who may or may not be corrupt please provide that information to the authorities.
Sinclair Davidson
2 Nov 12 at 11:15 am
Sinc I keep on telling you I am just rabbiting what is on hansard or known to the police!
.
2 Nov 12 at 11:24 am
Comparing notes re this thread with an old friend today, and who has some longstanding insights into business and politics.
Business people will not stand up and highlight these issues because of the fear of retribution. In government or in opposition – the RICO Party will ensure awesome revenge on any business that is seen to push back.
Underbelly Payback.
Myrrdin Seren
2 Nov 12 at 1:29 pm
What a circus.
We’ll see if Mr Roozendaal is still smiling when the findings are handed down. There is grubby politics and then there is NSW politics.
Expect plenty of this if they ever get around to putting Shagger in the dock.
H B Bear
2 Nov 12 at 3:20 pm
Bear
Omerta
Shagger will be seeing the inside of the Grey Bar Hotel before he spills the beans on who else was in on the HSU party bus.
Myrrdin Seren
2 Nov 12 at 3:51 pm
I was really referring to the quality of the evidence – allegedly false signatures, money appearing and disappearing without any knowledge or concern. Presumably the cops aren’t out looking for the credit card thief that Barnaby Joyce identified as the prime suspect. Thommo’s “explanation” to Parliament gave a pretty good idea of what to expect.
H B Bear
2 Nov 12 at 4:20 pm
I would be in favour of banning the Labor Party, state and Federal Branches, one by one as they lost power. Force them to dissolve, investigate their members for fraud, and oblige anyone with the same political agenda to re-form from the start. The only way is to wipe the slate clean and start again with new blood. Completely new blood. Everywhere.
perturbed
2 Nov 12 at 11:23 pm
I blame the education system.
Tel
2 Nov 12 at 11:54 pm