OT: Current Affairs and Politics

[the phantom menace]

Missed this one one Monday - ICAC's moved to charges against one of the pretty power couple... wonder what will tomorrow bring for the other?

Gladys Berejiklian's former partner Daryl Maguire faces fresh charge of misleading evidence

The former Wagga Wagga MP will face court over evidence he gave to ICAC in 2018, where he denied seeking payment for brokering a property deal.

www.abc.net.au

 

[the phantom menace]

And this item suggests it was a stroke of luck of Gladys' new boyfriend not being available to represent her earlier "close personal friend" first that led to him representing her... and then really "representing" her , ifyaknowhatImeanheylads?

Sliding doors moment for Berejiklian, Maguire and Moses

Gladys Berejiklian’s ex-boyfriend Daryl Maguire almost retained barrister Arthur Moses before his first ICAC appearance five years ago. How different things could have been.

www.smh.com.au

 

[Gronk]

It’s Gladys day. Aka how a smart woman can be conned into doing dumb things for love. That’s how I see it, I don’t think it will be excessive “political“ pork barrelling, just her being manipulated by her dude. So he can get ahead.


Caught the fever, heard the tune
Thought I loved her, hung my heart on the moon
Started howling, made no sense
Thought my friends would rush to my defence
In the middle, in the middle, in the middle of a dream
I lost my shirt, I pawned my rings
I've done all the dumb things.

 

[Gronk]

Berejiklian 'breached public trust': Icac​

Icac has issued a statement explaining its decision.

It said it found that Berejiklian “engaged in serious corrupt conduct by breaching public trust in 2016 and 2017” over grants to the Australian Clay Target Association, based in Maguire’s electorate, without disclosing her personal relationship to Maguire.

It said she was “in a position of a conflict of interest between her public duty and her private interest, which could objectively have the potential to influence the performance of her public duty”.

The Commission also finds that in the same period, Ms Berejiklian partially exercised her official functions, in connection with funding promised to ACTA, influenced by the existence of her close personal relationship with Mr Maguire.
The Commission finds that Ms Berejiklian took a number of actions in relation to the ACTA proposal in circumstances where she knew that Mr Maguire was its principal proponent. These included, when she was treasurer, causing the proposal to be included on the agenda and supporting it at the ERC meeting on 14 December 2016 and when she was premier, causing steps to be taken by staff from her office to follow up on the progress of the ACTA proposal following the ERC ACTA decision. This included by communicating a request that the initial benefit–cost ratio (BCR) calculation of 0.88, by the Department of Premier and Cabinet Investment Appraisal Unit, be revisited. This ultimately led to it achieving a BCR satisfactory for Infrastructure NSW to approve its funding.

It also found that in 2018 Berejiklian had also partially exercised her official functions while “influenced by the existence of her close personal relationship with Mr Maguire, or by a desire on her part to maintain or advance that relationship”. That finding relates to a proposal to build a recital hall for the Royal Conservatorium of Music, which Maguire had lobbied for.

The Commission finds that she breached public trust by exercising her official functions in relation to decisions concerning the RCM proposal which she knew was advanced by Mr Maguire.
Her conduct regarding the RCM proposals included participating in decisions at ERC meetings in April 2018 about the RCM proposal Stage 1 to transfer land for the conservatorium, and in relation to the funding granted to the RCM, without declaring a conflict of interest as required by the NSW Ministerial Code of Conduct (“the ministerial code”). Ms Berejiklian also determined to make a $20–million funding reservation for Stage 2 of the proposal, and approved the letter arranging for that funding reservation to be made, without disclosing her close personal relationship with Mr Maguire. This meant the reserved funds, which entailed a significant sum of public monies, could not be spent on other projects until they were released.

Telco responds after Icac report on Gladys Berejiklian handed down – as it happened

This blog is now closed.

www.theguardian.com

 

[Gronk]

Storm in a tea cup compared to federal rorts. Hence why they fought tooth and nail against a Federal ICAC.

Merkins will no doubt say "pfft they all do it" as some sort of a defence, but an ICAC keeps the bastards honest. It might not have the widest of powers, can't actually prosecute and can only refer to the ODPP, but it's enough to scare a bunch. Love to know why O'Farrell resigned. Was it really over a bottle of wine ? Or was ICAC sniffing around ?

Let's face it, if Alan Jones is upset that ICAC is stopping rorts, then it's probably doing a good job.

ICAC, not Berejiklian ‘should be on the rack’

Sky News host Alan Jones says the ICAC is an outfit that thrives on the blood sport of destroying the reputations of high-profile people and it should be on the rack instead of Gladys Berejiklian.

www.skynews.com.au

 

[Gronk]

It’s Gladys day. Aka how a smart woman can be conned into doing dumb things for love. That’s how I see it, I don’t think it will be excessive “political“ pork barrelling, just her being manipulated by her dude. So he can get ahead.


Caught the fever, heard the tune
Thought I loved her, hung my heart on the moon
Started howling, made no sense
Thought my friends would rush to my defence
In the middle, in the middle, in the middle of a dream
I lost my shirt, I pawned my rings
I've done all the dumb things.

 

[the phantom menace]

ICAC findings pretty much as anticipated.

Gladys' resignation therefore was completely warranted - given Barry O'Farrell had to resign as Premier over a gifted bottle of wine.

But it's highly amusing watching reactions from a certain side of politics, pretending that these findings are a travesty, or that the judgement that Gladys 'engaged in serious corrupt conduct' was unexpected...

 

[the phantom menace]

I guess this banner is the modern/digital version of taking up the whole front page?

 

[the phantom menace]

More from https://www.smh.com.au/

 

[the phantom menace]

Meanwhile over at https://www.news.com.au/ they focus on the other angle...

 

[chiefy1]

ICAC findings pretty much as anticipated.

Gladys' resignation therefore was completely warranted - given Barry O'Farrell had to resign as Premier over a gifted bottle of wine.

But it's highly amusing watching reactions from a certain side of politics, pretending that these findings are a travesty, or that the judgement that Gladys 'engaged in serious corrupt conduct' was unexpected...

Most governments are corrupt, cmon man do you really think they're really there to serve the common person lol .

 

[Bandwagon]

Storm in a tea cup compared to federal rorts. Hence why they fought tooth and nail against a Federal ICAC.

Merkins will no doubt say "pfft they all do it" as some sort of a defence, but an ICAC keeps the bastards honest. It might not have the widest of powers, can't actually prosecute and can only refer to the ODPP, but it's enough to scare a bunch. Love to know why O'Farrell resigned. Was it really over a bottle of wine ? Or was ICAC sniffing around ?

Let's face it, if Alan Jones is upset that ICAC is stopping rorts, then it's probably doing a good job.

ICAC, not Berejiklian ‘should be on the rack’

Sky News host Alan Jones says the ICAC is an outfit that thrives on the blood sport of destroying the reputations of high-profile people and it should be on the rack instead of Gladys Berejiklian.

www.skynews.com.au

O'Farrell resigned because he perjured himself, not because of the gift, but because having received the gift he then lied about it under oath.

merkins be rewriting history saying he resigned over a bottle of wine.

 

[the phantom menace]

Would it be accurate to say he resigned over (not remembering) a gifted bottle of wine?

 

[strider]

so she was involved in pork barrelling (as does every govt) and she chose to turn a blind eye to the dodgy dude ..... didn't we already know this?

 

[Bandwagon]

Would it be accurate to say he resigned over (not remembering) a gifted bottle of wine?

Would it?

You'd have to believe that he failed to remember being gifted a bottle of Grange, then having been questioned over it his memory wasn't jogged.

This is after failing to declare the gift, as he was obliged to do.

So the story goes he got a fairly significant gift, forgot to declare it, then forgot he even got it in the first place, then when asked about it, failed to remember any of these events.

Yep, I'm buyin that shit. Sell me a bridge bloke!

 

[Bandwagon]

so she was involved in pork barrelling (as does every govt) and she chose to turn a blind eye to the dodgy dude ..... didn't we already know this?

ThEy aLl dO IT

 

[the phantom menace]

so she was involved in pork barrelling (as does every govt) and she chose to turn a blind eye to the dodgy dude ..... didn't we already know this?

Well yes, that was the evidence - she resigned and we suspected...

But the ICAC finding (finally) proves that she acted corruptly in those things.

 

[the phantom menace]

True love...

 

[crocodile]

so she was involved in pork barrelling (as does every govt) and she chose to turn a blind eye to the dodgy dude ..... didn't we already know this?

We already knew. Even fugglies need a shag every now and then.

 

[Gronk]

The libs talking points this morning are:

“but we already new it”,
“ICAC is a circus”
“Yes, but why did it take two years”

This merkin was just on the telly. Not interested in really talking about the issues of corruption, just whinging about ICAC.