Here's what I don't understand - why the rush to get this passed into law next week??? What is so urgent that it needs to be passed so soon?

Armchair_Politician wrote on Mar 16^th, 2013 at 6:57am:

CFMEU braces for next chapter to ICAC probe

By Nonee Walsh

Posted 8 hours 8 minutes ago



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Map: Sydney 2000
The coal miners' union is bracing itself for a damaging series of revelations from an anti-corruption inquiry involving a well respected former leader.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption's probe into the granting of mining licences to entities connected to the family of New South Wales Labor Party powerbroker Eddie Obeid has already damaged the ALP.

Now the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) is bracing itself for a reputational hit in the next part of the inquiry due to begin on Monday.

The CFMEU's former national secretary, John Maitland, is staying out of the public eye at the moment and has cancelled today's public auction of a $1.6 million farm near Kempsey on the NSW north coast.

However the former union veteran still has $5 million worth of property on the market, including a $3 million dollar property in Victoria owned through his family company Jonca.

Mr Maitland bought the farms after he became a multi-millionaire just four short years after retiring as CFMEU head.

That wealth came on the back of an investment of less than $200,000 and a mining licence issued by his friend, the then NSW mining minister Ian Macdonald.

It was the same year Mr Maitland became a Member of the Order of Australia, in recognition of his services to international and Australian industrial relations.

Now the unravelling of the story of the rise from union man to rich mining investor threatens to drag in his former union colleagues.

The ABC understands that a number of mining union officials have been called to give evidence to the ICAC about the Doyles Creek coal exploration licence, and the associated $10 million share price windfall to Mr Maitland.

Just two months after he left the union Mr Maitland began buying shares in a company called Nucoal. A $1 shelf company was also established, which became Doyles Creek Mining.

Among Mr Maitland's plans was for an operation to train people to work in underground mines.

Some time after his first approach to Ian Mcdonald about his training mine, Mr Maitland became a director and later chairman of Doyles Creek Mining.

The training mine idea had been proposed a decade before, when Mr Obeid was minerals minister, and it had been a strong interest of Mr Maitland in his time in the CFMEU.

A plan for a large coal mine to fund it between the town of Jerrys Plains and the Wollemi National Park was rejected between 1999 and 2000 by the state government because the area was environmentally sensitive.

But the licence for a training mine and exploration licence was issued by Mr Macdonald in late 2008, against departmental advice, to Doyles Creek Mining.

Doyles Creek was then taken over by Nucoal and, when the company was publicly floated in 2010, John Maitland sold almost $6 million worth of shares. After that he began buying up the farms which he is now selling.

The veracity of letters of support for the Doyles Creek licence sent to government is likely to be examined by the ICAC.

The apparent authors are Labor politicians including Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, along with a who's who of union officials and entities associated with the mining union.

When John Maitland retired in 2006 the union's then national president Tony Maher lauded "the Maitland effect" on the reputation of the union and the labor movement.

"Wherever he goes he is hailed as a long lost brother and treated as a king. And rightly so." he said at a farewell in 2006.

Now Mr Maitland's name cannot be found on the CFMEU website. According to sources in the union, the reaction he now prompts is shock and disappointment as the union nervously awaits the latest ICAC revelations.

A union spokesperson said officials are unable to comment based on legal advice.

Topics:courts-and-trials, corruption, unions, states-and-territories, sydney-2000, jerrys-plains-2330, nsw



THIS IS THE REASON  OR 0NE OF MANY   

Armchair_Politician wrote on Mar 16^th, 2013 at 6:57am:


in any normal situation and with any other govt or PM the following would be just nonsense. But with Gillard the perennial liar and abuser of process, it is plausible.

Who is to say that the govt doesnt want what is effectively a gag process in place just in time for the election campaign? Can you imagine how a gillard-appointed censor would treat the media duing a campaign? This disgrace of a PM who has already orchestrated a riot against abbott certainly has the form to try a fiji-styled attack on freedom of the press. You can see it now... an election campaign where media is not permitted to publish anti-labor articles.

Likely? not really. But unfortunately, you can no longer discount it as impossible. the depths this woman will go seems bottomless.

red baron wrote on Mar 16^th, 2013 at 8:34am:


Who is saying that the oversight group has the ability to censor anythng?

THey seem to report on the media publications meeting the self regulation standard, it seems to be more making sure that the existing regulator is doing its job to its current required standard.

Dnarever and Peter, you are both experienced and should recognise this what it is, the thin end of the wedge.

Once you start something like this there is no going back. A huge problem with this is the grey areas and its more like a black cloud. All this sh.t being frantically rushed through in a week and short, short, short on detail

I don't trust politicians they are the slimiest dogs in the land, almost up there with lawyers.

Once they give themselves power to muzzle what they don't like there will be no end to it.

Surely, you can see the inherent dangers in this set up which is designed to muzzle criticism of Labor which is crippled.

My hope is that Malcolm Turnbull has promised to repeal the  law when the Liberals get in, and they will get in.

I believe Turnbull's word on this.

John Smith wrote on Mar 16^th, 2013 at 10:53am:


I guess the media has left them unarmed for such a debate. Perhaps they need to inject a little more media diversity into their own lives.

red baron wrote on Mar 16^th, 2013 at 10:45am:


Red, you say there is no going back, then in the next breath tell us the Liberals will repeal any legislation.

I, too, believe Turnbull. First because he seems an honourable man and, second, because his party knows they must retain the support of the newspapers in whose pocket they nestle.

The_Barnacle wrote on Mar 16^th, 2013 at 12:03pm:


D