Speaking to The Australian Financial Review Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquharpraised her stewardship of NSW as “servant leadership”. A junior service provider who worked in the department serving Berejiklian as transport minister years ago told me in wrapt tones about Berejiklian’s unfailing courtesy during a project focused on making government documents as accessible to constituents as possible by rendering them in plain English. I mention that because,as most people can agree,the way a person treats a junior provider is more indicative of her true nature than the way she interacts with a billionaire.
The character references continued to pour forth during the ICAC hearings. Both former Premier Mike Baird and his then head of strategy told ICAC that they didn’t believe they had seen Berejiklian exhibit any bias or partiality towards McGuire – though both agree that she should have disclosed what might be perceived as a conflict of interest. From what we know so far,next week’s hearings will focus on whether she should have disclosed the relationship and whether it caused her to approve a project that didn’t stack up.
In the midst of the hearings concerning Berejiklian,the corruption that brought the former NSW Labor government undone also resurfacedwith the sentencing on Thursday of former NSW ALP ministers Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald for fraud against the people of NSW.
It was a timely reminder of how important it is to demand a high standard of accountability from the people who manage taxpayer money. Fraud experts will tell you that big audacious frauds,like the Obeid schemes,are generally preceded by smaller frauds that go unnoticed. Everyone in politics is expected to exercise constant vigilance to avoid the misuse of taxpayer money because little things can open the door to bigger things.
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But the system can be unclear. At the end of last year,Berejiklian was disconcertingly frank about the pork barrelling,which is endemic to politics and which people hate,except when they are the beneficiaries. Questioned about the council grants program which favoured Coalition seats,she admitted that people don’t much like it,but “governments in all positions make commitments to the community in order to curry favour. I think that’s part of the political process whether we like it or not.”
How’s that for plain English for you? It is,as Berejiklian said,not illegal for politicians to lobby for funds for particular communities and to receive them. It’s corruption to benefit financially but not in popularity. Many politicians even stand for election on the promise that they are especially well placed to lobby for pork. It’s then referred to as “fighting for my community”. Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie,another politician famed for her plain speaking, was upfront about voting for Coalition tax cuts in exchange for an agreement to waive Tasmania’s social housing debt. And,of course,that will help her re-election chances,which may or may not bother you. It’s pork,unless you like the flavour.