Opposition leader and former sydney detective both agree, NSW Labor government is soft on ethnic crime!
What say you delusional lefties!
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17930393%255E2702,00.htmlBranch-stacking leaves Iemma 'beholden' to ethnic groups
Ean Higgins
January 25, 2006
THE NSW Government's "softly, softly" approach on Middle Eastern crime was a direct result of Premier Morris Iemma's reluctance to offend Lebanese powerbrokers in his own electorate, the state Opposition claimed yesterday.In an interview with The Australian, Opposition Leader Peter Debnam for the first time personalised his attack on the Premier, claiming ALP branch-stacking in his seat of Lakemba had left him beholden to Middle Easterners.
Mr Debnam's allegations were backed up by the high-profile former Sydney detective Tim Priest,
who said police had for years avoided taking on Middle Eastern gangs because it would be "political suicide" for their ALP parliamentary masters.Mr Priest told The Australian that "over the years these Middle Eastern criminals have been allowed to run amok" because of directives from on high that police should avoid antagonising ethnic communities.
The new allegations come as Mr Iemma and his Police Minister, Carl Scully, struggle to contain political uproar over the chaotic police effort to track down Middle Eastern "revenge attackers" who went on a rampage of violence following last month's race riots.
Mr Debnam yesterday provided details of his broad allegation of a political conspiracy, which he claims has prevented police from cracking down on Middle Eastern crime. He noted that Mr Iemma's southwestern Sydney seat had a large population of Middle Eastern descent.
According to Australian Bureau of Statistics data, 14.4 per cent of the Lakemba electorate identified themselves as being of Middle Eastern or North African ancestry, and of that grouping, 10.8 per cent said they were Lebanese.
Only 14.2 per cent of the electorate said they were of Australian ancestry, and 18.1 per cent said they were of English, Scottish or Irish ancestry.
Mr Debnam said people of Middle Eastern background had a disproportionate influence in the Labor Party because of branch-stacking in the 1990s in which ALP factions brought scores of them into the party to get their preferred candidates pre-selected.
"They are not just votes, they are members," Mr Debnam said.Mr Scully, who holds the western Sydney seat of Smithfield, also has a large Middle Eastern and North African component in his electorate.
Mr Debnam said their policy was not to upset the Middle Eastern community, and it had been carried out by Police Commissioner Ken Moroney."The Commissioner implements government policy," Mr Debnam said. The allegations have been angrily denied by Mr Iemma, Mr Scully, and Mr Moroney. The three say police have made their own operational decisions, without political influence.
"I do not comment on or interfere with the way police officers conduct their investigations," Mr Scully told The Australian yesterday.
But Mr Priest, who worked as a policeman in Sydney's west and the city for 21 years, said the non-confrontational policing strategy towards ethnic gangs was well established, going back to former commissioner Peter Ryan.