Re: Shawny’s concerns about Victorian and Australian Governments
Reply #296 –
I'm still waiting for you to have a crack at Chris Minns for the scumbag who kinghit Peter Dean being dealt with under the Young Offenders Act
If you're triggered by headlines, you probably should delve a little deeper, and I don't mean listening to influencer podcasts.
First of all the Allan Government doesn't "just happen to be in charge", they were democratically elected and, when you consider the rabble that's supposed to be the opposition, it's easy to see why. The opposition at national level is worse, if anything, and Malcolm Turnbull's description of their incoming leader as the “best qualified idiot” is spot on. It's funny how politicians often make more sense after they retire.
Secondly, the allegations, and that's all they are at this stage, were set out in a draft report by barrister Geoffrey Watson SC. The draft report detailed the results of an investigation into CFMEU criminality and corruption commissioned by CFMEU administrator Mark Irving KC. As I'm sure you know, Irving was appointed by the Commonwealth Government to clean up the CFMEU. The report isn't a public document and is the property of the CFMEU. When Irving read the draft, he directed Watson to delete two sections alleging that the Allan government knew of the CFMEU aggression and corruption, that Watson estimated cost Victorian taxpayers $15 billion, because he (Irving) was “not satisfied that they were well-founded or properly tested”. That's the opinion of a King's Council and one of the most senior and respected industrial relations lawyers in the country, not a half-baked politician or shock jock.
Watson is p1ssed off that his allegations have been discarded but he recently said the government “would be mad to get rid of Mark Irving" and “I’ve worked for Irving for two years now, and I’ve never met a more honest or decent man … I can tell you, everything he did was opposed to corruption and was in favour of fixing the CFMEU.”
I think that scuttles any suggestion that Irving's rejection of the $15 billion corruption allegations was politically motivated or in any way intended to protect politicians or CFMEU operatives.
It's possible that the CFMEU did cost Victorian taxpayers $15 billion, or perhaps even $30 billion. Heads should roll if the CFMEU cost Victorian taxpayers any funds above and beyond legitimate construction costs, and I don't just mean Allan and the relevant Ministers. There's a raft of people - bureaucrats, police, regulators, auditors, union officials, opposition leader, shadow ministers, etc - who should be taking action at the slightest whiff of misuse of public funds and union corruption.
For the record, I don't think much of our democratically elected State Government; they're tired, short on talent, running out of ideas and money and desperately need a spell in opposition. Sadly for Victoria and Victorians, the alternative government is no better after such a promising start by John Pesutto. While I admire him for taking on the fascists, he wasn't very smart in the way that he went about it.