http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/grangegate-and-the-lobbyists-party,639...
Grangegate and the Lobbyists' Party
The Barry O'Farrell resignation reminds us that the Liberal Party has no purpose other than to enrich its sponsors and mates, writes Bob Ellis.
Eighteen months ago, Pyne and Abbott ran out of the chamber to avoid the toxic vote of a man who had spent $6,000 inappropriately.
On Thursday, O’Farrell vacated his position, the second most important in the land, because of $3,000 spent inappropriately on a bottle of wine.
Mike Baird cannot now have long as leader after Sarah Ferguson asked him did Nick Di Girolamo give him campaign money and get from him, in return, a job he couldn’t do very well; the same Nick Di Girolamo who spent buckets of money on lavish living — taxpapers’ money, that is.
Arthur Sinodinos cannot now have long as a Senator after accepting from Nick Di Girolamo $20 million dollars if he ‘persuaded’ O’Farrell to give their sewage company a contract.
Hockey and Abbott may not have long as MPs if, as is likely, Di Girolamo gave money to their campaigns, money stolen, that is, from the New South Wales taxpayer. The vultures are circling, the jackals detect the smell of blood on the wind, and the Liberal Party itself may not survive the year.
For the Liberal Party is the Lobbyists’ Party, it has no other moral purpose any more. It is there to give contracts to mates who build the airport, and the roads to and from it, and positions to crooks like Di Girolamo who kick back money to it.
Nick Greiner, wonderfully, said on Thursday that "of course" he would have accepted a $3,000 bottle of wine, it was how lobbying worked, by which he meant how bribery worked.
