Throw The Book At Corrupt Unions...

[icyfroth]

...after the criminal banks!

Citizens Electoral Council leader Craig Isherwood today called on the Abbott government to finally hold the banks accountable for their financial crimes, before it goes off on its crusade against union corruption.

Isherwood said, “In 2009 I called for an Australian Pecora Commission, modelled on the U.S. investigation of Wall Street led fearlessly by Ferdinand Pecora from 1932-34, which exposed the financial crimes that led to the Great Depression, and the corrupt dealings between the Wall Street banks and American politicians that enabled the banks to get away with their crimes.

“So far, outside of some Senate inquiries there has been no serious investigation of financial crimes in Australia. Yet after a few high-profile examples of union corruption, people in the Abbott government are pushing for a Royal Commission into the unions.

“I say investigate both,” he said, “but unless the government goes after the banks with the same zeal it has to tear into the unions, it is being corrupt itself, by covering up for corruption on a scale that crooked unionists could only dream of.”

Isherwood cited examples of the banks not being held accountable: 

• The central role of the Commonwealth Bank, Macquarie Bank and the Bank of Queensland in the Storm Financial scandal, in which hundreds of customers in North Queensland were lured into borrowing heavily against their homes in order to gamble on the stock market, and were subsequently ruined in the 2008 GFC.

• The evidence that loan officers in not just mortgage brokers, but also the Big Four banks, fraudulently doctored loan documentation to justify making low-doc loans that many customers subsequently couldn’t afford.

• The relationship between Macquarie Bank, aka the Millionaires’ Factory, and numerous ex-politicians and public servants who have gone to work for Macquarie after, in many cases, being involved in public policy decisions such as privatisations and public-private partnerships from which Macquarie directly profited.

• The role of Australian-based banks in the UK LIBOR scandal, and the fact that six of the 14 banks caught rigging the LIBOR in London are also involved in setting Australia’s benchmark interest rate, the Bank Bill Swap rate (BBSW). Rigging the LIBOR interest rate allowed the banks to skim off the top of hundreds of trillions of dollars of deals over three decades, and it was known and condoned at the highest levels.

• Commonwealth Bank’s sudden decision in 2012 to no longer disclose its exposure to the toxic over-the-counter derivatives market, after increasing its exposure at a breathtaking rate in the three previous years. OTC derivatives are purely gambling side-bets that are often instruments of outright fraud; it was the global meltdown of the OTC derivatives bubble that caused the GFC in 2008.

Isherwood noted that there have been numerous corporate collapses in recent years in which the losses were borne by the mum and dad investors but not the banks or the well-connected.

Isherwood concluded, “It is time to clean up the criminal activity in the financial system that has been allowed to flourish under the cover of deregulation. 

“We must also impose the only effective regulation which can protect ordinary people from the predations of financial speculators, which is a Glass-Steagall separation of retail banking from investment banking.

“The only reason for the government to not launch a thorough investigation of criminality in the banking system, and not go with Glass-Steagall, is to cover for the bankers.

Link To Article

"The relationship between Macquarie Bank, aka the Millionaires’ Factory, and numerous ex-politicians and public servants who have gone to work for Macquarie after, in many cases, being involved in public policy decisions such as privatisations and public-private partnerships from which Macquarie directly profited."

[poddster]

Don't bank on that happening Donna 🙂

[donnashuggy]

These workers went on strike for others, they got the average worker 4 weeks holiday per year

Not bad eh poddy?

[freakiness]

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@boris1gary wrote:

poddster, didn't you say in another thread that you have never been a member of a union in your life - if that's correct where is all this union information coming from. oh i just saw your one experience with one shop steward at one company - i see.

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I haven't spent much time in a union either and didn't always have a positive experience with the union when I did.  However, the union listened to my complaint and took action. The company didn't until they were forced to investigate.  

As a result of the experience I made a friend and some years later gave her my number one senate vote  😄

In the news we don't see much of the positive stories because they're announcements that are basically over and done with within days.

On the other hand if the story is about industrial action the story lasts for weeks or months.  It begins with the news of negotiations, then a pause, then further negotiation and disagreement.  Then pause. Then more disagreement and threats of industrial action. All this gets talked about so much more than the good union people do in the workplace.   Therefore, it's easy to portray unions as the villians full of criminal elements out to rip off the ordinary people simply because it's a more drawn out, more sensationalised story.  

Now let's just take avantage of that and villianise the employees on $22/23 per hour as a way of forcing them out of the union or into union fight. Divide and conquer.  As if it's an evil thing that their union has done by getting and agreement of about $22 per hour for the workers.

[freakiness]

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@icyfroth wrote:

Do we have a comment about the banks at all?

Or is that too big a picture to take in?

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I responded to the headline because it fitted. Sorry if it veered off from there.

[freakiness]

We're  not living in the past though. Unions, like the majority, are living in the now and looking forward to the future.

[i-need-a-martini]

Why the fear of unions anyway?

The amount of good that has come out of the union movement over the last 100 years or so has shaped our country and created systems that everyone benefits from.

Stop the whining and be grateful.

[boris1gary]

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@poddster wrote:

Could it be that the vast divide was created by totally unrealistic demands made by unions in the past?

I would venture to say that those unrealistic DEMANDS are a contributory factor in the breakdown of employer/employee relations.

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poddster, what unrealistic demands would these be, i think it is the opposite of what you are stating. Our Labour history disproves your claim, for over 120 years, unions in Australia have fought hard for and won the right for workers to be paid a fair rate of pay, and for everyone to work in a safe and secure workplace and have good working conditions. Have you ever talked to an old miner, steelworker, wharfie, construction worker,  pay and conditions were absolutely horrific, Unions changed this - bosses fought tooth and nail against anything and everything that they considered interfering with their private profit. 

The "breakdown" you mention is not a breakdown, the vast divide exits because employers want maximum profit from minimum cost and worker's need a fair rate of pay and a safe and secure workplace, it's an inherent part of our economic system.

like i mentioned before, yes there a lot of workers who choose not to join Union's, but i have not yet met or heard of one single one who has refused a Union won pay increase or improved condition.

[donnashuggy]

I agree Martini, these people have sacrificed so much they don't deserve to be ridiculed as corrupt

Corruption is everywhere, not just unions. I admire anyone that does anything for the common good and many of these people that have gone on strike for better conditions etc did without.

[red_wolfey]

Just waiting for businesses who paid bribes (yes it is illegal to both pay and accept a bribe) to be left out of this $200 million  witch hunt.

We really need a Royal Commission into this government and their unchecked rorting and misleading parliment.

LNP member Fionna Nash mislead parliment about he knowledge that one of her own staffers was  a fast food lobbyist while she was going to remove a healthy food rating website.
When questioned in Parliment todayregarding her lies  Fionna Nash refused to answer questions.

State LNP member for Redcliffe's Scott Driscoll's  operated a secret lobby group for retailers out of his LNP office.

Used state tax dollars to pay his wifes consultancy firm.

.

[boris1gary]

Yes they certainly are a bunch of corrupt, rorting, lying thieves, but apparently their corruption is only "largess" and forgetfulness.