Monday 7 December 2009

Kristina Keneally. The only profile which matters is the $$$ profile


Profile of NSW Premier Kristina Keneally according to the ALP and The Sydney Morning Herald.

However, increasingly in NSW politics the only political profile which matters is a politician's donation profile.

Democracy 4 Sale displays 89 records of campaign donations to Ms. Keneally between 2002-2008 worth $171,066. These donations were from the Labor Party (including MPs Tripodi and Sartor), development companies, the hotel industry, unions, lobby groups and indivduals.

The Sydney Morning Herald from August last year:

Linda Scott, who is No. 2 on Meredith Burgmann's Labor ticket for the September 13 council election, was standing as a Labor candidate for the state seat of Sydney last year when she received $20,000 from Kristina Keneally, the state member for Heffron, to pay for printing. The donation was made days after Ms Keneally's campaign was given $19,955 in six separate donations by the Frank Sartor for Rockdale campaign.

Ms Scott ran on a campaign promising donation transparency and not receiving money from property developers. But the Frank Sartor for Rockdale campaign had received tens of thousands of dollars in property developer donations for a war chest that was disbursed to other Labor candidates.

Documents lodged with the Election Funding Authority show Ms Keneally received the $19,955 from Mr Sartor's campaign in six instalments between March 10 and 19 last year.

On March 20, banking documents show Ms Keneally's campaign paid $20,000 to Jeffries Printing Services to pay for Ms Scott's direct mail expenses.

NSW Legislative Council General Purpose Standing Committee No. 4 Badgerys Creek land dealings and planning decisions:

The Committee is of the view that is it unusual for a minister to take the position adopted by Minister Keneally that she does not need to be informed of contact between the Director-General of the Department of Planning and professional lobbyists, including Mr Richardson. The Committee believes that the working relationship of a minister with the head of their department should more appropriately be as that described in Australian Mandarins:
Secretaries ha[ve] a duty to keep the minister informed of any matter in the running of the department that could have some sensitivity for the minister.328
The Committee is also of the view that steps must be taken to ensure that the advice given from the Department of Planning to the Minister is not, and cannot be perceived to be, unduly influenced by professional lobbyists.

No comments: