Title: Re: Negative Gearing Never Examined
Post by Bam on Feb 5th, 2016 at 7:05am
Lisa Jones wrote on Feb 4th, 2016 at 8:12pm:
Bam wrote on Feb 4th, 2016 at 8:10pm:And I'll post it again for everyone's benefit:
The Liberals took donations from the Calabrian Mafia.
THE LIBERALS ARE CORRUPT!! |
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Huh? |
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Four Corners reveals how Calabrian mafia aligned itself with Australian MPsQuote:ABC and Fairfax joint investigation shows how Melbourne mafia boss Frank Madafferi’s family used links with Liberal party donors to stop his deportation
The Calabrian mafia integrated themselves into Australian politics to ensure their underworld operations were able to continue, a joint investigation by the ABC’s Four Corners program and Fairfax Media has revealed.
According to the program, despite a major police operation that had leading mafia figures under surveillance and recorded organising a murder plot, efforts to deport self-professed Melbourne mafia boss Frank Madafferi to Italy failed as his family aligned itself with key political party donors.
In his home town of Calabria, Madafferi was investigated over his suspected involvement in the 1986 kidnapping of Angela Mittica, the daughter of a Calabrian politician, the program alleges.
Unable to find enough evidence to convict him, police instead charged him with other serious crimes, including extortion, mafia conspiracy, stabbings, drug crimes and gun possession, that saw him sentenced to multiple jail terms.
Madafferi fled Calabria and arrived in Melbourne in 1989, the program alleges, lying about his criminal record to get a six-month tourist visa.
He began working in the fruit and vegetable trade and before long was being investigated by police for his alleged involvement in violent crimes, which he denied.
In a statement aired in court, police said, “Frank Madafferi … if allowed to remain in Australia will continue to carry out acts of violence on behalf of a criminal syndicate,” and in 1996, authorities moved to deport him.
By 2000, the then Liberal party immigration minister, Philip Ruddock, ordered Madafferi be deported. The Madafferi family challenged this decision in court but ultimately failed. It was then, the program alleges, that the family began cultivating political links.
By this time, Frank’s brother, Tony Madafferi, was a wealthy and influential businessman with friends who included Liberal party donors. He used these links to gain meetings with senior political figures, including organising a meeting between the Madafferi family lawyer and Ruddock.
Ruddock, upon realising the lawyer’s connection to Frank Madafferi, cut the meeting short, Four Corners stated. But this only prompted the family to turn to other known political donors for assistance, the program alleged.
In the lead-up to the 2004 election, Tony Madafferi organised a fundraiser for the Liberal party in Melbourne where Amanda Vanstone, who by then had replaced Ruddock as immigration minister, was speaking. He donated $15,000 to the Liberal party’s Millennium Forum at that event, Four Corners said.
In November 2005, Vanstone intervened in Frank Madafferi’s deportation case and had it overturned. She and other politicians involved in the decision stated it was prompted by humanitarian concerns for Madafferi’s family should he be deported, not any donations or lobbying efforts. A police report into the case found there was no suggestion that Vanstone had acted corruptly or inappropriately.
Vanstone refused to be interviewed by the program.
“Senior officials who worked on the Madafferi visa case have told Four Corners the decision to overturn Ruddock’s deportation order was appalling as it exposed the community to harm,” Four Corners said.
“Four Corners can reveal that a secret multi-agency police report found the Madafferi visa case highlighted ‘insidious ways’ the mafia ‘enter the social or professional world of public officials and through legitimate processes achieve influence’.” |
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