Ross Meurant: Spot the Difference - or the Similarity

Drug Cartels in Central & South America, have massive influence on who stays alive and who dies. Anyone who stands against or interferes in the commercial operations of suppling drugs to the major market i.e. America, is in serious danger of death. Such is the power of fear imposed on populations where these parasitic elements operate with virtual impunity.

The latest example being Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay, a 39-year-old senator who remains in intensive care after he was shot three times - twice in the head - at a campaign event in the capital, Bogotá.

In the state of Victoria, Australia, concerns of criminal infiltration of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) include allegations of corruption, violence against women and intimidation involving members of the CFMEU in Victoria.

The push for a building industry commission follows a 60 Minutes investigation alleging that over 100 CFMEU members were bribed, while further allegations showed violence against women, physical assault, intimidation and victim negligence.

The investigation also uncovered links between CFMEU members and bikie-linked figures who received large payments from companies on publicly funded projects using taxpayers’ money.

Describing the CFMEU as a “modern-day mafia operation”, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the union had increased the cost of residential and commercial housing in Australia.

“The culture of criminality and corruption is so entrenched, and it will never change,” he said. (1)

Addendum:  With an attitude like that, its no surprise that Mr Dutton was trashed in the recent Aussie elections.

Turn back the clock. 

In 1987 my Maiden Speech rocked NZ. What captured massive MSM attention was what I said about radical Māori, as was recently reproduced in Breakingviews: History can be a Bitch (2)

What did not capture massive MSM attention, was what I said about Union corruption in NZ. (3)

“Finally, I should like to address the issue of illegal union activity in our country. At this moment, in Dargaville, a small bridge-building contractor from Rangiora has been brought to his knees by the unlawful activity of a group of militant unionists in relation to the construction of a $4 million bridge across the Northern Wairoa River. The contractor was presented with a demand to employ three riggers from a register of riggers run by the notorious John Doran and Ray Bianchi. That register is a splinter group from the labourers’ union. It has no lawful status; it is merely a group of men who have paid Doran between $100 and several hundred dollars to join a cartel. Doran then chooses an industrial site, and demands that his cartel be employed or he will “black’’ the site. He uses that industrial muscle to blackmail developers into paying him large sums of money to allow industrial peace on a site. Doran’s tactics include threatening to kill, as well as the financial loss that follows the “blacking’’ of a site. He also pockets the levy paid by those who want to join the register. Such unlawful gangsterism also demands a public inquiry.

That small contractor in Dargaville has tremendous fortitude, and the backing of his employees and the support of the town. He is prepared to fight that tyranny; but unless the courts come to his aid he will fold. He could survive and finish the bridge without the help of the courts, but to do that he would need to have the support of his big suppliers such as Winstone Concrete, which supplies ready-mix concrete. Lamentably, the ready-mix supplier does not have the same courage as that small contractor, and has capitulated to the blackmail of the riggers’ register. I say “Shame on Winstone’

Fortunately, NZ had a politician with a more determined resolve to remedy the rot, than Mr Dutton seemed to espouse (as above).

Sir Bill Birch, at the time a mere Mr Birch, became Minister of fixing the Unions when National was elected government 1990. As it happens, I was on Bill’s CIE committee which introduced the Employment Contracts Act.  That legislation effectively eliminated the mafia elements lurking in the bowels of the Unions.

Marsden Point Oil Refinery; Mangere Bridge; Wellington BNZ; being three major constructions which were endlessly delayed by the interference of parasitic elements in Unions.

The shackles which had NZ construction by the throat, were eradicated by Bill Birch.

Back to the Present.

Putting to the side for the moment not uncommon rackets in local government, such as splitting contracts below tender price limits i.e. as a hypothetical example, one million dollar and above must go to tender, being divided into four by quarter million contracts which can then be allocated to well placed contractors aka mates of well-placed bureaucrats.

It is not uncommon in the Auckland Zone, to have to wait 2 years for consent to develop a new house on a 5-acre lot. However, that time frame can be substantially reduce by paying a koha to Maori.

Some might well consider such a payment, as interreference in due process, by parasitic elements.

 Ross Meurant BA MPP.  Company Director.  Former Police Inspector, Member of Parliament & Honorary Consul.  

References: 

(1) https://www.smartpropertyinvestment.com.au/tax-and-legal/26492-modern-day-mafia-building-industry-let-down-as-cfmeu-corruption-claims-arise
(2) https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2024/11/ross-meurant-history-can-be-bitch-once.html
(3) https://www.klaut.media/single-post/ross-meurant-maiden-speech