“F***ing crooked politicians,” declares the vast law-abiding, honest and hard-working majority of Australians
A WALK ON THE DARKER, SEAMIER SIDE
State funerals and memorial services are public ceremonies held to honour Australians of significance who made exceptional contributions to public life.
Ned Kelly remains legendary as a person of national significance, known for his exceptional contribution to Australia’s cultural and historical heritage.
Woven into the national identity, his image — especially with the metal armour — has become an enduring Australian symbol of rebellion, courage and individuality.
However, he was an outlaw, responsible for three police killings, armed robberies and horse theft. He was a “crook”. He was convicted and hanged in 1880.
Despite entrenchment in Australian folklore, Ned was never awarded a state memorial service, presumably because of his “crook” status.
But apparently, it is now OK for out-and-out crooks to be honoured with state ceremonies.
With news that a certain shadowy figure – an out-and-out crook – from the darker, seamier side of NSW and federal Labor politics is to be honoured with a state funeral, a new precedent has been set.
Is it time to consider Ned Kelly for state honours?
Let’s get some insights into this shadowy figure with excerpts from Kate McClymont’s authoritative column in The Age and SMH 11 November 2025.
Whilst obvious to many, the figure’s name has been dubbed he, him, hIs until the close, when the proverbial hits the fan.
The distinguished investigative journalist begins:
For a reporter whose career has been spent uncovering crime and corruption, he was the one who got away.
Former foreign minister Gareth Evans once said his inclination for doing “whatever it takes” … was not always a recipe for good, principled government.
“… he never learnt the finer points of ethical behaviour. He had always traded in favours, mateship and deals,” wrote Marian Wilkinson in The Fixer, her 1996 unauthorised biography of him.
Much to the astonishment of fellow diners, a woman marched over to his table and hurled a kangaroo scrotum purse at him, saying: “If we were in the jungle, I’d have cut your balls off and worn them round my neck.”
…
She claimed that he had offered to get her husband off the charges if Leanne would have sex with him.
When lunching, he would speak candidly of his extramarital activities.
A Queensland investigation into a prostitution ring discovered he had been involved in a $4000 sex romp with two Gold Coast sex workers at the five-star Hyatt …
…
The women were allegedly provided to him … in exchange for him making favourable representations to a US defence contractor on Burgess’ behalf.
Over the years, several Labor figures were adamant that Obeid paid him for getting him [Obeid] a seat in the NSW upper house. One said the $80,000 figure “is out of the horse’s mouth”, referring to him.
Offset Alpine’s Sydney printing plant mysteriously burned down on Christmas Eve 1993, causing the company’s share price to soar as it had recently been insured at three times its purchase price …
…
Years later, my [Kate McClymont] colleague Linton Besser and I discovered that in December 1994, a few months after the final insurance payout was made, he transferred $1 million from his Swiss account to an account in Beirut, Lebanon. The bank account just happened to be owned by … a close associate of the Obeid family.
…
The million-dollar payment appeared to be Eddie Obeid’s cut of the insurance payout.
My own lunching relationship came to an abrupt end in 2005 when I reported crime figure Joe Meissner had revealed for the first time his involvement in the bashing of Peter Baldwin, who was in the rival Left faction of the NSW Labor Party.
(He of course, is Graham Richardson.)
But Labor’s current political leaders appear to have turned a blind eye to Richardson’s unethical and immoral behaviour …
“Graham, quite simply, was a Labor hero,” said Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles after Richardson’s death on Saturday.
Once a fountain of knowledge on Richo’s unscrupulous behaviour, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has offered the late powerbroker a state funeral, saying: “We have lost a giant of the Labor Party and a remarkable Australian.”
End of excerpts from Kate McClymont.
To repeat Albanese, “We have lost a giant of the Labor Party and a remarkable Australian.”
OMG! WTF! SO BLATANT AND UNASHAMED!
Richardson’s reputation for corruption was legendary in political and media circles, and known to the public through writers McClymont and Wilkinson.
Incredibly, ‘Richo’ was never found guilty of corruption, which speaks incriminating volumes for his influence.
His lack of ethics was breathtaking, and now our “honourable” prime minister leaves us gasping for air with his hypocritical, very own chilling brand of ethical abandonment.
What is most disturbing is Albanese’s blatant and unashamed endorsement of Richardson whose behaviour was blatant and unashamed.
“F***ing crooked politicians,” declares the vast law-abiding, honest and hard-working majority of Australians.
Back in Ned Kelly’s day, many viewed the police and the British colonial system as corrupt, oppressive perpetrators of social injustice.
Kelly’s rebellion and resistance appealed to the evolving Australian sense of independence and mistrust of corrupt self-serving authority.
At least the dubious legacy of Graham Richardson serves to remind us to never become complacent about corruption, which lives on in the form of corporate donations and lobby group power.