Federal government members indulge in the conduct described in the extracts from The Age today below. Mr Whealy made the comments referred to. The conduct is certainly unedifying for most electors. Then the usual suspects are lined up. (And what a grubby lot they are.) Both parties indulge in this courtesan courtship – at federal and state levels. It is revolting. It is a symptom of our loss of faith in government – across the board.
According to John Barlett’s Concordance, Shakespeare used the word ‘slut’ three times – only in comedies of course, and in a less than complimentary way. The Glossary of C T Onions for ‘sluttish’ has ‘of low or lewd character, unchaste.’ (Revised to 1986.) The Shorter OED has ‘a woman of low or loose character’. The Macquarie has for the ‘colloquial’ meaning ‘a person who is indiscriminate or voracious in their consumption of a specified commodity’. (The reference there to ‘commodity’ follows the use of that term by the Bastard in King John – an item of commerce, like, say, Bitcoin.)
In my view the conduct of the federal ministers referred to would be described as that of sluts in the current usage of that term here. They should be utterly ashamed of themselves.
When I couple that with their cowardice before the gaming lobby, I despair.
Age extract
Leaked emails reveal how much it costs to dine with Albanese and senior MPs
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his ministers are charging businesses tens of thousands of dollars to obtain privileged access to the Labor frontbench, even as the federal government prepares to restrict political donations under long-awaited reforms.
This masthead has obtained copies of 40 invitations sent to members of the Federal Labor Business Forum – one of the party’s key fundraising vehicles – over the past year, which reveal the chance to hobnob with Albanese at a boardroom lunch or dinner typically costs $5000 per person.
The cost of a meal with a member of the ministry ranges from $1500 to $4000, giving businesses access to ministers who oversee key areas of the economy including health, mining and financial services.
A table for eight people plus a VIP guest, typically a minister, can cost up to $18,000, while a table for 10 without a VIP guest costs up to $16,000. Tickets cost $1000-$2000 less for members of Labor’s business forum.
The 40 invitations to various fundraising events were sent out over the year from October 30, 2023, and would be likely to have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the federal ALP on top of the membership fees that organisations pay to the forum.
If those membership fees, which are disclosed on the electoral commission’s website for 2022-23, are added together, it would have taken a minimum of $3.8 million.
Labor’s planned donations reform, which it promised in the wake of the 2022 election, include a cap on the amount a candidate can receive, and a limit on how much a party can spend per electorate.
But the party’s business forum technically does not solicit donations under current electoral law, instead taking in money in exchange for memberships and event tickets. How that will be treated under the planned laws, which have not been released, is unclear.
Former judge Anthony Whealy, KC, said the Centre for Public Integrity he chairs had campaigned for years against political fundraising functions because they paired large sums of money with scant transparency.
“As always, the federal parliament is lagging behind the states in terms of donations reform,” Whealy said. “Just the idea of paying these enormous sums of money to have dinner with politicians is unedifying. It means very wealthy people have access to politicians and ordinary people can’t afford it. It looks bad, it is bad, and it is anti-democratic.”
The details of Labor’s sophisticated business-focused fundraising operations comes as the party prepares to bring much-delayed new laws that will tighten the rules on political donations next month, and as the major parties gear up for a federal election that must be held by May next year.
Membership of the forum has four tiers from $33,000 to $110,000 per year, according to The Australian Financial Review, and entitles the member to tickets to events such as an annual budget dinner and policy briefings with ministers.
Members in 2022-23 number more than 70, including consultancies Deloitte and KPMG, retail and industrial conglomerate Wesfarmers, lobby group the Pharmacy Guild, gambling company Sportsbet and mining giant Fortescue.
With Compliments 