A sad end for Barry....
The resignation of NSW premier Barry O’Farrell is one of the most bizarre and dramatic downfalls in recent Australian politics.
In 2011 he won the largest election victory in NSW political history on the back of a tired, chaotic and corrupt Labor government.
For the past three years he has had the easiest run possible, thanks to the work of the Independent Commission against Corruption exposing the corruption of Labor Party figures. His party was coasting towards another big victory next March.
The current ICAC inquiry was supposed to be about yet another example of corruption of the Labor years. But the testimony of the head of the company at the centre of the inquiry, Australian Water Holdings, about the gift of a 1959 bottle of Grange worth $3000 wrong footed the Premier.
He said he no memory of receiving it. He had to, because he had failed to declare it in his pecuniary interest register.
But the ICAC quickly scrambled to get the hard evidence. First they found the reimbursement of the bottle of wine on the Amex card of a staff member. Then they found the courier’s records. And most damagingly, there was a phone call from Mr O’Farrell at 9.30pm on the day the wine was delivered.
Still he denied it, saying he would certainly remember such a gift. Then overnight ICAC turned up a hand written thank-you note, and Mr O’Farrell was gone.
He’s the second premier to be brought down by the ICAC, following Nick Greiner, who created it, being forced to resign following corruption findings which was overturned on appeal.
As the Prime Minister Tony Abbott noted, it was a resignation of honour, as opposed to the Labor ministers who have been found corrupt but continue to deny wrong doing.
Although Mr O’Farrell could face charges of giving false testimony, he seems unlikely to be, given it appears to be a simple, if massive, case of memory loss. Meanwhile, ICAC continues to probe much more serious examples of money, influence and political favours.
:womanlol
