We need an inquiry into cronyism for

CORRUPTION and crony capitalism – why does it matter?

Simon Bevilacqua said ( Mercury August 5) “Tasmanians deserve to know the truth about the Lyons bribery allegations.”

As part of my PhD thesis I spent many days researching old documents in the Tasmanian archives about the events surrounding the British Tobacco bribery saga, and published an article on the matter.

It is now 45 years since British Tobacco paid a

Kathryn Barnsley

Tasmanian politician, who resigned and brought down an ethical, progressive Tasmanian Liberal Government.

Why does it matter? It matters because history repeats itself if we do not learn from our mistakes.

It matters because the same political and social conditions exist in Tasmania that existed in 1972. Tasmania is vulnerable to crony capitalism because of its small size and the close relationships between people who live here.The sheer size of big multinationals can influence and threaten our public policies using money, power and influence.

What happened? The story began in the 1960s when British Tobacco was illegally given, or bought for paltry sums, huge tracts of land in North-East Tasmania by the Tasmanian Labor government. This was unlawful because the legislation was explicitly designed to allocate land to individuals, not large companies. The conspirators included public servants, politicians, a pastoralist and executives of British Tobacco.

When a new minority Liberal government led by Angus Bethune was elected in 1969 they investigated these corrupt land deals.

Kevin Lyons, MHA from the Centre party, held the balance of power and supported the Liberals to govern, but was never happy with his position.

In 1971 Attorney-General (now Sir) Max Bingham laid criminal charges against the land scandal conspirators, including the CEO of British Tobacco, (later Sir) Noel Foley.

British Tobacco brought in a flock of international lawyers and wriggled out of the charges. Max Bingham dropped the case.

In 1972 Kevin Lyons was reported to have told some companies, including British Tobacco, that he would bring down the government if it was made “worth his while”.

Kevin Lyons was paid $25,000 ($250,000 in today’s dollars) by British Tobacco to “write his memoirs”. This was not publicly revealed until 1973. The memoirs were never written.

Kevin Lyons brought down the government. Labor was reelected.

Calls for a royal commission were not heeded