More Labor corruption

Accused murderer Ron Medich and his property developing brother Roy are set to make hundreds of millions of dollars after secretly selling their substantial landholding adjacent to the proposed second airport at Badgerys Creek.

 

The Badgerys Creek site has been the subject of unwelcome attention since the September 2009 murder of Ron Medich's former business partner Michael McGurk.

 

The lobbyist for the brothers, controversial former politician Graham Richardson, revealed shortly after Mr McGurk's murder that Mr McGurk had used a secret recording in an attempt to blackmail Ron Medich by claiming the recording contained evidence of corrupt politicians approving land deals.

 

The Medich brothers purchased the Badgerys Creek site in 1996 from the CSIRO, which was offloading its redundant McMaster Farm, just across the road from proposed airport site at Badgerys Creek.

 

At the time of the sale the CSIRO was chaired by former NSW premier Neville Wran, who was later to become Ron Medich's partner in a gourmet pizza business.

 

There was no auction and the Medich family company, Becklon Pty Ltd, was the only tenderer for the CSIRO farm. It was a whirlwind deal. The Mediches registered the shelf company, Becklon Pty Ltd, on October 22, became directors on November 4 and exchanged contracts for the Badgerys Creek land two weeks later.

SMH  

 

 

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More than 410,000 workers are covered by union pay deals with big employers that contain zero or below-award Sunday penalty rates .

 

The Department of Employment found unions had 55 agreements with large companies in the fast-food, retail, hospitality and pharmacy sectors that remove­d or cut Sunday penalty rates but paid an above-award rate for ordinary hours worked.

In addition to deals at McDonald’s, Woolworths, Coles, Pizza Hut and KFC, the department said Bunnings, Big W, David Jones, Dan Murphy’s, The Reject Shop, Prouds, IKEA and Priceline were among employers that had deals with the shop assistant­s union paying below-award Sunday penalties.

 

United Voice also has agreements with the InterContinental hotels in Sydney and Adelaide, the Langham in Melbourne, the Sheraton Mirage on the Gold Coast and three Park Royal hotels­ that do not pay Sunday penalty rates to workers.

 

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash seized on the analysis to criticise Labor’s attacks on the Fair Work Commission’s decis­ion to reduce Sunday penalty rates .

 

“Bill Shorten and the Labor Party pretend to be outraged when the Fair Work Commission adjusts award penalty rates for small business, but have nothing to say about big business paying lower rates under their agreements with unions,’’ Sen­ator Cash said.

 

“The Labor Party’s silence on these deals can only be explained by the fact they received millions of dollars in donations from the same unions who negotiate these agreements.”

 

The Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association is one of the Labor Party’s biggest donors, contributing more than $1 million in 2015-16. United Voice gave about $714,000 over the same period.

Australian 

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