What is it about NSW Labor? It seems that, no sooner is one lot of shonks and grifters at the Sussex Street headquarters exposed (and even, rarely, jailed) that another crawls out of the woodwork.
The current corruption inquiry is threatening to spill over into the federal party, especially given the involvement of disgraced former federal Labor politician Sam Dastyari. Albanese, whose authority is already being challenged by renegade union heavy John Setka, will need to act decisively, to contain the damage.
The crisis in the NSW Labor Party is so great that it might be time that Anthony Albanese called in the administrators.
There’s no point suggesting selling it off: it’s plain that the party has been up to whoever has the most Aldi bags full of cash for a long time.
What has unfolded with ICAC is the tale of a party branch run by kids who clearly never learned about consequences and who were ill-equipped to run the biggest branch of one of the two biggest political parties in the land.
Actually, what ICAC has revealed looks suspiciously like business-as-usual at Sussex Street. This is, after all, the same party that spawned Eddie Obeid, Ian MacDonald, Milton Orkopoulos, Rex Jackson, and Neville “Nifty” Wran.
Put there by svengalis who wanted to retain their own influence, the likes of Sam Dastyari (appointed at 26), Kaila Murnain (at 29) and Jamie Clements have all miserably failed the party.
Now, the person being pumped up by many as the new broom is Dastyari’s groomsman, union official Bob Nanva.
Nanva supporters say he is “not like the rest of the crew” but who can be convinced after what has played out at ICAC?
The fact that “Dasher” Dastyari still had a say in party matters having already quit the federal frontbench in disgrace over a China donations scandal says it all.
“Albo” has so far been silent amid the scandal. It is now time that he condemns those involved (uncomfortable given Dastyari and Murnain backed him into the top job.
Labor like to claim that the Libs just hide their dodgy donations better, and there’s certainly something in that. Yet, as the ICAC hearings are showing, Labor are hardly even bothering to hide what they’re up to.
But one of the amazing things about this inquiry is that it was one year after the ICAC hearings into the Libs that the cash in the Aldi bag incident occurred.
Labor head officials knew that you could be busted for that sort of thing yet they still allowed it. As if it was something that always happened.
theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/nsw-labor-crisis-so-great-albanese-may-need-to-call-in-administrators/news-story/ca7b44ca0591bfa6ebd1789551a776d3
Yes, funny about that.