December 11, 2023
The federal government has widened the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into trade unions and given the inquiry an extra year to report.
The inquiry will now have the ability to investigate criminal conduct by unions. The December 2014 reporting date has been extended to December 2015.
The Attorney-General, Senator George Brandis, announced the changes at a press conference today.
The Liberal Premier of New South Wales, Barry O’Farrell has resigned, after a handwritten thank-you note for a 1959 bottle of Grange was tendered at ICAC.
The thank-you note was handed to ICAC this morning by Nick Di Girolamo, the chief executive of Australian Water Holdings. Yesterday, O’Farrell denied receiving the gift or phoning Di Girolamo to thank him.
O’Farrell described his behaviour as a “massive failure of memory”.
The New South Wales Liberal Premier, Barry O’Farrell, has denied receiving a $2979 bottle of Grange from Australian Water Holdings in what has been described as an attempt to butter him up over a public-private partnership proposal.
Appearing at the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), O’Farrell said he could not recall a phone call on April 20, 2011 to the then chief executive of Australian Water Holdings (AWH), Nick Di Girolamo. He denied receiving the wine or calling to thank Di Girolamo.
The Assistant Treasurer, Senator Arthur Sinodinos, has stood aside from the Abbott ministry pending investigations by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Sinodinos announced his decision just before Question Time in the Senate.
With the 2013 federal election campaign now in its final eight days, the Liberal Party has highlighted ALP sleaze and corruption in its latest television commercial.
Titled “Labor Connections”, the advertisement positions Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s picture amongst a network of NSW connections that link Foreign Minister Bob Carr and new Labor Senator Sam Dastyari to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) findings against Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald.