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.
Whose “forgetfulness” is the worse? Barry’s or Arfur”s?
What do you reckon, Tone?
dave:
I always thought that was a cheap shot by BOF. Was that just a one-time thing for KK, or has BOF wound up snookered by his own nastiness?
MTBW
[
mex
They are hiding under their beds!]
No way Jose. Every good Lib knows that is where all the Reds are. They’ll be in their closets, bomb shelters or under their doonas
Mex
Maybe they r busy at HQ researching and formulating their spin….. To be tested on us soon I suggest.
Or helping lib MPs back check their declarations?
Poroti
But hiding anyway!
https://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/a/22678739/tony-abbotts-day-ruined-by-wine/ Hope the News Journo doesn’t get the sack for this
Wonder how many ministers were queued up to register gifts today???
Robb cannot be far away from a media outlet complaining about BOF’s *treatment* eg no thank you notes written in your own handwriting acceptable?
[ ICAC: rules of evidence need a rethink, says trade minister
Andrew Robb says states should reassess processes after Arthur Sinodinos was forced to stand down as assistant treasurer
…States should reassess the rules of evidence used by bodies such as the independent commission against corruption in New South Wales, a senior federal minister has suggested, after senator Arthur Sinodinos was forced to stand aside as assistant treasurer because of Icac revelations
…The trade minister, Andrew Robb, suggested on Sunday the rules of evidence at such inquiries needed rethinking.]
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/23/icac-rules-of-evidence-need-a-rethink-says-trade-minister
Will Abbott be called to appear before the ICAC?
I imagine something like Greiner’s attempts to both (Abbott-style) commend BO’F’s integrity honour yada yada yada (for bowing to the inevitable) and attacking the ALP for never having had someone fall on their sword over this kind of thing (even if it was inevitable).
So yeah, some combination of trying to make BO’F (and Arfur) and the libs out to be heroic while trying to turn it into an attack on the ALP.
It’s all damage mitigation. I guess we’ll see how effective it is.
The Libs now have the same problem that the ALP did in 2012/2013 – ICAC is still ploughing on and the Libs have a lot more dirt potentially to come out with ‘Operation Spicer’, so going into full damage control and counterattack mode now before the worst is out may not be a viable strategy.
Yeah right!
Your own party colleagues get caught out and all of a sudden the problem is ICAC.
Gotta laugh at these clowns!
confessions@400
‘Fess –
I think he cut back on most of the stuff she would have got – the same I think will now apply to him.
I didn’t hear that it applied to others but it might have.
I agree Dee. It was all well and good when Labor folk were being hauled before ICAC. Now that their own are in the dock, it’s time to change the goal posts.
I guess BoF isn’t the full bottle
Dee@405
Indeed.
The new Tassy tory ministers minding their P’s and Q’s as well no doubt.
[366
dave
Didn’t Billy Joel have a (Vietnam era) song with words which went along the lines –
“…and We will all go down together” ]
Don’t know about that song, but Tom Lehrer did a beauty about nuclear armageddon.
We Will All Go Together When We Go.
Having said that, I don’t think O’Farrell’s “crime” warranted resignation.
Then again, I think Brian Burke was hard done by. These state corruption commissions are loose cannons.
BREAKING: Barry O’Farrell and Arfur are undercover Labor members sent to discredit the Liberals.
[I think he cut back on most of the stuff she would have got – the same I think will now apply to him.]
I hope so. You can’t just be a douche and not expect blowback.
Smokey for NSW Premier, Andrew Constance.
Baird too left, (plus he missed a billion bucks in his 1st budget) Gladys too O’Farrell.
If Andrew Robb is willing to go as far as changing the goal posts to suit liberals agenda, doesn’t that alone suggest that there are people higher than NSW Premier in the firing line?
‘‘We need to have decent standards in this country, we need to have decent standards from the media, if I may say so, as well as decent standards from politicians. I’ve asked for questions on Badgerys Creek, we will get onto the other subject,’’ he said.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/incensed-by-corruption-question-tony-abbott-tells-media-to-lift-standards-20140416-zqvkp.html#ixzz2z2DMd2gt
Where were these standards Abbott now demands during the years of Labor Govt?
Fcuking hypocrite
[Peter van Onselen @vanOnselenP 1h
Frankly it is pretty simple IMO, NSW Liberal MPs should refuse to accept @barryofarrell’s resignation as their leader. Mistake to resign.]
[Peter Phelps MLC @PeterPhelpsMLC 39m
@vanOnselenP It is theoretically possible for him to resign, announce his intention to stand and be re-elected as Leader by the Party Room.]
And wouldn’t that be high farce?
zoidlord:
[If Andrew Robb is willing to go as far as changing the goal posts to suit liberals agenda, doesn’t that alone suggest that there are people higher than NSW Premier in the firing line?]
Nah. It just means that Libs have a glass jaw. They can dish it out, but….
Lenore Taylor –
[ Barry O’Farrell’s resignation is not an act of unprecedented moral heroism
The Eric Idle award for looking on the bright side of life must go to the prime minister who, having now lost a premier as well as a minister owing to Icac’s investigations, chose to interpret the event as evidence Barry O’Farrell was acting with honour and integrity never before seen in Australian public life.
It’s true the premier has a reputation for integrity. But it is puzzling that – even in the heady days after a historic election win – O’Farrell could receive a $3,000 bottle of wine and pen a thank you note to the sender, and possibly call to say thanks as well, without recalling any of it.
It’s also strange that even at the time, when he clearly remembered it because he concedes he wrote the note, that he neglected to include it in his register of pecuniary interests.
…it probably makes things cleaner and easier for the Liberal party – but it’s not really an act of unprecedented moral heroism.
(Nor is expensive plonk the most unlikely thing to bring down an Australian politician. Remember the federal Liberal minister Michael MacKellar who resigned because he falsely declared to customs that a colour TV was black and white in 1982, or Labor’s Mick Young who had to stand down for failing to declare a Paddington bear in 1984.) ]
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/16/barry-ofarrell-resignation-not-unprecedented-moral-heroism
confessions@421
Bring.it.On!
[If Andrew Robb is willing to go as far as changing the goal posts to suit liberals agenda, doesn’t that alone suggest that there are people higher than NSW Premier in the firing line? ]
1. State and federal Libs are being inexorably sucked into the raging vortex of ICAC corruption investigations in NSW, with two of their most senior NSW related figures in serious trouble, and the increasing prospect of more casualties to come.
2. Tony Abbott is a creature of the NSW Lib machine.
3. Tony Abbott and his PR flacks are out desperately, even aggressively, defending the NSW Libs.
Draw your own conclusions.
[Peter van Onselen @vanOnselenP 1h
Frankly it is pretty simple IMO, NSW Liberal MPs should refuse to accept @barryofarrell’s resignation as their leader. Mistake to resign. ]
What a DH
[But it is puzzling that – even in the heady days after a historic election win – O’Farrell could receive a $3,000 bottle of wine and pen a thank you note to the sender, and possibly call to say thanks as well, without recalling any of it.
It’s also strange that even at the time, when he clearly remembered it because he concedes he wrote the note, that he neglected to include it in his register of pecuniary interests.]
Glad to see Taylor isn’t missing anything. Why was the wine omitted from being declared? That to me is a question worth pursuing.
Decontextualised, BOF’s conduct is hard to fathom. Doubtless, in a parallel universe where BOF attending an ethics exam was given the scenario obtaining when the bottle of Grange arrives, BOF would have given an acceptable answer.
[Dear Mr Di Girolamo,
Let me take the trouble to thank you for this generous gift. Regrettably, it would be improper for my wife and I to accept this gift personally, so with your permission I propose to donate the gift to the Office of State Revenue with appropriate notation. Doubtless, your gift was intended to benefit the state and I can think of no better way to serve that aspiration. If I don’t hear from you by the end of the week, I’ll assume you agree to this course.
Best Wishes … ]
BOF was a party secretary and he more than most would have known the right thing to do. Moreover, he had just won a punishing victory largely on the basis that the last regime was seen as entirely corrupt. Political acumen in addition to ethics, would have demanded such a course.
Yet neither his acumen nor his ethics proved adequate to shield him from doing the wrong thing. It has long been my view that the processes by which we select politicians and then propel them to office is corrosive both of their ethics and their ability to see themselves and their circumstances as others might see them. While it’s not impossible for people to rise through the ranks and make the ministry of a state or Federal parliament without owing multiple favours to multiple people of dubious integrity, the system tends very strongly to reconfigure the principled into horse-traders devoid of principle and spit out all those it can’t digest. Attend enough boring meetings, smile convincingly often enough at people whom you shouldn’t touch with a bargepole, tell enough half-truths, and promise repeatedly in bad faith, and pretty soon distinguishing between right and wrong becomes a very tricky thing.
It’s very clear that this regime, like all others before it, considers its first duty to be the service of the propertied. Its planning system, for example is written with this in mind, and was about to be revised to make it even less accountable than it already is. The man in charge of that, Brad Hazzard, is a contender for the big chair. We aren’t just talking casinos and apartment blocks here. We’re talking mines and CSG — stuff that could ruin whole communities for generations.
It seems to me that one of the qualifications for office in a capitalist democracy is precisely a flexible view about ethics. The ideal politician is not one who is ethical, but one who is clever enough to serve the interests of the privileged (and ideally, the dominant fractions of that group) without getting caught. How do you prove that? By schmoozing effectively with scummy chancers.
Anyone who can’t do that, because they’re squeamish, can please him or herself. They aren’t getting near managing the affairs of the wealthy. They simply aren’t fit.
That’s why BOF acted as he did, IMO. Ultimately, like Greiner and Thomson and Williamson before him his paradigm ran its course.
[Bring.it.On!]
I know. Way to bring the circus to the partyroom.
I get that moderate Liberals are in a state of shock after today’s events – BOF was a bit of a poster boy for them, and they were looking forward to him hanging around for a couple of terms.
But PvO as a commentator should know better than to let emotion cloud his thoughts.
[Boerwar
Posted Wednesday, April 16, 2014 at 5:33 pm | PERMALINK
So, did or did not Abbott meet Girolamo?]
Mark Riley (at the end of a 20 minute O’Farrell item on Ch7 Sydney) said Abbott had changed his words. On 28 Mar he sent a statement to the Senate saying they had never met. Today Abbott said he didn’t remember meeting.
Riley also said “senior Liberals” would not want Sinodinos back after the O’Farrell incident.
Posted by The Finns at Guardian
thefinnigans1
16 April 2014 7:38am
Recommend 10
Mike Baird.
He too is in invovled in AWH
http://www.smh.com.au/national/libs-give-leading-fundraiser-water-board-role-20130301-2fbpi.html
On Friday the Treasurer, Mike Baird, who is a shareholding minister for State Water, declined to say whether Mr di Girolamo’s appointment – for three years at $34,300 a year – was assessed by an independent panel under rules announced by him in September 2011.
R
You got it dave. I used to have some respect for PvO but that comment is absurd both ethically and politically.
[Why was the wine omitted from being declared? That to me is a question worth pursuing.]
Perhaps he should have declared a gift of grapes (fermented).
Just Me
Add
4) Tones, self confessed “Grog monster”, is like his “dad” Howie partial to a drop of a fine red.
[Having said that, I don’t think O’Farrell’s “crime” warranted resignation.
]
Needing to tell the truth under oath not being at all important.
Just Me
Bugger. Forgot to add that perhaps Tones has some fine Grange “Thank You ” notes out there ?
[Riley also said “senior Liberals” would not want Sinodinos back after the O’Farrell incident.]
I wondered earlier where all this left Sinodinos. If he’s not returning to the front bench (as was the general consensus when I originally asked), then will we see him leave parliament altogether?
Anne Davies – SMH
[ The problem for Barry O’Farrell is that this is not the first time he’s forgotten a thing or two about Nick Di Girolamo, the chief executive of Australian Water Holdings whose affairs are now being investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
And with each memory lapse a little more paint comes off the Premier, who has prided himself on running a shiny new style of government, entirely different from the tawdry and corrupt Labor that NSW endured for 16 years.
The obfuscation began early on, when Mr O’Farrell gave the impression that he barely knew Nick Di Girolamo, a big wheel in the Liberal Party, a major fund-raiser and also head of Australian Water Holdings (AWH).
Last year as the ICAC prepared to launch an inquiry, Mr O’Farrell told the Australian Financial Review he had attended only one meeting with Mr Di Girolamo on AWH, with then finance minister Greg Pearce, in May 2011.
The remark left the impression Mr O’Farrell barely knew Mr Di Girolamo. In fact, the Premier had attended three private fund-raising dinners before the election, been photographed with Mr Di Girolamo at an Italian function, attended West Tigers functions with him and it turns out accepted a $3000 bottle of Penfolds Grange.
Soon after the gift, Mr O’Farrell’s chief of staff recommended Mr Di Girolamo be appointed to the board of the government-owned Water Corp. He was also granted a meeting with the Premier and his finance minister, Greg Pearce, to discuss AWH’s contract with Sydney Water. Mr Pearce described the meeting as “cosy”.
Nine months later, AWH was awarded a 25-year contract worth $100 million. The awarding was done by Sydney Water, not cabinet.
…But the scandal over water contracts and wine is only part of the problem. A second inquiry into former Liberal resources minister Chris Hartcher and a slush fund operated by his former staff member Tim Koelma also promises to raise more questions about the influence of Mr Di Girolamo.
By March 2012, Mr Di Girolamo had become a lobbyist for Kores, which owns the highly controversial Wallarah 2 coal mine on the central coast. The project was denied approval by the former Labor government just before the March 2011 state election
]
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/not-the-first-time-barry-ofarrells-memory-has-failed-him-20140416-36rvl.html
Who paid for the wine, anyway? The taxpayer?
That article via the Finns shows NdG to be
A PROMINENT Liberal Party figure known for his fund-raising prowess, Nick di Girolamo, was appointed to a $100,000 position on the board of a state-owned corporation by the NSW government last year.
The appointment of Mr di Girolamo to the board of State Water Corporation in July came after the Coalition criticised the former Labor government’s appointment to the same board of the disgraced former Health Services Union boss Michael Williamson.
and…
Mr di Girolamo is a major shareholder in Australian Water Holdings, whose links to the former Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid were revealed by a Herald investigation last year.
It has also heard evidence the Obeid family had lent $3 million to Mr de Girolamo to buy shares in AWH, raising questions about the nature of their interest in the company, which has significant state contracts.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/libs-give-leading-fundraiser-water-board-role-20130301-2fbpi.html#ixzz2z2K5jD1p
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/libs-give-leading-fundraiser-water-board-role-20130301-2fbpi.html#ixzz2z2Jg9qOu
fess
Sinodinos could resign his Senate spot and BoF be selected to replace him. 😆
[ 4) Tones, self confessed “Grog monster”, is like his “dad” Howie partial to a drop of a fine red.]
One more point and we will have a slam-dunk case. 🙂
Personally, wine and beer don’t agree with me. But crack open a bottle of 15 yo Glenfiddich Solera in front of me, and I am yours to the very last drop.
A damn sight cheaper too, at only $110 a bottle.
Fran, problems of corruption, nepotism and the ruling clique generally serving interests other than that of the public interest is not isolated to capitalist democracies.
I wonder whether BoF knew that this particular bottle of Grange was worth $3000. Did Di Girolamo say in words to the effect ‘please accept this $3000 bottle of Grange’? People who know a little about Australian wine know that a bottle of Grange of recent vintage costs in the hundreds of dollars but do most people that receive a gift rush off to have it evaluated? It just seems irrational that Bof was so categoric in his reply to ICAC. I don’t subscribe, as yet, to the theories that he resigned to cover up greater sins.
[Bugger. Forgot to add that perhaps Tones has some fine Grange “Thank You ” notes out there ?]
Half a point. Current total: 4.5
Nearly there. 😀
confessions 438
I wondered earlier where all this left Sinodinos. If he’s not returning to the front bench (as was the general consensus when I originally asked), then will we see him leave parliament altogether?
Surely he wouldn’t leave? Sole source of income, at this point I would think.
JTI:
[Obeiditis, previously known as ‘The Labor Disease’, has jumped the political divide and has now infected the current NSW and federal governments. To continue with the epidemiological theme, Obeiditis is the political equivalent of the ebola virus, destroying the reputations of public figures at a cellular level.
Laughably some conservative commentators have posed the view that the ICAC exceeds its role and unfairly tarnishes the reputations of political figures for what amounts to momentary lapses of memory. Try as hard as I might I don’t recall the same outrage when ‘Toxic Eddie’ and Ian ‘Rictus’ MacDonald were marching back and forth from the ICAC.]
…
[Obeiditis is a fascinating disease. It is utterly virulent, malignant, even miasmic and can bring down the powerful, even those who are highly regarded in a single day. It plays no favourites but it seems the risk of infection is particularly acute for those involved in political donations, public-private partnerships and a bit of part-time coal mining. There is no cure available at present but those infected find bed rest with the curtains drawn and the phone off the hook provides temporary relief.
For the people of New South Wales, it’s a case of four premiers in seven years – Labor’s Morris Iemma, Nathan Rees and Kristina Keneally and now Liberal’s Barry O’Farrell. If it was an AFL or NRL club it would be derided as a basket case.
And people wonder why the Greens and the Palmer United Party are becoming a force in Australian politics.]
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/jacktheinsider/index.php/theaustralian/comments/obeiditis_the_toll_rises/
[Sinodinos could resign his Senate spot and BoF be selected to replace him. 😆 ]
Yes! Quick, somebody tweet this to PvO!!