Mike Baird’s appointment as NSW premier was welcomed by the CSG lobby.

It is difficult to accept that NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell lost his position over the alleged gift of a $3000 bottle of Grange connected with the push to award lucrative contracts to Australian Water Holdings (AWH).

Conceivably, he could have stonewalled that accusation and ridden out the storm had he enjoyed the backing of cabinet and the Daily Telegraph.

O’Farrell conspicuously lacked this backing — witness just how savagely the Daily Telegraphturned on him after practically ushering him into office a few years ago. But this had little to do with the swirling cross-bench corruption scandal involving AWH.

AWH was clearly a catalyst for this latest Australian political knifing, but it was not the only or perhaps even the main cause.

In a larger sense, coal seam gas, rather than AWH, was what felled O’Farrell.

For months now, it has been emerging that certain Liberal Party interests connected with the powerful fossil fuel extraction industry have been looking for an excuse to remove him.

The reason for their hostility is easy to understand. O’Farrell is seen by gas giants like Santos and AGL as a staller and blocker to their expansionist plans. For that, he had to go.

For these expansion-driven companies, it has to be corporate profit that wins out every time. O’Farrell showed himself willing in so many ways to bend to the petulant whims of the billionaire class, for example, rubberstamping the scandalous expropriation of prime public harbour foreshore land for James Packer’s casino complex. But in the end, it wasn’t enough.

The coal seam gas issue had caught O’Farrell between a rock and a hard place ever since he took office. On the one hand, the party he represented was completely beholden to the corporate sector, which thirsts for a conversion of NSW agricultural land and even urban areas to full-scale industrial gas production.

read more: http://coalseamgasnews.org/news/world/australia/nsw/csg-lobby-welcomes-fall-of-ofarrell-auspol/

Premier Mike Baird has been forced to declare that he has ''never accepted an illegal donation'' after repeatedly failing to give the guarantee in Parliament, as another government MP moved to the crossbench over allegations of receiving tainted funds.

Swansea MP Garry Edwards announced on Thursday he had stood aside from the parliamentary Liberal Party following evidence at a corruption inquiry that he had received money from property developer Jeff McCloy, a banned donor, before the 2011 election.

Mr Edwards issued a statement saying he looked forward to ''an early opportunity to clear my name''.

During question time, shadow treasurer Michael Daley asked Mr Baird to ''guarantee that no other Liberal MP, including you, received illegal donations at the last election''.

Mr Baird responded that the government had ''absolute confidence in the work we are doing'' in relation to election funding reform, but failed to answer Mr Daley's question.

Prompted twice more by Labor to issue the guarantee to Parliament, Mr Baird declined.

There is always something disconcerting when a person starts referring to himself in the third person.

“But Jeff McCloy as an individual is not a property developer, he doesn’t make development applications,” said Newcastle Lord Mayor Jeff McCloy prompting snorts of derisive laughter in the public gallery at the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

The way Mayor McCloy sees it, his trips in his Bentley, handing over the wads of $10,000 in cash to needy Liberal candidates was pure philanthropy - done with no other motive in mind than the advancement of the fair city of Newcastle, over which he has reigned since 2012.

“They all come to see me for money, I feel like a walking ATM some days,” bemoaned the wealthy property tycoon of his patronage to politicians.

After detailing the $1500 to $1800 he plucked out of his wallet to give the Liberal candidate for Swansea, Garry Edwards, Mayor McCloy claimed he had up to $2400 in his wallet as he sat in the witness box.

But perish the thought any of these donations were illegal.

Over the lunch break, Mayor McCloy kindly handed over a 50-page dossier to various media outlets extolling his good deeds. “For more than 30 years I have lived by the words “Do it anyway”, written verse from Mother Teresa,” he wrote in his dossier.

Given the allegations, Whatever It Takes, the tome penned by the former Senator for Kneecaps Graham Richardson, seems more applicable.

Beatification for the mayor must have seemed a distant dream as a mob of angry Novacastrians shouted “corrupt” and “resign!” as McCloy sped off in a black hire car at the end of his gruelling day in the box.

Earlier in the day, fellow property developer Hilton “I don’t recall” Grugeon also invoked acts of altruism rather than illegal donations to explain his actions. Grugeon, who like many other ICAC witnesses, was sporting his Order of Australia pin, denied he had broken the law with his payments to politicians.

The $10,000 he paid for the salary of radioman Luke Grant, who was working on Tim Owen’s campaign, was because he had lost his job, claimed Grugeon.

The New South Wales premier, Mike Baird, has written an open letter to voters in the Hunter region apologising for the behaviour of Liberal state MPs revealed in a corruption inquiry.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) claimed its ninth Liberal scalp on Thursday when Swansea MP Garry Edwards resigned from the party. Earlier in the week MPs Tim Owen and Andrew Cornwell quit parliament over allegations they were given $10,000 each in banned developer donations before the 2011 state election.

Facing two tough byelections in the area and a state election next March, Baird has vowed to win back Hunter voters’ trust in the letter reported in Saturday’s Newcastle Herald.

“I will visit the region repeatedly – between now and the election, and beyond – to reinforce my regret at the behaviour of some of our former MPs,” Baird wrote. “While I lead this state, we will never again let the people of Newcastle down.”

Baird said his government had promised and achieved great things for the Hunter region. “Unlike NSW Labor, we do not take the people of the Hunter for granted,” he wrote. “My solemn promise to the people of Newcastle and the Hunter is this: every project we have committed to will be completed.”

Baird also told Fairfax Media the region’s remaining Liberal MPs, Robyn Parker and Craig Baumann, had his full support.

As yet no date has been set for the Newcastle and Charlestown byelections to replace Owen and Cornwell.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/16/mike-baird-writes-open-letter-to-voters-apologising-for-liberal-mps-behaviour

It is my humble opinion that if you believe Mike, you have holes and rocks in your head... See toon at top.

The Liberal Party will not contest by-elections in two New South Wales seats held by MPs who resigned in disgrace amid a donations scandal.

The announcement - described as "an act of atonement" - followed revelations former Newcastle MP Tim Owen and Charlestown MP Andrew Cornwell accepted undeclared cash donations from developers.

Both men resigned after making admissions before the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), which is investigating political donations by developers.

Such donations are banned under NSW electoral laws.

NSW Liberal Party Director Tony Nutt issued an apology on behalf of the Party, saying the revelations "disgusted the honest, law-abiding parliamentarians, elected office bearers, members, donors and supporters of the Liberal Party".

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-17/liberals-give-up-nsw-seats-lost-after-icac-scandal-in-atonement/5676324

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Positively speaking, I guess that the Liberals (CONservatives) don't want to spend bad money after bad-cash by electioneering in that region, because, let's face it, trying to campaign there, the Liberals (CONservatives) know it would be a BIG waste of money and of good slogans... Imagine "LET'S CLEAN UP CORRUPTION OUT OF NSW"... That would get a laugh... or "IMPROVING THE STATE FINANCES — vote Liberal" that would really get them chuckling in the aisles... 

Premier Mike Baird has called on Newcastle lord mayor Jeff McCloy to "do the honourable thing and resign" or face being removed from office by the beginning of next month.

It is the NSW government's strongest message yet to Councillor McCloy - a property developer who a corruption inquiry has heard gave $10,000 in cash to disgraced former state MPs Tim Owen and Andrew Cornwell before the 2011 election.

Property developers have been prohibited from donating to NSW election campaigns since late 2009. Mr Owen and Mr Cornwall last week resigned from Parliament over the revelations.

The embattled Lord Mayor of Newcastle, Jeff McCloy, has resigned in the wake of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) inquiry into banned developer donations.

Mr McCloy, who is also a millionaire developer, refused calls for him to stand down for days, despite admitting he made banned donations to several Liberal candidates ahead of the 2011 New South Wales election, including to Newcastle's Tim Owen and Charlestown's Andrew Cornwell.

Both MPs have since resigned from politics.

Mr McCloy wrote to Newcastle City Council's general manager on Sunday and tendered his resignation, saying the controversy may affect the way council functions.

He thanked the thousands of Novacastrians who supported change by electing him in his letter.

He said he believed he was leaving Newcastle in better shape financially and physically than when he started.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-18/newcastle-mayor-jeff-mccloy-resigns/5677152

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has blamed confusion over the former NSW Labor government's ban on political donations from property developers for some of the Liberal Party's woes at the Independent Commission Against Corruption, including the resignation of two state MPs last week.

In a radio interview on Monday, Mr Abbott also revealed himself as being at odds with Premier Mike Baird on the issue of election funding reform, declaring it is "right" that parties have to seek money from the public.

The view is in direct opposition to Mr Baird's push for full taxpayer-funded elections in NSW following evidence at the ICAC about illegal fund-raising by the NSW Liberal Party.

Senator Sam Dastyari will make a statement to the Senate over comments he made about the former New South Wales premier Kristina Keneally’s relationship with Eddie Obeid in a book about the former Labor powerbroker.

Dastyari was one of the Labor figures interviewed for He Who Must Be Obeid, by investigative journalists Kate McClymont and Linton Besser. It is understood Keneally has taken issue with comments Dastyari made in a chapter on the change of the premiership from Nathan Rees to Keneally in 2009.

“Kristina was so close to Eddie. Unequivocally, she wouldn’t have been premier if it wasn’t for Eddie. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t Eddie’s support for her, it was his hatred of Frank [Sartor],” Dastyari is quoted as saying.

Keneally defeated Sartor by 25 votes to 22 in the Labor caucus room to become premier and, according to the book, Obeid and Joe Tripodi were “solid in their support” of Keneally.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/25/sam-dastyari-clarify-comments-kristina-keneally-links-eddie-obeid

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Gus: I have news for you... From what I know from my deep throat informants, Keneally knew that Tripodi and Obeid were toxic in the Labor party... and the only way to deal with them at the time was not to rock the boat, and to stay at arms length, letting justice unravel those two and their supporter — of WHICH KENEALLY WAS NOT (never). It's a bit like the way Putin got chosen by the Oligarchs and then he put them in prison or exiled them. With Obeid and Tripodi, the problem was complex. These two were VERY "popular in their electorate"... Their ethnicity and their "contributions" to the local atmosphere was "appreciated"...