Editorial:

The art of cover-up and lying

Full marks to the Ministers of the Carr NSW Labor Government for their 
ability to cover-up and prevaricate. In some circumstances it would be 
called lying and corruption.

First of all Eddie Obeid, Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries was caught 
out having failed to declare his interest in no less than 29 companies over 
a period of years. This totem pole of right-wing and opportunist politics 
had a lapse of memory. He just forgot to declare and, of course, it was not 
intentional. He eventually admitted that he had provided inaccurate 
pecuniary interest declarations for at least six years involving 16 
companies.

We hope, for Mr Obeid's own sake, that he did not forget to collect the 
dividends accruing from his shareholdings and fees from directorships.

Mr Obeid is reported to be pretty adept at the numbers game, recruiting 
members to the Labor Party when it is necessary to win a vote somewhere. 
It's called branch stacking. Now that last weekend's ALP conference has 
branded branch stacking as a no, no, it will be interesting to see how the 
power brokers manage to arrange things to their liking in the future.

Then came the exposure that a number of the top Ministers in the Carr 
Government (including Carr himself) were involved in the multi-million 
dollar Oasis project which had something to do with poker machines and 
other shady machinations.

This scandal also involved the disgraced officials of the Canterbury 
Bulldogs Rugby League Club and the Mayor of Liverpool, Mr George Paciullo.

On another front John Della Bosca, another right-wing head-kicker was 
caught out telling fibs about the losses he claims were suffered by 
WorkCover in NSW. Citing a projected (not actually incurred) deficit as the 
reason, Minister Della Bosca set about the task of cutting compensation 
payouts to injured workers.

Payments were capped and at a press conference last week, Mr Della Bosca 
resorted to a bit of juggling with figures. He claimed the (projected) 
deficit only increased by $46 million in the second half of last year when 
in fact the report said it increased by $250 million. He later recanted the 
$46 million figure (see page 4), claiming this little bit of prevarication 
was "not deliberate".

Regardless of who you believe, whether the Minister is hiding behind real 
or mythical figures, there is one thing that is certain — the aim of the 
whole exercise is to help out the private insurance companies and reduce 
the cost to employers of negligent behaviour in the workplace. Just wait 
until the state elections are over in March 2003, more cuts to workers' 
compensation will again be at the top of the agenda.

NSW's whiz kid Treasurer, Michael Egan has also had some explaining to do. 
The NSW Government's superannuation fund reported a loss of $2.25 billion 
on its investments last year, a mere $350 million more than the figure 
revealed by the Treasurer in Parliament.

It should be of very serious concern to all state government employees that 
unfunded superannuation liabilities now total $12.7 billion. This figure is 
the difference between the pensions and superannuation that government 
employees have accrued and the amount actually set aside by the Government 
to meet these obligations.

The State Labor Government, which is a firm believer in capitalism, has 
simply followed what all good capitalists do and that is put their money, 
or better still, other people's money, into the stock market casino. As a 
consequence the assets held by the State's Super Fund have fallen by almost 
$4 billion.

With the current huge decline in the value of shares worldwide it is very 
likely that millions more of workers' money will have gone down the drain.

All these losses have to come out of other tax revenue sooner or later, so 
the good people of NSW will pick up the tab for the incompetence and 
ignorant commitment of the Government to a rotten and corrupt system.

Capitalist governments around the world are faced with the fact that their 
beloved system is no longer working. It is sliding into deeper and deeper 
crisis. Governments have no answers and they cannot meet the needs of the 
people. That's why more and more people no longer trust the established 
politicians and are looking for alternatives.