Page 4895 - Week 13 - Thursday, 2 November 2017
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spoken about those who are now, unfortunately, according to this Labor government, outside the tent. They are not in the gang anymore.
I will give you one other example: that of the Federal Golf Club, who are on record as saying they left ClubsACT to join Canberra Community Clubs because they thought it would assist with the approval of their development application. Plus residents participated in what they thought was a sham consultation with the outcome a fait accompli. These are ordinary Canberrans who are so negatively impacted by the actions of this government.
Corruption is different from criminality. For example, just because someone pays to attend a dinner with a minister might not make the minister change his or her mind about a development or a land acquisition. But you can bet your boots it will make that minister answer their phone when that person rings. This Chief Minister would not only answer his phone but also take them out to dinner, use public funds to buy their property for $4 million and rent it back to them for $1.
Only on Tuesday, Mr Rattenbury, as Chair of the Select Committee on an Independent Integrity Commission, handed down the unanimous report into the introduction of an ICAC in the ACT, which recommended that the ACT introduce the New South Wales definition of corruption, which does not limit corruption to that which is a criminal offence.
We in this chamber must hold our standards high. The community quite rightly expect a high standard from our politicians. Sadly, as we all know, the estimation of politicians in the eyes of the public has slipped considerably in recent years. Just because no charges have been laid with respect to certain dealings does not mean they did not happen, and does not mean they were not wrong.
For example, the other day while driving into work I heard a news report on the radio that said a New South Wales organised crime squad report had been released. The report stated that New South Wales police had found that there were organised crime figures supplying NRL players with drugs and prostitutes in exchange for insider betting information, an illegal act punishable by up to two years jail.
Police had said there was no doubt several NRL players had passed secret information about injuries and positions to professional gamblers, but said they would not be pursuing criminal charges. It was here that I could not help but notice the parallels. No one is arguing that these things did not happen. No one argued that, in the NRL case, information was not supplied to organised crime gangs. No one argued that players had not received drugs and prostitutes in return. But this is the point. The point is that your average footy fan, when they sit down on the couch to watch Friday night footy, would not expect that to be happening. The average citizen would not expect dodgy deals by this government to be taking place either.
Corruption is different from criminality. When someone undertakes corrupt activities it does not mean they will be found to have committed a criminal offence. Those who say, “If this Labor government is corrupt, why haven’t police laid any charges?” must remember that. Corruption does not mean that criminal charges will be laid every time.
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