The inquiry heard that former NSW minister for energy and resources Chris Hartcher was intimately involved in a sham business that received $400,000 in illegal undeclared donations, a corruption inquiry has heard.

And billionaire Harry Triguboff, who as a property developer was prohibited from making donations, used a Liberal party foundation to make donations to the NSW Liberals.

Counsel assisting the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption Geoffrey Watson SC told the inquiry that a group of Liberal party figures had “engaged in a sophisticated, well organised and systemic subversion of the electoral funding laws.”

The system was designed to wash donations from developers which were illegal after 2009.

The ICAC heard that Terrigal MP Mr Hartcher also spent holidays on the yacht of Sydney developers Nabil and Nicholas Gazal, and then acted on their behalf over a Sydney shopping centre.

No dirt on the Greens. Hope they do well in the next NSW election. 

Developers and their promises to get land . Politicians promising affordable housing to give that land . Result paper bags ?

The prospect that lower-income earners could enjoy a pad at Barangaroo is in doubt after it emerged Lend Lease is wavering on a commitment to build affordable housing next to James Packer's luxury casino.

The change in stance follows an admission by the state government that a taskforce set up to help solve Sydney’s housing affordability crisis has not met for more than a year, or delivered the housing policy it promised, despite previously saying "doing nothing" was not an option.

Fairfax Media has learnt that Lend Lease has been eyeing off locations away from Barangaroo on which to build the affordable housing component it pledged in return for developing public harbourside land.

Under current approvals for Barangaroo south, 2.3 per cent of 100,000 square metres of residential floor area must be “key worker housing” – homes rented to lower-income public sector workers such as police, nurses, teachers and paramedics.

"homes rented to lower-income public sector workers such as police, nurses, teachers and paramedics"

All these people are on good salaries - why should the taxpayer be subsidising their housing ? Let alone in that prestigeous area  - hopefully our new Premier has better sense than going along with that Labor Policy.

what makes my blood boil is when I hear of people living in public housing who can well afford to be living in private accommodation.  Kick them out and make they pay the back rent as well.

Tim Owen (Newcastle) and Andrew Cornwell (Charlestown) resigned from Parliament on Tuesday after Mr Cornwell’s admission he’d taken what he suspected was a $10,120 attempted bribe from developer Hilton Grugeon and Mr Owen’s admission he’d lied about taking money from Jeff McCloy, then a developer and now Newcastle’s lord mayor.
Both men accepted envelopes stuffed with $10,000 cash from Mr McCloy.
Mr Baird in opposition had launched Mr Owen’s campaign for the city seat and as Premier backed Mr Cornwell for government whip.
It only got worse on Thursday when Cr McCloy told the inquiry he had given about $1500 in cash to Garry Edwards’ Swansea campaign, sending him to the crossbench.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/mike-baird-apologises-to-voters-over-corruption-revelations-20140816-104sph.html#ixzz3AYHCfWgR

On a sojourn from the far northern suburbs, I took an hour before lunch to wander around The Rocks and Millers Point, a fine walk most any time, but purely sublime on that diamond of a mid-winter’s day. There are so many ghosts of the old city still floating around those streets but being Sydney ghosts, they’re mostly kicking back, catching the rays.
Best soak them up while they can. The state’s scrapping of heritage rules, the eviction of hundreds of public housing tenants, the sell-off and the inevitable redevelopment of those properties by the sort of spivs and chancers who keep ICAC in business will finish off even the hardiest spirits. It’s a pity. So much of the city’s story is written in the line of those streets. When the First Fleet arrived the officers grabbed all the best real estate for themselves, laying claim to the greener, pleasant lands of the Eora people, east of the Cove. They took one look at the unappealing, rocky wastes on the other side and packed the convicts off over there. Sydney’s east-west class divide was born on that first day. Hundreds of years later, the descendants of the first jailers and the Rum Corps have decided the lower orders can bugger off out of Millers Point too. It was ever thus in this city. It will ever be.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/joe-hockey-give-the-man-a-cigar-20140815-1046au.html#ixzz3AYLZWfhY

Liberal Party hijacked

The articles ''Misogynist rants from Young Libs'' and ''A delicate balance'' (10/8) show that today's Liberal Party - moulded by John Howard's 11 years of right-wing dog whistling - is now the go-to party for misogynists, racists and homophobes.

It is also a party whose many state and federal MPs actively promote a fundamentalist Christianity that ignores science. These attitudes and policies represent the hijacking of a once-proud political party; genuinely liberal party members must wake up to this deplorable shift before it's too late.

William Hageman, Blackburn South

Mr Hartcher told the ICAC his former adviser Tim Koelma had worked on a “local government strategy” for the City of Sydney, which he said was “not a council sympathetic to us”.

Mr Koelma is under investigation for allegedly using the fund Eightbyfive to source illegal donations for the Liberal Party before the 2011 election.

“The ICAC should investigate whether work done by individuals currently under investigation by ICAC did in any way lead to a strategy or the development of legislation that … will give property developers and other banned political donors greater influence,” Mr Greenwich wrote in his letter to the ICAC.

The NSW Liberal Party's casualty ward - otherwise known as the crossbench of the NSW Parliament - is filling up fast.

Bart Bassett's announcement on Wednesday brings to nine the number of MPs who have stood aside from the parliamentary party pending the outcome of Operation Spicer, the Independent Commission Against Corruption's investigation into illegal political donations.

Two of those, Andrew Cornwell and Tim Owen, have also resigned from parliament.

Hope they weed out all the corrupt politicians both Liberal and Labor.  More to be heard on Mark Obeid the Labor  Senator who resigned his position in February 2012.  

It seems to be the political culture . All hail the donation and donors . Policy has a price tag .

Tony Abbott broke with tradition and skipped an annual black tie dinner held for government senators when he attended a party fund-raiser in Melbourne on Monday night.

The trip has caused a stir after the Prime Minister admitted to colleagues he made an early morning visit to a cancer research centre on Tuesday so he could justify the interstate visit under entitlements.

A 10th state Liberal MP is set to join the cross bench after a corruption inquiry was formally widened to examine allegations that Craig Baumann, the member for Port Stephens, took secret donations from developers.