With one more sleep before voters go to the polls, Malcolm Turnbull asks us to trust him but Frank Sykes has put forward seven compelling reasons why we'd be fools to do so.
SANDI KEANE, IA’s deputy editor, wrote a brilliant article on 23 June 2016 entitled 'Voting for Turnbull? Here's 5 Reasons why you shouldn't'.
Her 5 reasons were:
- Turnbull’s lacklustre legacy
- Turnbull the vengeful: “charming but chilling” (as described by Phillip Adams)
- Coalition’s plan to sell off the ABC unleashes the inner Turnbull—the dictator
- Do we still need reminding how little we liked Malcolm Turnbull?http://www.whatafizza.com/
- Turnbull at the mercy of the “right” after the swing
If you have not read the extremely well referenced and researched article, you must immediately do so. I would suggest that you do along with my additional comments below before voting on Saturday.
The reasons for not voting for Turnbull and his Party are so numerous that they could fill a book. Here are seven more:
- Timber logging in Solomon Islands —1990s
- OzEmail Internet service provider —1994-1999
- HIH Insurance Royal Commission —2002
- Utegate/Ozcar aka Grech Affair —2009
- Is Malcolm Turnbull another Goldman Sachs hit man? —2015
- Australia's electricity emissions jump 5.5% since Coalition dumps carbon price —2016
- Turnbull personally uses offshore banking —Panama Papers
1. Timber logging in Solomon Islands —1990s
In the Solomon Times, 21 September 2008, it was reported that Axiom Forest Resources, in which Turnbull was an investor and Chairman in 1991-2, clear-felled forests in the Solomon Islands under the trading name Silvania Forest Products. The then Solomon Islands prime minister Solomon Mamaloni, reportedly threatened to close it down for "constant breaches of logging practices".
Malcolm Turnbull was reported to have made millions from such logging. ABC’s Radio Australia followed up on 21 March 2012 with questions about Turnbull’s logging scandal and calling into account his environmental credentials.
2. OzEmail Internet service provider —1994-1999
In a media release by the Citizens Electoral Council of Australia (CECA) dated 7 October 2015, it was revealed that Turnbull made his fortune as Chairman and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs Australia in 1997-2001.
His firm was the key perpetrator in fuelling the 1990’s tech stock (or dot-com) bubble and the 2007-9 subprime housing bubble, and their subsequent crash. A prominent hedge-fund manager was quoted as saying that their analysts were fraudulently saying that “x.com” was worth $100 a share when it was clearly not. They illegally manipulated the value of such stocks, and ultimately, the small investor ended up buying them.
Turnbull was in charge as chairman during the expansion of OzEmail from 1994 to 1999. In 1999, Turnbull turned his $450,000 investment in OzEmail into $59.3 million in cash through the $520 million sale of the Internet service provider to the American MCI WorldCom, which had rapidly grown during the tech bubble. Turnbull’s timing was good: just three years later WorldCom imploded in the largest bankruptcy in corporate history, and in 2005, Ozemail was taken over by iiNet for a mere $110 million.
3. HIH Insurance Royal Commission — 2002
In May 2002, Turnbull appeared before the HIH Insurance royal commission and was questioned on Goldman Sachs's involvement in the possible privatisation of one of the acquisitions of the collapsed insurance company. The Royal Commissioner's report made no adverse findings against him or Goldman Sachs but that didn’t stop HIH liquidator, Tony McGrath naming him personally in the action to recover compensation for HIH shareholders.
4. Utegate/Ozcar aka Grech Affair — 2009
In 2009, Turnbull as leader of the Opposition, alleged that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and/or Treasurer Wayne Swan had acted improperly on behalf of a Queensland car dealer and that they had misled Parliament.
On 23 June 2009, Turnbull was forced to admit that his allegations against the prime minister and treasurer had no substance. His satisfaction ratings nose-dived.
5. Is Malcolm Turnbull another Goldman Sachs hit man — 2015
In a media release by the CECA on Wednesday, 7 October 2015
the new PM, Malcolm Turnbull, was quoted as having
“a big black mark on his curriculum vitae, in the name of Goldman Sachs, that should ring alarm bells.”
Goldman Sachs had enormous influence on governments throughout the world — an influence that had involved a history of misery and economic destruction. As the most powerful investment bank in the world, it was the key perpetrator in fuelling the 1990s tech stock bubble and the subprime housing bubble and their subsequent crash. CECA goes on:
“Its business model, based on sleight-of-hand, takes from the majority to benefit an elite minority. Instead of growing the economic pie to benefit all, Goldman Sachs chokes funding for productive industries in favour of supporting asset and commodity price inflation”.
Goldman Sachs’s history of influencing policy by installing their economic hit men in government and central banks has been well documented by Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi in the article, ‘The Great American Bubble Machine’, 5 April, 2010.
A list of prominent Goldman Sachs former employees indicates the extent to which this firm dominates governments around the world.
For example, Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs in 1999-2006, is said to have worked closely with Turnbull, when he subsequently held the office of U.S. Secretary of the Treasury in 2006-09. He was architect of the 2008 bailout of Wall Street, funnelling trillions of dollars to his old friends who had caused the meltdown of the global financial system.
The CECA also suggest that Turnbull’s Goldman Sachs methods in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin food bowl while John Howard’s Water Minister in 2007 – the use of mandatory water restrictions and water trading, at the same time as Goldman Sachs was moving heavily into water speculation globally – have damaged Australia. With the MDB Plan, irrigators were being strangled and several water allocations were close to zero, while “the cost of temporary water is sitting around an exorbitant $200 per megalitre”.
6. Australia's electricity emissions jump 5.5 per cent since Coalition dumps carbon price — 2016
As reported by RenewEconomy on 6 April this year, Australia’s electricity emissions have gone against the global trend by continuing to rise to some 5.5 per cent higher than they were before the carbon price was dumped by the Coalition. This rise comes amid soaring temperatures and the most serious coral bleaching ever witnessed in the Great Barrier Reef.
The Coalition has reduced grants to renewable energy projects, to “protect” taxpayers’ money while continuing to handout taxpayers’ money as handouts to the big polluters and has allowed dirty coal plants to continue emitting at the highest levels without penalty.
7. Turnbull personally uses offshore banking — Panama Papers
Malcolm Turnbull defended his “offshore” investments after Labor's Sam Dastyari accused him of tax avoidance, as reported by the ABC 14 October 2015.
Given the above, Turnbull attempts to defend the indefensible — why he chooses not to invest his funds for the benefit of Australia.
Turnbull was named in the Panama Papers as a former director of a British Virgin Islands company set up and administered by law firm Mossack Fonseca to exploit a Siberian gold prospect.
At the time, he was involved with Goldman Sachs. He is no doubt still involved.
My list could go on and on but here are some stories you might like to read about Malcolm Turnbull’s son, Alex Turnbull. Like father like son?
Bloomberg: 'Ex-Goldman banker Turnbull said to plan hedge fund correct' (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-08-01/ex-goldman-banker-turnbull-said-to-plan-hedge-fund-correct-)
Sydney Morning Herald: 'Malcolm Turnbull soft on china because of his family connections' (http://www.smh.com.au/national/is-malcolm-turnbull-soft-on-china-because-of-his-family-connections-20150915-gjnbz8.html)
Australian Financial Review: 'Malcolm Turnbull's son a secured creditor of failed 100m tech firm play up' (http://www.afr.com/business/sport/malcolm-turnbulls-son-a-secured-creditor-of-failed-100m-tech-firm-playup-20160211-gmreai)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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