THE GREED FACTOR

The character Gordon Gekko made it official in the movie Wall Street. Greed is Good. And maybe you can argue in favour of that as long as it’s legal, and nobody is disadvantaged, and people enter deals with their eyes open and nobody gets hurt.

But away from the movies, and in the real world, that is not the case. Greed and pain and suffering for others usually go hand in hand.

And there’s a lot of it around right now. In Geelong, in what seems like a spooky re-rerun of the Pyramid collapse, there are people facing financial ruin with possibly as much as $70 million down the gurgler.

You can argue that if it seems too good to be true then it is. And if you could really get a 70% return on your investment…well.. hell… who would ever need a mortgage? You’d all be living the life of Graeme Hoy with luxury cars and big boats and penthouses.

How has finally spoken. Says he’s ‘completely hollowed out’. Not half as hollowed out as the bank accounts of the suckers who believed him as he picked their pockets.

And what of his co-director Ian Rau?  He’s just vanished. In any other country where white collar crime is taken seriously he would have been arrested and detained on the suspicion of corrupt practices or operating a business while insolvent.

In Sydney you’ve got the case of the charity shyster Jeff Gambin who has apparently conned everybody from James Packer to Alan Jones and actor Russell Crowe.  His Just Enough Faith charity fed the homeless in Sydney. At one celeb-studded night for the premiere of Crowe’s movie Cinderella Man they raised more than a million dollars.

Gambin’s Just Enough Faith gave just enough to feed the homeless while he put about $150,000 of the charity’s money into the poker machines at the Balmain Leagues Club. Other funds went to pay liquor store bills, and a beauty salon account and the rates on his wife’s apartment on the Gold Coast.

But this self-styled male Mother Theresa at times used five different names, supposedly had a degree from Cambridge, supposedly once owned 18 restaurants and his fantasy past goes on.

And then, on the subject of greed, there’s Pauline Hanson. Or should we call her Pauline Handsinyourpocket.

The one-time leader of One Nation and perennial candidate faces yet another ‘please explain’ over $200,000 in taxpayers’ money. Electoral funding reimbursement from the Australian Electoral Commission from her last stand as a Senate candidate.

Her own party treasurer, Graham McDonald, a Brisbane businessman, now says he believed Hanson only stood at last year’s election to receive public funding.

She has form. In 2003 Hanson and One Nation founder, David Ettridge, were jailed for three years for unlawfully obtaining nearly half a million dollars from electoral funding. On appeal the conviction was overturned and Hanson was released after eleven weeks in jail. The money was never returned.

Part of the blame for electoral funding rorting can be sheeted home to the Howard and Rudd Governments. The reimbursement now is about $2.00 a vote—after you reach a certain percentage. But there are no restrictions on how that money is spent.

It should only be reimbursed to cover legitimate election costs and only on the production of receipts and audited party accounts. It was never designed as a lottery win or a bonus for a party leader or candidate to spend as they wish. Even if you believe Gordon Gekko.

Monday, April 28, 2008

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2008