Scandal for Labor over bear in there

WHEN Australia does political scandal, it never seems to reach the heights of other nations.

Consider the colour television affair which dogged the government of Malcolm Fraser in 1982.

For the Hawke Labor government, it was the Paddington Bear affair two years later.

The end result was special minister of state Mick Young - a former shearer and Labor national secretary - had to stand down from the ministry for a second time.

He first stood down in July 1983 in the wash-up of the Combe-Ivanov affair when it emerged Young had indiscreetly told a friend of links between former Labor Party secretary-turned-lobbyist David Combe and a Soviet intelligence agent. Young was reinstated six weeks later.

Then on July 5, 1984, Young was flying back into Australia and at Adelaide Airport signed a customs statement saying there was nothing to declare in his baggage.

Included in the luggage he was taking home for his wife Mary and sister-in-law Laurel Hughes were gifts - including a large and undeclared Paddington Bear.

The bear eventually incurred $1093 in duty.

But for Young, there were immediate problems.

The presence of a cuddly toy has tended to trivialise this controversy.

But the opposition compared it to the colour TV affair of 1982 which cost two Fraser government ministers their jobs when a television was declared to be black-and-white instead of colour, thereby evading customs duty.

Cabinet papers for 1984 and 1985, released by the National Archives of Australia on Tuesday, show the Labor government acted quickly, commissioning an inquiry into the bear affair led by lawyer Michael Black, QC.

But cabinet gave Black no special powers to compel answers to his questions and proposed the inquiry be conducted in an inquisitorial rather than adversarial manner.

Black duly produced a 135-page report, concluding there was no intention to evade customs duty, although Young should have taken more time and exercised greater care when he filled out the customs declaration form.

Young, who always insisted he knew nothing of the bear, returned to the ministry.

He eventually quit politics in 1988, again dogged by political scandal over his alleged handling of campaign donations for the 1987 election.

He died in April 1996 aged 59.

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Scandal for Labor over bear in there

Dengan url

http://semangatkonstant.blogspot.com/2012/12/scandal-for-labor-over-bear-in-there.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Scandal for Labor over bear in there

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Scandal for Labor over bear in there

sebagai sumbernya