Unprecedented levels of corruption

With the release of its third report into corruption in Wollongong City Council, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) recommended charges be laid against 11 people for 139 criminal offences.

Most of the people named were either ALP members or political donors. ICAC commissioner Jerrold Cripps QC said, "To establish actual corrupt conduct within five levels of a NSW public sector organisation, as has occurred with Wollongong City Council, is without precedent".

In response, NSW Labor Premier Nathan Rees made the astonishing comment to media that the ICAC report showed that NSW is a "corruption-resistant state".

The ICAC report made 27 "corruption prevention recommendations", but many in the community are sceptical. According to the Socialist Alliance branch convener, Chris Williams: "What surprises us is not the findings but the complete lack of solutions to a very real problem. The ICAC recommendations are bandaid solutions; they leave the real problems festering under the surface."

Williams added, "Many of the recommendations rely on NSW government institutions dominated by the ALP. Are they serious? Do they expect us to trust the party of Jo Scimone, Val Zanotto and Kiril Jonovski with the job of combatting corruption?

"First the ALP government cancels our elections and appoints its own administrators in place of elected councillors, and now this. It's completely unacceptable."

The Wollongong Against Corruption campaign group is calling for a royal commission into corruption and a return to democracy in Wollongong. "Information and decision-making power need to be in the hands of the community, not centralised in the hands of the planning minister", Williams said.

"It's the community that suffers from corrupt practice and profit-driven planning. Only by expanding community democracy and participation can we trust the decision-making process."

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