AN URGENT CASE FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
CRIME AND RESPECTABILITY
The CFMEU’s facade of legitimate union activity has crumbled, exposing a cesspool of criminality that police have long suspected but were pressured by the ALP in power to ignore. Alongside the Maritime Union of Australia and Transport Workers Union, the CFMEU has orchestrated a sprawling network of money laundering, drug trafficking, protection rackets, and the distribution of heroin, ice, cocaine, MDMA and murder.
Some members of this trio of unions are known to run illicit manufacturing and distribution hubs for synthetic drugs in Melbourne, Sydney, and the Gold Coast, acting as standover men over others, collecting huge sums of from them in protection money. A police insider, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed the operation’s staggering scale—raking in billions of dollars annually.
AUSTRALIA’S HIDDEN DRUG CRISIS–THE BORED AND THE BEAUTIFUL
Australia bears a shameful mark: the highest per capita drug use in the OECD, with young people from ‘respectable’ families at the heart of this epidemic. The names are staggering—Rosaline Hawke, daughter of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke; Harriet Wran, daughter of late NSW Premier Neville Wran; Jamie Packer, son of the late Kerry Packer; Richard Buttrose, nephew of former ABC chair Ita Buttrose; children of three current and former NSW Supreme and District Court judges (unnamed for legal reasons); and partners at top law firms in Melbourne, Brisbane, and NSW, now under investigation.
This scourge spares no family, cutting through every stratum of society. Yet, the stigma keeps Australians silent, too ashamed to unite publicly against a crisis that demands collective action. The private pain of addiction remains a whispered secret, stifling the national resolve needed to confront it.
A TICKING TIME BOMB OF POLITICAL CORRUPTION–IT’S IN OUR DNA
No major party—ALP, Liberals, or Greens—dares confess to pocketing illicit funds, knowing the consequences would be seismic. A police insider warns that exposure could unleash a torrent of criminal prosecutions, ensnaring sitting MPs, opposition figures, independents, judges, and prominent lawyers. The fallout could dismantle the ALP, Liberals, and even the Greens, with deregistration looming as a real threat.
The pressure is relentless. Union enforcers and Triad operatives wield threats and blackmail, driving ALP members to the edge of collapse. In recent months, three federal MPs from NSW and Victoria, gripped by fear, have sought police protection and stand ready to testify, poised to unravel this sinister web. Yet, a climate of dread paralyzes Parliament, with these MPs holding their breath for a fearless government to take the reins after May 3, 2025, and ignite the reckoning this scandal demands.
THE CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE SURROUNDING RICHARD BUTTROSE’S REVELATIONS
From his prison cell, Richard Buttrose, the convicted drug peddling nephew of former chair of the ABC board Ita Buttrose, exposed a bombshell: a client list naming a veritable ‘Who’s Who’ of Australia’s elite—socialites, politicians, judges, barristers and solicitors (prominent silks amongst them), bankers, and media moguls. This revelation could have rocked the nation. Yet, in a chilling pact of self-preservation, the media and legal establishment, including two former High Court judges, have chosen silence. With a tacit nod, they’ve buried the truth, opting to shield their own rather than confront a scandal that demands public reckoning.
AUSTRALIA’S POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL COMPLICITY IN ORGANIZED CRIME
Australia’s major political parties and its judicial and legal system have shamefully sidestepped the fight against organized crime, opting instead for hollow promises to curb ‘youth crime’ and ‘domestic violence’—issues that, while serious, are dwarfed by the pervasive threat of organized crime, the very root of much societal decay. Their silence is no accident; it stems from their deep entanglement with criminal networks.
For the Liberals, this sordid alliance traces back to before Sir Robert Askin, whose corrupt reign in NSW cemented government ties to organized crime. For the ALP, the stain runs through former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who reaped the rewards of a criminalized union movement and its illicit spoils.
The ALP must act decisively, embracing transparency and accountability to dismantle this legacy of complicity. Failure to do so risks collapse under the weight of its own corruption. As the saying goes, the fish rots from the head.
Claire Buckridge