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Comment by ksaho | Hacker News Reader

Australian politics, especially NSW politics, is extremely corrupt. It really makes me wonder how this country isn't a failed state, like a 3rd world banana republic.

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I don't know why you're being downvoted. Maybe because of a lack of citations?

I'll start. NSW is one of the leading sources of deforestation in the entire world: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/13/australi...

And how about that time our leaders sent the federal police after a reporter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annika_Smethurst#Espionage_exc...

Oh and how about the fact that our last PM decided to run half the cabinet himself, in secret, for several years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Morrison#Secret_minister...

As a Kiwi, the PM making himself a secret minister of all the things was bonkers, how the hell? They must pay parliament staffers there way better than here, that shit would've leaked in 5 minutes at the nearest pub to the Beehive.

But then, if Dutton ever ends up PM, I'll be wishing for the good old Scotty from Marketing days.

Not lack of citations but lack of literally anything to back up a pretty egregious claim. Also what does deforestation have to do with corruption?

Landowners (and developers) bribing authorities/politicians to not investigate illegal clearing.

If you're an Australian, or Australian adjacent, it's not something you'd feel the need to provide citations for, tbh. Could ask for expansion on the point.

The Corruption Perception index [1] seems to violently disagree with you.

[1] https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2023

Here is a sample of some of the corruption, this is only of a few politicians in NSW, and doesn't go back very far. https://youtu.be/ihoirTYqf2c

The Coronation video only caught traction because of this man: https://www.youtube.com/@friendlyjordies/search?query=john John Barilaro, and he has been extensively documented, and his joining of Coronation real estate.

Real estate businesses have serious political power in Australia, this is well known.

The same John Barilaro who resigned as deputy premiere of NSW because it was getting very hard to cover up all the corrupt schemes he was involved in. The same fella who created a special job paying six figures and then handed it to himself, while still in office: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barilaro#Investment_NSW_a...

Of course, there's no corruption here - hence our infallible public rightly perceiving none of it! (/s)

That was a fantastic play, I'm actually quite impressed. Jobs for the boys taken to the next level, the ultimate in career planning.

Perception, yes. Being on top of the CPI tells nothing about how well the country is doing. It merely highlights how bad the situation is even for the runner-up.

The clue is in the title there - it says nothing about the amount of corruption, only the perception of it. People notice the low-level corruption of petty officials asking for a few bucks, but they're largely blind to high-level corruption that takes place behind closed doors.

You need to look more granular mate.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/29/corruption-inquiry-...

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jul/01/icac-...

Police corruption is quite popular too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Commission_into_the_New_...

That's just NSW, and at least they seem against corruption, Queensland is still fiercely proud of its hugely corrupt premier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joh_Bjelke-Petersen

More Wikipedia cases from ICAC:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Commission_Against...

It's the Lucky Country, don't ya know? Abundance on an island.

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