Inquiry: Ministers acted corruptly

Ex-labor party duo face criminal charges

SYDNEY: Criminal charges were recommended against two former high-profile Australian Labor party state ministers over corruption allegations following an explosive inquiry that gripped Sydney for months.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption found that Eddie Obeid, formerly a kingpin in the New South Wales state Labor party, and ex-state resources minister Ian Macdonald both acted corruptly over a coalmining deal.

They were referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), who will consider whether to lay criminal charges over a scam which the inquiry heard enabled Obeid and his family to make tens of millions of dollars.

Obeid’s son Moses and five influential businessmen, including one of Australia’s richest men, Travers Duncan, were also referred to the DPP for “various offences” over the mine at Mount Penny.

The damning findings could rub off on the party’s image nationally, with Labor already facing a tough fight against a Tony Abbott-led conservative coalition in elections later this year.

“Today is a black day in the history of the Labor party,” Abbott told reporters, noting that current Foreign Minister Bob Carr elevated Obeid to his ministry when Carr was NSW state premier in the 1990s.

“The ICAC has exposed the rottenness at the heart of theNSWLabor party and the rottenness at the heart of the Labor party nationally.”

Ahead of the findings, Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he had been disgusted by the

Anyone who is responsible for corruption or illegal behaviour should face the full force of the law. — KEVIN RUDD

alleged behaviour and any party members involved in illegal activity should face justice.

“My view is very simple – anyone who is responsible for corruption or illegal behaviour should face the full force of the law,” he said.

Obeid and Macdonald have both been expelled from Labor but have denied wrongdoing.

The inquiry – the biggest in the history of New South Wales, the nation’s most populous state – heard from 150 witnesses over six months and saw people queuing for hours to get a glimpse of the proceedings.

Obeid denied during the hearings that he used highly confidential information about a prospective coal licence to effect a “massive fraud on the people of New South Wales”.

He is accused of conspiring with Macdonald to rig a 2008 tender to grant the lucrative licence over land at Mount Penny – land which he and his family secretly purchased in 20072008 and which soared in value once the licence was in place. — AFP