"Little Johnny Howard" <pmjwhowardi@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:8ae2c57e-07aa-4ab1-ba52-84156d8378d3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> labour delivers for big donors
>
>
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/labor-delivers-for-big-donors/2008/02/01/1201801034860.html
>
> SOME of the business world's biggest winners from NSW Government
> decisions have emerged as the Labor Party's most generous donors.
>
> The revelation has prompted accusations the Government can be bought
> by the highest bidder.
>
> In one glaring example, the NSW Labor Party received $213,000 from the
> ethanol company Manildra, at the same time as the Government mandated
> that 2 per cent of the petrol sold in NSW must contain ethanol.
>
> The engineering company Downer EDI, which holds a controversial $3.6
> billion railway carriage contract, gave $70,000.
>
> Property developers pumped more than $2 million into Labor Party
> coffers before the state election in March - twice as much as last
> year - at a time when the Planning Minister, Frank Sartor, has been
> criticised for changing planning rules to the benefit of developers.
>
> The hotel industry - which won concessions on allowing Keno into pubs
> and outdoor smoking areas - gave $610,000, and a fund-raiser involving
> members of the Australian Hotels Association last February raised
> $492,000 for Labor.
>
> Another big donor was Star City Casino, which recently won an
> extension of its exclusivity licence, allowing it to remain the
> state's only casino. It gave $100,000.
>
> Clubs NSW, which brokered a deal with the Government last year on
> poker machine tax, donated $86,500.
>
> Before the Government's planned sale of the electricity industry,
> Origin Energy donated $75,000 and ERM Power $33,000.
>
> The donation figures were revealed yesterday when the Australian
> Electoral Commission released the 2006-07 electoral returns. They show
> NSW Labor received $22 million in income last year, compared with $16
> million for the Coalition.
>
> The president of the Local Government Association, Genia McCaffery,
> said donations corrupted the political process.
>
> "How can the community have any confidence that the Government is
> making decisions based on merit when you have property developers
> buying up the Government?" Cr McCaffery said. "If I, as Mayor of North
> Sydney, accepted a donation from a developer and then sat in a council
> meeting and voted for the development, I would be rightly called up
> before the Independent Commission Against Corruption, but the
> Government does it all the time."
>
> The Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, who last week proposed
> donations reform, said that for the past decade the Government had
> increasingly been influenced by donors.
>
> The Greens MP Sylvia Hale said the Government's overhaul of the
> planning laws was designed to benefit developers, and developers did
> "not make political donations out of altruism". "They will be looking
> for a return on their investment," she said.
>
> Among big developers, Walker Cor****ation and Harry Triguboff's Meriton
> Apartments each donated $100,000. Westfield gave $75,000. There were
> some generous first-time donors, such as Hunter Land, which gave
> $111,000. Jacfin, a big landowner in Erskine Park, donated $200,000.
>
> Johnson Property Group and related companies - which are behind plans
> for a satellite suburb at Pitt Town and a $200 million marina on Lake
> Macquarie - donated $184,000.
>
> Developers also gave more than $900,000 to the NSW Liberals.
>
> There are signs big business and lobby groups are unhappy with the
> perception they must donate to parties to win advantage.
>
> The NSW Urban Taskforce, a developer lobby group closely aligned to
> the Government, yesterday renewed its calls for a blanket ban on
> political donations, despite companies associated with three of its
> executive board members being among the most generous donors,
> including Rosecorp. Rosecorp, which is involved in controversial
> projects such as Breakfast Point and Catherine Hill Bay, gave
> $110,000.
>
> Glenn Byres, a spokesman for the Premier, said: "Ministers do not base
> their decisions on who donates to the party."
>
> One company that gave no money to Labor was ERG, which last month was
> stripped of its contract to deliver a cashless ticketing system for
> Sydney known as Tcard.
>
> --------------------------------------
>
> And this is only NSW. Imagine what federal labour is up to!
"The Labor party is corrupt beyond belief" - Mark Latham
|
