Politics of New South Wales

The ongoing revelations in Australia as the ICAC investigations into dodgy unions and corrupt Labor officials are showing just how venal and corrupt they had become, with one Labor stooge trousering a lazy $100 million.

THE family of the Labor power broker Eddie Obeid received $30 million and stood to make a further $70 million using inside information on coal exploration licences provided by the disgraced former mining minister Ian Macdonald.

Not only is this ”the most important investigation ever undertaken” by the Independent Commission Against Corruption but ”it is corruption on a scale probably unexceeded since the days of the Rum Corps,” counsel assisting the inquiry, Geoffrey Watson, SC, said in his opening address on Monday.

Mr Obeid, the dominant factional player in the ALP, manipulated Mr Macdonald to do his bidding. This included rigging a public tender, demoting a senior official and even making changes to the state’s formal coal licence maps to ensure the scam would ”confer massive cascading profits upon Mr Obeid and his family”, the ICAC heard.

”In all, decisions taken or influenced by Ian Macdonald may have enabled Eddie Obeid and his family to acquire profits in the order of $100 million,” Mr Watson said. ”An important motive is money – a motive with a long pedigree.”

Forensic accountants have trawled through hundreds of accounts and traced thousands of payments through a complex web of trusts, shelf companies and nominee directors that the Obeids used to disguise their activities.

The Opposition Leader, John Robertson, last night suspended Mr Obeid from the Labor Party, describing allegations aired about him during the corruption hearing as ”shocking”.

”The gravity of the allegations that came out this morning at the ICAC in the opening statements are so shocking that I have moved to act immediately,” Mr Robertson said. ”I, like most people, can’t believe the magnitude and the seriousness of these allegations.”

Mr Macdonald’s decisions deprived the taxpayers of NSW of tens of millions of dollars in revenue, the inquiry heard.

Labor is really taking a pummelling in Australia as corruption case after corruption case is trotted out across the country.

This drip feeding of corruption stories affect Labor across the board….but it is what happens eventually when you get in bed with the unions:

Former New South Wales premier Morris Iemma will be the first witness to give evidence at what is expected to be one of the nation’s most explosive corruption inquiries.

On Monday Geoffrey Watson, counsel assisting the Independent Commission Against Corruption, will deliver the opening address for the second of three inquiries into serious allegations of corruption involving former Labor ministers.

Operation Jasper, which is expected to run for several months, will examine the circumstances surrounding a decision made in 2008 by the then mining minister Ian Macdonald to open a mining area in the Bylong Valley for coal exploration.

The commission will investigate whether that decision was influenced by former Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid .

The first witness, Mr Iemma, will start giving evidence at 10am on Tuesday. He will be followed by another former premier, Nathan Rees, who is currently the shadow police minister. Next on the list will be former planning minister Frank Sartor.

The evidence of the three senior ALP figures, who are assisting the corruption commission, has been the subject of much speculation. Just how frank the trio might be is causing some trepidation within Labor ranks.