The Guardian 5 March, 2008
Corruption allegations erupting
Peter Mac
Big fleas have little fleas
Upon their backs to bite ’em,
Little fleas have lesser fleas,
and so ad infinitum.
As The Guardian goes to press this week the Iemma NSW government is expected to sack the Wollongong Council and appoint an administrator. But Wollongong Residents Against Corruption, a local people’s organisation has demanded that the administrator be appointed for only a limited time and have the main task of calling an election for a new Council. The Local Government and Shires Association of NSW has made a similar call saying that "Wollongong residents have a right to elect a council at this year’s local government elections regardless of whether the current council is sacked.
"Councillors represent the interests of their community and understand local needs and issues", says the Association’s Media Release.
But the State government, which many believe is also up to its neck in corrupt practices, wants all power for itself and is prepared to destroy the whole system of local government and take away the democratic rights of the people to achieve its objectives.
Autocratic and authoritarian
In a display of his autocratic and authoritarian character NSW Premier Morris Iemma has warned journalists that they will face legal action if they write or broadcast anything which he considers to be defamatory, concerning the current court hearings into allegations by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) of bribery and corruption in Wollongong council. That’s almost certain to ensure that the media gives the most vigorous and critical coverage to the news that’s emerging about these matters.
The hearings have revealed payments by major property developers to Wollongong Council officers who were involved with their development applications. It has also shed a very revealing light on the huge contributions made to both major political parties by developers and other major business interests.
NSW Planning Minister Frank Sartor has already been accused of having personally called at least one major developer to see that they had tickets to an ALP fund-raising dinner, at a cost of thousands of dollars.
The Minister for Ports and Waterways, Joe Tripodi, is also under investigation over the appointment of his long time friend and political ally, Joe Sciomoni, to a top job in Tripodi’s department. (As The Guardian goes to press it is reported that Tripodi has been cleared of corruption by the ICAC)
Sartor in the spotlight
The hearings have also revealed that Frank Sartor intervened to declare a development in Burwood in western Sydney, a project of state significance. Such projects may be approved by the Minister himself.
Sartor subsequently appointed an independent planning panel to assess all similar applications in Burwood, This initiative removes the local council from the approval process, and prevents the council from considering and possibly rejecting the development application.
He also approved the rezoning of a block of land in Queanbeyan, a move which would facilitate the approval of an application to construct more than 4,500 homes directly under the Canberra airport flight path. The site is owned by a developer who has contributed $155,400 to the ALP since 2002, as well as $54,000 to the Liberals and $20,250 to the National Party.
Last week Sartor dismissed allegations that he had acted improperly in any of these matters. He claimed that he had no idea about the developer’s contributions to the party, and declared that it had not influenced his decision to intervene, and that everyone should leave him alone and just let him "get on with the job".
Parasites and parasites
One sensational aspect of the case is the way in which one layer of allegedly corrupt individuals feeds on another. ICAC has now carried out an investigation into the behaviour of two Wollongong men, who have been accused of impersonating ICAC officers in order to fraudulently offer certain local developers immunity from prosecution if they handed over very large sums of money.
These two men now face prosecution over the allegations. ICAC has produced tape recordings, of one of them discussing with a developer the silencing of a council employee who was until recently his lover. All is fair in love and development, it would seem.
A major issue arising from the hearing is the practice of accepting donations from individuals or firms who are likely to benefit from a decision in their favour, if the responsible minister intervenes and assumes the responsibility for making a decision to approve the development application.
Iemma has now declared that his government will change the law relating to contributions to political parties, so that donations will have to be declared twice yearly. Liberal leader Barry O’Farrell has claimed that all donations should be capped at $5000, which has in turn led Iemma to draw attention to the often generous contributions made to the Liberal Party.
The Communist Party and the Greens, on the other hand, continue to oppose developers making contributions to political parties at all. This is doubtless the best policy. Furthermore, the CPA says that donations from any source should be capped at not more than $500.
The corruption in Wollongong is just the latest exposure of corrupt practices in Australia .The critical issue is whether the political economic system under which Australia is currently governed is, by its very nature, likely to result in the sort of corrupt behaviour that is alleged to have occurred in Wollongong.