Political corruption

The ALP in Australia is fast becoming a joke with one ratbag after the next being charged for corruption offences.

If we ever needed confirmation for the establishment of an Independent Commission Against Corruption we only need to look at what they are uncovering in NSW with unions, politicians and other bent ratbags.

Former top NSW bureaucrat Warwick Watkins has been charged over a land deal that involved former Labor minister Tony Kelly, who has also been recommended for prosecution.

The corruption watchdog announced on Wednesday that the former chief executive of the Land and Property Management Authority (LPMA) has been charged with four offences relating to the LPMA’s $12.2 million purchase in 2011 of a union-owned retreat in Sydney’s northern beaches.

“Mr Watkins is being prosecuted for two counts of using a false document … and two counts of attempting to mislead the commission,” the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said on its website.

He will appear in Downing Centre Local Court on July 2.

Read more »

Beppe Grillo, Italian comedian, activist and blogger. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Beppe Grillo is looking to exit Italy from the euro, and he isn’t taking kindly to some of the horse-trading going on:

He also insisted that his party would not take part in any “horse-trading”, describing the overtures from the Left as “the usual whorish way of doing politics.”

Ian Steadman, at Wired, meanwhile thinks that Grillo has become the world’s most powerful blogger.

A comedian on an anti-corruption crusade, his success (and his political movement) has been built on the back of his blog– the most popular in the country, and one of the most widely-read in the world.Grillo’s blog has long hosted names of politicians convicted for charges of corruption, and in posts the satirical comedian has railed against the corruptions problems in Italian politics. In 2007, he corralled his supporters into a one-off “V-Day Celebratio” where the “V” stood for vaffanculo – “fuck off”. Other campaigns targeted certain bills or vested interests, with the culmination being the launch of the Five Star Movement (M5S) in 2009, a populist bloc whose unifying characteristic isn’t so much what it’s for as what it’s against — the status quo. Its members organise online, it has an extreme direct democracy slant, and, judging from exit polls and seat projections, M5S looks likely to be the third-largest political bloc in the Italian parliament.

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What is it with dodgy socialist politicians?

Always looting expenses or dipping their hand in the till. This one is Austrian, and a member of the European Parliament, caught for suspect expenses claims totaling 1.3 million euros, including one item listed as “elephant”.

In a request to the European Parliament to waive Hans-Peter Martin’s immunity, the Vienna prosecutor’s office said it suspected the independent MEP of embezzling public funds and making money “illicitly for himself or a third party by fraudulent means”.  Read more »

Labor is being punished as day after day their utter corruption is being exposed in the media and the courts:

A WATER services company linked to the family of ALP kingpin Eddie Obeid gave shares worth as much as $3.75 million to the former treasurer Michael Costa three years after he stopped a public tender that threatened the company’s future.

The share package came with his appointment last year as chairman of the company, an appointment brokered by Mr Obeid and one of his sons.

A Herald investigation has also established that Mr Obeid lobbied his colleagues on behalf of the company, Australian Water Holdings, as it pushed for a billion-dollar privatisation of part of the state-owned Sydney Water Corporation.

The revelations come as an inquiry by the Independent Commission Against Corruption continues to unearth evidence to suggest the Obeids ran a vast but secret enterprise that capitalised on Mr Obeid’s political power.

The family’s multimillion-dollar interests in coal leases, harbour-front cafes and even a health services company were all furthered by Mr Obeid, who used his influence as head of the ALP’s dominant parliamentary faction to lobby ministers.

As a cabinet minister, Mr Costa was lobbied by Mr Obeid in relation to two of these ventures – and now he has confirmed that Mr Obeid also approached him in relation to Australian Water Holdings, a private water company.

The ALP is being torn apart daily by revelations from the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Australia is lucky to have such a body to uncover such misfeasance.

With my investigations into unions here, along with the Owl, I think there is certainly the possibility that a “disgraceful horde of cockroaches” are running the unions here as well

Consider the sordid details emerging in the Independent Commission Against Corruption of the alleged corruption entrenched in the NSW Labor government that ruled for 16 years. It exposes what appear to be a disgraceful horde of cockroaches abusing their power, enriching themselves, betraying the people and corroding the institutions of governance and public order.

Where was the Labor leadership when all this was going on? How many moments were missed as these creatures infested the system?

The ABC reporter Sabra Lane this week asked Bob Carr, premier for the first 10 of those 16 years and now Foreign Affairs Minister, “Are you ashamed by the revelations?”

Carr, who has not been implicated in any corrupt dealings, declined to comment on the ground that it was a matter before ICAC.

The Aussies are onto it. They view the media, unions and political parties as the most corrupt institutions in society, according to a recent poll.

AUSTRALIANS view the media, unions and political parties as the most corrupt institutions in society, according to a poll by the Australian National University.

But the public has strong confidence in the police and armed services – and is less likely to think individual politicians are corrupt. The poll of 2020 people was carried out between August 13 and September 9.

Despite the belief that corruption occurs, fewer than 1 per cent of respondents said they or a family member had personally experienced corruption in the past five years.

The poll found 43 per cent of people surveyed believed corruption in Australia had increased while 41 per cent believed it had remained the same. Only 7 per cent believed corruption had declined.

The poll revealed 71 per cent of respondents were satisfied with democracy in Australia, although this figure had dipped to its lowest level since 1998.

”Both the media and trade unions have registered consistently low levels of confidence throughout the nearly 30-year period of the surveys, rarely attracting the confidence of more than one in four citizens,” the report said.

But just over half of those surveyed believed ”almost none” or just ”a few” federal politicians were involved in corruption.

Corrupt Labour politician, Taito Phillip Field, better not contemplate moving to Russia…his bribes and corruption wouldn’t be tax deductible:

Russia’s Finance Ministry has told foreign officials that bribes paid while abroad are not tax deductible, according to reports.

“Expenses incurred while committing legal violations, including providing bribes or kickbacks, are not recognized for the purposes of tax assessment,” the Ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

Any official paying bribes will therefore have to pay the standard 20pc income tax, according to Russia’s Vedomosti newspaper.

The clarification is relevant for for Russian arms exporters and commodity companies that have assets in the Third World, the paper cited tax officials as saying.

Last year a survey conducted by anti-corruption group Transparency International revealed that companies from Russia and China are most likely to pay bribes when doing business abroad.

Russia joined the Anti-Bribery Convention in February and officially became the 39th signatory in April, according to the OECD’s website.

Taito Phillip Field, Labour’s convicted corrupt former MP has finally paid for his tiling:

Disgraced former MP Taito Phillip Field has been ordered to pay back just under $28,000 that he made from his crimes.

In 2009, Field was jailed after being found guilty of bribery and corruption and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

He had accepted labour from Thai people whom he helped with immigration matters and then tried to cover it up.

The Solicitor-General took him to court asking for the $58,000 he received from those crimes.

During the hearing in June this year, Field disputed those costs and described them as inflated.

In a High Court ruling released on Monday, Justice Hansen ordered Field to pay $27,480.

ᔥ Sydney Morning Herald

I have long advocated an Independent Commission Against Corruption. For many years it has been ably demonstrated that when it comes to investigating and prosecuting politicians the Police are rather squeamish. Not so in Australia…where yet more Labor politicians are under the cosh for corruption:

The explosive allegations of corruption against three former NSW Labor ministers is set to embroil the party for months with the corruption watchdog announcing its inquiry will begin on November 1 and run until at least April.

Last Friday the Independent Commission Against Corruption began serving summonses on witnesses to give evidence at the public inquiry.

In a media release issued today, the ICAC said it had been conducting three separate investigations “concerning corruption allegations” involving the former NSW Minister for Primary Industries and Mineral Resources, Ian Macdonald, former minister for mineral resources Eddie Obeid, and former minister for roads and commerce, Eric Roozendaal.

ᔥ No Right Turn

Malcolm Harbrow makes a very good point in highlighting Labour’s legislative amendement for cash in order to favour their big donors. He is right to describe Labour as unprincipled.

As everyone by now knows, Holly Walker’s Lobbying Disclosure Bill was unanimously sent to select committee by the House on Wednesday night. The bill has flaws, and this will be a chance to fix them and bring some regulation to this area. Meanwhile, Labour has already put some stakes in the ground, offering amendments which would limit the bill to commercial organisations and exclude NGOs and trade unions from its scope.

Quite apart from introducing loopholes you could drive a busload of lobbyists through, this also undermines the objectives of the bill. “National, patriotic, religious, philanthropic, charitable, scientific, artistic, social, professional, or sporting” NGOs – and unions – are lobbyists just like everybody else, and therefore their lobbying should be disclosed. Trying to exempt them simply makes it look like Labour thinks the rules shouldn’t apply to their mates. And that is neither principled nor fair.

I will be submitting on the bill specifically to oppose these proposed amendments. I suggest others who want proper transparency (rather than just transparency for people Labour doesn’t like) do likewise.

If National implemented such brazen changes to law to favour their donors, everyone would rightly be claiming corruption. When Labour does it to favour their big money donors then not a squeak is made.

Labour want transparency like I want cancer. They want Helen Kelly to continue to enjoy her access card to parliament but others to have to jump through hoops.

We need more transparency not less. I want to see Parliamentary Services opened up tot eh OIA as well, but that is a separate post. Dollars to a knob of goat poo though that Labour opposes that too…they don;t want the people looking at their little funding rorts with parliamentary offices now do they.