CCC dumps Finance Brokers Inquiry. No report after four (fruitless?) years.

We are dangerously incompetent. We specialise in ruining the reputations of honest hardworking citizens and refuse to be accountable.

What a hide these Corruption and Crime Commission clowns have!

What, no Report?!!

The CCC have refused to admit that they are idiots. "We may be liars, incompetent and a miserable failure" a spokesman said "but we are not idiots".

After four year of investigation and public hearing into the Finance Brokers term of reference, which was designed to damage the reputations of a number of politicians, Brian Burke and Julian Grill, the chief clown and ringmaster Major General Len Roberts-Smith has informed the victims that:

"...I have concluded it would be unproductive and not in the public interest to proceed further and, specifically, not to proceed with the preparation of a report for tabling in the Western Australian Parliament."

The Desert Rat wonders what the investigation was about.

Earlier last year the Desert Rat undertook his own detailed investigation of this matter and asked the same question! This was thoroughly reported in an earlier post here.

It took about six hours of work to investigate and write the article. The Desert Rat could have done an investigation and written a report for the clowns at the CCC for about $5000 - that's about 10 days work at the Desert Rat's modest fee.

Why has it taken the CCC, four years, costly public hearings, millions of dollars and thousands of hours of unproductive staff time to reach this conclusion? Commissioner Roberts-Smith and Executive Director Silverstone are spendthrifts and pathetic incompetents.

Would they waste their own money as they waste public taxpayers funds?

The backsliding Roberts-Smith says "he has concluded it is unproductive and not in the public interest to proceed further.." surely they must have done something in four years? Roberts-Smith has also "concluded" to "not to proceed with the preparation of a report for tabling in the Western Australian Parliament". There is no CCC grovelling media release making this announcement, just a grubby low key letter to the victims.

Well Major General Roberts-Smith, we want to know what you found out in four years?

• Is it not in the public interest to expose your former patron Jim McGinty's role in the Finance Brokers term of reference?
  
• Is it not in the public interest to conclude that Brian Burke and Julian Grill did a public service by placing enormous pressure on Jim McGinty to honour his pre-election commitment to compensate the many pensioners who were defrauded?

The public and the WA parliament deserve a report, so that there is some indication as to whether these citizens have done anything wrong or right which is more likely!

Would the CCC open themselves to public ridicule if they admitted they got it badly wrong again in respect of Julian Grill, Brian Burke, Anthony Fels and Noel Crichton-Brown? The CCC's gratuitous public humiliation of each of these men, sanctioned by the likes of Roberts-Smith and Mike Children Overboard Silverstone was like kicking someone while the were down - and yet no apology!

• Has Roberts-Smith been sufficiently vague in the wording of his letter, to suggest there was not enough evidence to prosecute these men?
  
• Has the CCC run out of money and can't afford to complete the investigation and write the report?
  

What has happened to dump this investigation after four years without any report?

The Desert Rat is very confident that all the main facts are in his earlier post on the matter . The only missing part is, Jim McGinty's version of his dealing in the Finance Brokers matter? McGinty's vindictive treatment of those who worked so hard to get a resolution of the matter should have come under scrutiny. Neither Jim McGinty or any of his apologists has disputed the Desert Rat's account of events.

Don't expect the sleazy duo of Len Roberts-Smith or Mike Silverstone to ever be gracious in defeat, it is not part of their thick and bullying demeanour to be fair.

McGinty - Reign and Succession

McGinty: Failure on all front or deliberate deliverance of Fremantle to the Greens?

Tomorrow is the unwanted by-election for Fremantle. Jim McGinty politically odouriferous stench has ensured he has remained invisible during the campaign which presents most Fremantle voters with Hobson's choice. A Green, no Liberal candidate and a Liberal standing as a Labor candidate and nondescript independents.

Jim McGinty's legacy is an embarrassment, he controlled the biggest Left union, and therefore the Left Wing of the ALP and therefore the State Executive of the ALP, which in turn has endorsed all ALP candidates for seats in parliament; McGinty effectively controls the Parliamentary Labor Party for the last 19 years. This power gave him defacto control of the WA Parliament and the Government of WA for the 7 years of the Gallop and Carpenter Ministries.

Despite this power and influence, he always failed to plan for the future and in 19 years put Left Faction types into Parliament of insufficient ability, to be ministerial material, let alone leadership material - the goons gig - the star recruit being Fran "Do you want a threesome" Logan.

McGinty failed to groom people to be able to take on the Left leadership. Perhaps he thought it would never be necessary once the self appointed Emperor assumed the Kim Jong Il mantle.

The result was that after the 2008 election, the cupboard was so bare he had to desperately move to slot Roger Cook (who was elected by the skin of his teeth in Kwinana) into the position as deputy leader of Labor, even before he had taken a seat in the house. Other obvious talent with parliamentary experience such as Aboriginal Victoria Park MLA Ben Wyatt were passed by because they were not paid up obedient members of the McGinty controlled Left Faction.

The net result has been a talentless group of Left members who McGinty could herd and bring to heel and a policy bankrupt ALP Left Caucus of voting fodder.

When McGinty resigned from the state seat of Fremantle, he left the ALP in a hole because there was no-one with an ALP pedigree with any local credibility, to slot into Fremantle. The result is a card carrying Liberal Peter Tagliaferri who contested the 1990 election against McGinty, who recently donated to the Liberal Party. Remember Julian Grill was expelled from the ALP for forwarding a cheque to the National Party from one of his clients. Bare-faced hypocrisy again!

The Desert Rat reckons Tagliaferri could well be an Independent either shortly after (or before if he gets a chance) he locks in his pension.

McGinty has achieved all this with one vote, one value and increased the malapportionment in the Upper House which was supposed to entrench Labor in the Lower House and the Greens in the Upper House.

One can only think about missed opportunities to consolidate Labor with good like-minded people. All they have got from poaching outside the Party are rent-a-politicians Alan Carpenter, St Carmen Lawrence and now Peter Tagliaferri, perhaps.

The Desert Rats wonders if Jim McGinty would actually prefer a Green elected in Fremantle, as he has done his level best to achieve that end by (unwitting or deliberate?) stealth.

At least McGinty has that in common with the Liberals in this by-election.

The whole sorry saga reflects McGinty's pre-occupation with short term thinking and action - today's quick fix is tomorrows f f...failure.