Independent Commission against Corruption

The ALP is full of ratbags, union ratbags, dodgy ratbags but all ratbags nonetheless. A little law change here, another there, some bribes and rots over there, and their mates score over $1 billion in windfall profits.

Former resources minister Ian Macdonald introduced legislation which overruled the highest court in NSW and resulted in a $1 billion windfall to two mining executives who have been under the scrutiny of the Independent Commission against Corruption.

Travers Duncan and Brian Flannery had owned the Moolarben coalmine near Mudgee for more than 30 years. But it was not until the Labor government intervened that it made a big profit.

The NSW Court of Appeal had ruled they could not mine at Moolarben because the lease encroached on a lease held by mining giant Xstrata.

But after the court decided, in August 2008, they could not mine at Moolarben Mr Macdonald stepped in to champion Mr Duncan and Mr Flannery’s cause.

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Why does Australia seem have more dodgy ratbags than other countries?

Is it because most of their ancestors were chosen by the best judges of England to live in Australia?

The ALP seems to also have more dodgy ratbags than most other parties as well. Take these two examples.

First up is their very own Phillip Field:

Immigration Minister Brendan O’Connor has admitted his claim the 457 visa scheme had been rorted 10,000 times was simply his own ”estimate” – but insisted there had been ”more than a few” transgressions.

Mr O’Connor floated the number during a television interview on Sunday, yet his office was unable on Sunday or Monday to point to any specific evidence to back up the claim.

Employer groups told Fairfax Media on Monday they suspected Mr O’Connor had plucked the number ”out of thin air” and it was part of the ongoing exaggerated rhetoric surrounding the government’s proposed crackdown on the skilled foreign worker program.

In an interview on ABC’s AM program on Friday, Mr O’Connor conceded the suggestion that the 457 visa scheme had been used illegitimately more than 10,000 times was ”a forecast” he had come up with rather than a firm fact.

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The Independent Commission Against Corruption in NSW is identifying more and more ALP ratbags as their investigations continue:

The disgraced former resources minister Ian Macdonald personally asked his predecessor in the portfolio, the then Cessnock MP Kerry Hickey, to write him a letter supporting a proposal for a so-called “training mine”, a corruption inquiry has heard.

That training mine was being backed by his friend and former union boss John Maitland. When Mr Macdonald later issued an exploration licence without a tender for the proposal, his decision effectively turned Mr Maitland’s $165,000 investment into shares worth as much as $14 million.

Now, the Independent Commission Against Corruption is examining the circumstances in which Mr Macdonald issued the licence. The public hearings have heard he did so contrary to departmental advice.

This morning, Mr Hickey took the stand and was asked how he came to write a letter of support for the Doyles Creek Mine proposal in September 2008.

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The Labour party here is making as much as they can about what they call a crony appointment. The very next thing they will allege is corruption. They know what they are talking about.

Take a look at Australia and the ongoing revelation from the Independent Commission Against Corruption. The latest revelation shows just how corrupt the ALP and their affiliated unions became.

The managing director of NuCoal admitted in a private examination by the state’s corruption watchdog that John Maitland, a friend of the then mining minister Ian Macdonald, had done his job by “opening doors” and obtaining an exploration licence worth millions of dollars.

In a secret interrogation just last month, Glen Lewis said Mr Maitland was removed as chairman of Doyles Creek Mining – a company which was sold into NuCoal before being floated on the stock exchange – because he had already “helped facilitate the application” for an exploration licence, which Mr Macdonald directly issued to the company without a tender.

The circumstances of the allocation of the licence are under public investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Mr Macdonald announced he had approved a “training mine” for Doyles Creek in the Hunter Valley on Christmas Eve 2008, but he did so contrary to the advice of his department, the ICAC has heard.

The decision effectively turned an investment of $165,000 by Mr Maitland, a former mining union official and Labor Party figure, into shares worth as much as $14 million.  Read more »

Nowhere in the world are ratbag unions worse than Australia. Over there they are mired in scandal, bribery and corruption allegations. And yet they are still trying to pervert democracy.

After the excesses that are now being borne out in the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption the O’Farrell government moved to clamp down on political donations and the unions are fighting back.

Political donations laws in NSW will be tested in the High Court for the first time in a case brought by the union movement, which argues they infringe freedom of political communication and association.

The laws, introduced by the O’Farrell government in 2011, ban donations from anyone other than individuals on the electoral roll and restrict what individual unions affiliated to a political party can spend on campaigns.

They also prohibit the payment of affiliation fees such as those paid by unions to Labor and restrict the ability of Unions NSW and business or environment groups from receiving money from member organisations to run political advertising.

In documents to be lodged on Monday, lawyers for Unions NSW and five trade unions – including two not affiliated with the ALP – argue the legislation ”interferes with the right of free communication in relation to political matters”. The secretary of Unions NSW, Mark Lennon, said if the laws were allowed to stand they would ”muzzle debate and silence the voice of working people”.

”This case transcends the interests of any one political party,” Mr Lennon said. ”At its heart, our High Court action is about the right of working people to ensure their collective voice is heard.”

The unions have also announced an all out war to keep the Coalition from winning in the election later this year.

Dodgy ratbags abound in Australia and the ALP are never short of potential candidates. This guy though seems to be getting his appearance before the Corruption Commission over and done with early:

A former manager at a major Sydney university could face charges after the Independent Commission Against Corruption found he received more than $200,000 in money and gifts from contractors.

In a report handed down on Wednesday, the commission found Nabil Faysal, a former manager at the University of Technology, engaged in corrupt conduct by requesting and receiving money, travel and gifts from a number of UTS contractors between 2006 and 2012.

Mr Faysal, who has since been sacked by the university, had claimed that a raft of payments he received from various contractors were paid to cover professional services he provided privately to them via his own company.

But the commission heard evidence from several of the contractors that Mr Faysal made more than 20 requests for money or travel and had not provided any services in return.

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Things are getting tough for the dodgy Labor ratbags in NSW, even their own party is over them:

Former Labor ministers Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald are set to be expelled from the party within days after a call by NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson following evidence at the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Mr Robertson wrote to NSW Labor Party general secretary Sam Dastyari on Wednesday.

”I write to request that you expel Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald from the Labor Party immediately on the basis that they have brought the party into disrepute,” he wrote.

”Brought the party into disrepute”: Ian Macdonald.

”These are extraordinary circumstances and I request you take action as soon as practicable.”

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The dodgy ALP ratbags at the centre of corruption proceedings in NSW will get a bit of a reprieve as public submissions have finished.

After more than three months of sensational evidence, the NSW anti-corruption watchdog has finished hearing from witnesses in its inquiry into allegedly tainted coalfields deals involving senior NSW Labor figures.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has been probing whether then mines minister Ian Macdonald rigged a 2008 tender process for a coal exploration licence in the NSW upper Hunter and how former Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid may have gained.

It’s claimed Mr Macdonald did the bidding of Obeid family members, who allegedly hid their involvement in the area through complex trust and company structures.

The Obeids stood to make up to $100 million from mining deals in the area from corruption at a level not seen since the days of the Rum Corps, the inquiry was told.

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Looks like this ratbag’s mental health break didn’t work:

It was Saturday morning and classical music was floating through solicitor John Gerathy’s multimillion-dollar waterfront apartment in Woolloomooloo. ”You have got me at an inopportune moment,” said Gerathy when he picked up the phone. ”I have got some guests here at home. They’ve come to visit,” he said.

Only last month, the Herald revealed that Gerathy, 67, had checked himself into a mental health facility, telling corruption investigators he was too ill to give evidence.

However, the Independent Commission Against Corruption, which has all but finished inquiries in Operation Jasper, will be sitting this week to hear two vital witnesses who have previously been unavailable: Gerathy and the Obeids’ accountant, Sid Sassine, who has been overseas.

Gerathy declined to discuss the nature of his illness. When asked if he had recovered, he replied: ”I am not sure about that.” Would he be giving evidence on Tuesday? ”Oh, well, I, ah, I hope so,” he said.  Read more »

Perhaps the most fun in politics right now is watching the dodgy ALP ratbags get their beans in Australia at the moment:

THE words packed all the power of a hunting rifle in the crowded hearing room high above Sydney’s streets.

”Look, Mr Macdonald, what I really want to put to you is that in fact you’re a crook.”

The accusation, from the lips of counsel assisting the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), Geoffrey Watson, SC, seemed to suck all the air out of the commission’s gallery.

Ian Macdonald, the fellow being accused of skulduggery, was a cabinet minister in the New South Wales Parliament until 2010, when, having gained the sobriquet Sir Lunchalot, he resigned after a spot of bother concerning misuse of public funds.

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