New South Wales will shortly have its fifth Premier in seven years following the bombshell resignation of Barry O’Farrell, who was today embarrassed by the emergence of a card in which he thanked Australian Water Holdings boss Nick Di Girolamo for a $3000 bottle of wine he yesterday denied having received. O’Farrell is the state’s second Liberal Premier to have been brought down by the exertions of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, Nick Greiner having fallen foul of an adverse ruling in 1992 involving a job offer to Liberal-turned-independent MP Terry Metherell. It now falls to the Liberal Party to find a replacement: without being too aware of the daily machinations of New South Wales politics, my immediate presumption was that the Treasurer, Mike Baird, would be the front-runner. However, I am seeing Gladys Berejiklian, Andrew Constance, Brad Hazzard and Jillian Skinner mentioned around the place.
K17
I am sure there is corruption in the State of vic
[
Everyone can criticise NSW all they like. But don’t tell me exactly the same isn’t happening in other states. It’s just that in NSW it’s dragged out into the open.
]
I’m a Victorian, but I’ve always assumed the same sort of stuff goes on here. Maybe we are just better at covering it up!
silentmajority
Abbott will give up the “precious” without a fignt
There’s not much going on here. Barry poorly advised himself (because he couldn’t consult anyone else) and tripped over his squeaky clean brand.
KEVIN-ONE-SEVEN@248
The wheel will turn and deb will be ‘reminded’ when it does 🙂
MTBW
🙁
I appreciate that NSW has a Governor and others who could meet the royals but as we know Tone’s daughters were keen to greet Harry maybe they would wish to greet little George.
[Scott @scottsues 3h
QLD politicians know you don’t send a thank you note for a gift of wine; you send a snapchat of your dick in it. #ICAC]
😆
Sure this sort of thing happens and i know of several cases of public sector fraud which have been taken to court.
Stamps are popular for some reason.
@ruawake/256
So true, though.
While on the topic of NSW corruption, have many people on this blog ever read Cyril Pearl’s wild men of sydney. Fantastic read, if you can lay your hands on it.
SMC:
[I’m a Victorian, but I’ve always assumed the same sort of stuff goes on here. Maybe we are just better at covering it up!]
The Obeid dynasty is the eye of the storm. The other casualties (including now the Premier of the State!) were swept up as ICAC kept on digging.
I am feeling there must be a lot more to this than a bottle of Grange. If this happens to O’Farrell – what is the outcome for Sinodinos and $20m?
Paul Sheehan attempting to polish a turd over at Fairfax.
When John Cair was Premier of Victoria he made a point of no gifts of any kind..and insisted that his staff sent out his personal mail with stamps he bought at the P>O…also later he sacked a Governor who took a free trip to the USA with a airline opening a new service
that’s integrity !!
What is the threshold for declaring gifts in NSW?
I can’t think of a Obied type person in Victorian politics, as i wrote earlier fraud is mostly individual and is taken to court.
Victoria has surly in its history had a few suspect types after all we are the state that had a premier that was bent by name and bent by nature.
That whole late 1800s and early 1900s was full of interesting types.
K17:
[There’s not much going on here. Barry poorly advised himself (because he couldn’t consult anyone else) and tripped over his squeaky clean brand.]
There may have been more going on. It depends how close the now-former Premier was with Nick Di G. BOF’s resignation may be to head this off at the pass.
Or BOF just has an appalling memory, and thought the best approach was outright denial.
mexicanb:
[I can’t think of a Obied type person in Victorian politics, as i wrote earlier fraud is mostly individual and is taken to court.]
Lucky Victoria! But the only reason that BOF has fallen on his sword is because of an investigation that was targeting someone else (the Obeids). The ripple effect has brought down the State Premier!
deblonay@262
There is an old scottish expression that goes wtte –
“The more he spoke of his integrity – the more we check countered the family silver”
[ Footy, coffee and corruption: the Victorian disease
Victoria Police has found members engaged in misconduct of their own volition (disbanding units like the Drug Squad and Armed Offenders Squad for problems ranging from ill discipline to corruption including drug trafficking). More recently, they have admitted large-scale leaks and discovered efforts to infiltrate their ranks and corrupt their officers.
And the Victorian government has not been immune from accusations of improper behaviour, either, as the Baillieu/Napthine Coalition administration has discovered on multiple occasions (see events involving MP Geoff Shaw, or Tristan Weston and Tony Nutt).
To make matters worse, the legislative architecture for investigating corruption in Victoria has serious shortcomings. Aspects of it may even be unconstitutional.
Does Victoria have the institutional wherewithal not just to inspect allegations of minor misconduct, but also to conduct investigations of more grand accusations, such as those levelled at former NSW Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid?
Unanswered questions about the state’s integrity system, along with problems reiterated by the Victorian Ombudsman, give genuine cause for concern. ]
http://theconversation.com/footy-coffee-and-corruption-the-victorian-disease-14138
Dave
ICAC don’t have a charging function.
In 2012 Abbott accusing Gillard of “acting criminally” and now he sooks over questions about BOF’s possible corruption – what a fake he is…
New South Wales does seem to have a certain flair for this type of thing though. It seems to produce a lot of “colorful characters” shall we say.
kakuru
Is it luck or is it a case that it hasn’t been caught, there been many individual cases but i can’t recall a range of cases connected to the one person as is the case in NSW.
“@bkjabour: One NSW Lib said he was astounded how damaging the wine is considering Di Girolamo has not actually been convicted or charged w’ anything”
Sounds like one Lib MP should not be in politics
I just watched the press conference where Abbott demanded a withdrawal of the comment regarding BOF.
Does he not remember saying this about JG?….
[She was party to the creation of a slush fund.. This whole exercise was a sham to facilitate a fraud, and the Prime Minister’s involvement in it was this; she gave the advice, she made the representations that enabled the association to be incorporated that facilitated the fraud… She must have known that serious wrongdoings had taken place, that union money had been stolen…..unethical conduct and possibly unlawful behaviour]
Patrick
I was saying it was sneaky of Girolamo to hold back that he had the singed thank you note. Under oath, he said he thought he was thanked with a phone call but he obviously knew different all along.
mb:
[Is it luck or is it a case that it hasn’t been caught, there been many individual cases but i can’t recall a range of cases connected to the one person as is the case in NSW.]
IMHO as ICAC threw the net ever wider, more people were caught up. BOF resigned because he was found to have lied before ICAC, after an embarrassing revelation. He wasn’t the subject of the investigation.
[ABC Fact Check @ABCFactCheck 1m
12 NSW premiers gone in 40 years, only 4 defeated at an election.]
I wonder how other States compare?
The Age has comment on Victoria
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/an-anticorruption-body-with-real-powers-thats-so-sydney-20140416-zqvjr.html
[[In 2012 Abbott accusing Gillard of “acting criminally” and now he sooks over questions about BOF’s possible corruption – what a fake he is…]
And George Brandis in the Senate said “There is a criminal in the Lodge”.
Tony Wright writes on this very issue.
[
Sydney has its ICAC, an acronym that strikes fear into the merest miscreant on a public payroll or a nice little earner of the brown paper bag kind.
Melbourne has its IBAC, which sounds about right, nice and soft, assuming you’ve ever heard of it. In a year, the $170 million Independent Broadbased Anti-Corruption Commission has completed 10 investigations, from which precisely one charge has been laid, itself so earth-shattering it somehow missed the front pages.
Could it be possible Melbourne has an inferior breed of corruption than flash Sydney?
More likely, Victoria has craftier legislators.
]
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/an-anticorruption-body-with-real-powers-thats-so-sydney-20140416-zqvjr.html#ixzz2z1bPITEw
[I was saying it was sneaky of Girolamo to hold back that he had the singed thank you note. Under oath, he said he thought he was thanked with a phone call but he obviously knew different all along.]
ICAC may have asked Nick Di G yesterday if he had any documentation relating to the wine gift. NDG could not hide the note due to the coercive powers of ICAC.
Until then he may have “unintentionally” misplaced it.
[ 12 NSW premiers gone in 40 years, only 4 defeated at an election.
I wonder how other States compare?]
You mean, like Haiti?
Mb
[Its possible that Barry and wife are so use to expensive things that they had reached that stage where the cost of things didn’t matter.
When you earn good money and i mean seriously good money what sounds expensive to most of us becomes just another item.]
But BOF even said he’d remember a $3K bottle of Grange. I know plenty of people who earn more than BOF and they would all remember it.
shellbell@268
Ta Shellbell.
So Public Prosecutor would decide to pursue any perjury charge or not ?
Dio
Yes i find it hard to believe he forgot the gift but i was referring more to the gift’s price tag.
Kevin
[Everyone can criticise NSW all they like. But don’t tell me exactly the same isn’t happening in other states. It’s just that in NSW it’s dragged out into the open.]
I’m sure it’s rife in all the convict states.
Mike Rann said we didn’t have corruption like in the convict states so we didn’t need an ICAC.
[Until then he may have “unintentionally” misplaced it.]
To be fair on Nick, I imagine he had quite a few shoeboxes of notes, receipts and bills to sort through before he found it 😉
ruawake@280
There is an article ‘somewhere’ on SMH. ICAC was contacted this morning by Girolamo’s lawyer with the info. They then got the note and the envelope handed to them a bit after that.
ICAC then rang BOF and told him what they had been handed etc.
It all fell over shortly after.
Labor & lobbyists ..
Labor should go on front foot & accept ICAC recommendations on lobbyists. Basically clean them out
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/icac-lobbies-barry-ofarrell-urging-more-transparency-over-lobbying-20140410-zqt7c.html?rand=1397622238701
Labor should then challenge Abbott to do the same, he can’t do that as there won’t be anyone left to run the ‘ open for business shop”
Look no further than the ex Polly spivs that Packer has hired ( labor & Liberal)… the Askin days are still here. Then there is the Australian a Hotels Association & it’s spivs … Before ICAC after Easter
AHA had hold over BOF & binge drinking at Kings X
O’Farrell stated that if he had received a bottle of Grange he would have remembered it.
It is now proven he received one. (the courier docket was for 20th not 22nd as reported yesterday) That he called to say thank you and then wrote a thank you note.
So he forgot to declare a bottle of wine, big deal. It would have been forgotten about over Easter.
He lied on purpose, the question is why? It still doesn’t add up.
[ICAC don’t have a charging function.]
But they surely can recommend charges?
Aren’t they akin to a coroner (in more ways than one…)?
Diogenes@282
He is from a fair modest background anyway.
An Army brat, dad a Sergent-Major. BOF went to Uni in Darwin.
More like a Labor background really – no expensive private schools or the like etc.
PB
ICAC is a standing Royal Commission.
Who would hang on to a thank you note for two years?
[ICAC then rang BOF and told him what they had been handed etc.
It all fell over shortly after.]
… because Barry saw it as a veiled threat?
Nick dG: “Barry, mate, you know how fastidious I am about keeping receipts…”
Barry: *gulp*
ruawake – I think that in NSW there is a different perspective on these sorts of things. The labor govt immolated over corruption. Barry claimed he was squeaky clean. Getting $3000 bottles of wine and not declaring them (and being associated too closely with the notorious Nicky G) would have put a BIG hole in his image. Certainly would have opened him up to a challenge. In retrospect, he should have taken the blow and tried to move on. Big mistake.
@latikambourke: A fine @JacquelineMaley column recapping the unwinding of PM Abbott’s ‘big day’ http://t.co/c2AGDHOJZf
How would Credlin & Tony feel,watching the lay down misere of wall to wall Liberal governments disappear before their eyes ( Tassy too small to count for anything)
Diogenes@293
Might have just been chucked in a file or a drawer etc.