MELBOURNE, VIC. — Whilst the leader of the opposition (at least for now), Jess Wilson, MP, has come out and said: “For years, Labor has allowed bikies, organised criminals and corrupt union figures to infiltrate Victoria’s Big Build worksites. At least $15 billion of taxpayer money has been rorted while the Premier and the Labor Government looked the other way.”
So, we’re going to explore corruption in Victoria, going as far back in time as we can on all sides and stripes of the political aisles, courtrooms and cop shops.
To commence our series, we’ll start with Victoria Police Corruption (Volumes 1 and 2), written by author Raymond Hoser and first published in 1999. They were republished in 2022.
His books were banned, and in many cases still are. State politicians of all sides and stripes have been trying to silence Mr Hoser’s work since it was first published in the 1990s.
If the Victorian Liberal Party wants to “investigate corruption and ‘hold politicians to account’,” then it needs to go much further into the past than the current state Labor government and at least back to the Cain/Kirner (Labor) and Kennett (Liberal) eras, too.
Corruption is corruption. Whether that’s police, courts, or politicians. When it comes to politicians, we are not claiming one side is ‘less’ or ‘more’ corrupt than the other side of Spring Street’s Parliament; it must be assumed they all are.
It is of note that when it comes to corruption investigations, both major parties have a history of promising to ‘tell the truth and expose corruption’ when an election is due. Once the election is won, lost, done and dusted, those political promises disappear faster than writing in the sand.
We will publish the ISBN, decimal deweys, links and any details, such as old newspaper reports, court transcripts and the like, of where anyone can obtain Mr Hoser’s books, documents and links that support Mr Hoser’s claims in his books, so readers can check our reporting for themselves.
