Fairfax created A number of headaches for coal mining schemes.
THE family of New South Wales Labor power broker Eddie Obeid received $30 million and stood to make a further $70 million using inside information on coal exploration licences provided by disgraced former mining minister Ian Macdonald.
Not only is this ''the most important investigation ever undertaken'' by the Independent Commission Against Corruption but ''it is corruption on a scale probably unexceeded since the days of the Rum Corps,'' counsel assisting the inquiry, Geoffrey Watson, SC, said in his opening address on Monday. Fairfax Digging Deep
Former luminaries of the state Labor Party continue to crank out material for future Liberal Party election ads. In the exciting words of Geoffrey Watson SC, counsel assisting the inquiry, the level of corruption to be investigated is "probably unexceeded since the days of the Rum Corps". The alleged superstar has been former ALP powerbroker* Eddie Obeid, so much so we'd suggest he send an invoice to the Libs. Though if the alleged dollar figures are right -- and there are so many zeroes involved, it looks like a bubble machine run amok at a children's party -- sending Obeid any dough could be a coals-to-Newcastle scenario. (*Or powerbreaker; we're never sure which.)
If it is corruption then
Google on 100 million rum deals the biggest abuse of power by elected later European politicians
Corruption on a scale in exceeded since the days of the rum Corps
Coda: Answering an employment advertisement to work in the United Kingdom placed in a national newspaper seems an innocent enough action. Yet for some Czechs, this simple response to a seemingly legitimate job has led to a life of servitude by falling victim to the crime of human trafficking. Bohemian Slaves
