ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Scenes of former US President Donald Trump facing charges in New York City have Australians optimistic that with the new Federal ICAC being established, we will soon see historic moments of the same ilk in this country.
There has never been a federal corruption watchdog in this country and because of that, people who deserve to be help accountant for their actions while in government end up receiving an ambassadorship or slink quietly back into the cesspit of white-collar public service.
While there is optimism, locals here are not expecting any politician in this country to face any repercussions for any wrongdoing because that would be unAustralian.
“I mean, you just have to look at this RoboDebt stuff,” said one man on the street outside The Advocate’s Daroo Street newsroom.
“In more developed parts of the world, those guys would be sleeping with one eye open. They’d be hunted like thylacines. The French would’ve already chopped their heads off. Maybe with this Federal ICAC, we might see people investigated at the very least. If we ever see anyone get charged, tried and convicted then great but fuck me, do you think it’ll ever happen?”
Another local said the whole arrest of Donald Trump seemed “surreal” and that if it were to happen here, it’d blow the socks off his little French Quarter feet.
“Could you image [redacted by legal] getting arrested for [redacted by legal]? It’d be crazy. Tell what else, I reckon it’d be interesting to see how the media would react to [redacted by legal] being arrested. It’d either be swept under the rug and kept off the front pages like [redacted by legal] and the whole incident with the [redacted by legal] in Soho. Or, it’d be one of the biggest media events this country has ever known,” they said.
“Images of [redacted by legal] in handcuffs would be one of the most iconic images in Australian history. We’re just at the beginning of this Federal ICAC journey. Hopefully, it goes somewhere and doesn’t just trail off and abruptly finish like some half-baked Patrick White novel.”
More to come.
