Crime doesn’t pay as much as the bad old days

The most violent and most powerful criminal organisations are the motorcycle hoodlums.

Democracy isn’t cheap. Parliaments and parliamentarians cost money.

In Australia’s case we have to fly them to Canberra from all parts of this enormous continent. They need offices in their home town to handle the day-to-day business of a pollie.

Because I was considered powerful, more than my share of the general public turned up at my office.

Overwhelmingly the greatest part of my business was immigration. Culturally, Australia is very different from the countries of Southeast Asia. One gentleman from that area turned up with a shoebox full of cash plus a mega-expensive watch after I had been successful in helping his niece gain entry to Australia. He said this was how this kind of transaction was carried out in his country of origin.

Anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay

During my time in politics I can think of only two instances of ministers in state governments who were jailed for corruption. Sadly, both were from the Labor Party.

At a Federal level we cannot regale our friends with tales of paper bags full of money because such a thing would be detected by any bank from which a large chunk of cash was being taken. Compulsory reporting laws are in place and no evidence has been presented to suggest that those laws are being thwarted.

What’s more, black money is now more easily detected. You can’t plonk large sums of cash into a bank account without the police knowing and you can’t withdraw large sums of cash either. “Follow the money” is the catchcry of our times and the authorities have all the hi-tech equipment to ensure this is no idle threat.

The Americans changed the game by threatening countries that if their banking laws and reporting were not tightened, their financial institutions would be prevented from operating in the US. Banks that were once safe havens for the shonks and the crooks are far less cavalier when looking for new customers.

Crooks the world over are doing it tougher. Mafia dons have to hide in barns next to the pigs and the goats because the people of Sicily no longer allow them to flaunt their affluence or power.

The Australian mafia must have learned something from the 1977 murder of anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay in Griffith, NSW. The publicity that murder received went on for years and if there is one thing the mafia hates, it is the publicising of their evil deeds.

Credit must be given to crime writer and journalist Bob Bottom, who, despite numerous threats on his life, chased this mob for many years.

Perhaps his success should be judged on the fact that the Griffith mafia is far less a force than it was in those days.

It would appear now that the most violent and most powerful criminal organisations are the motorcycle hoodlums. The amount of time they spend killing each other tells you just how much money can still be made selling drugs. If you sell it to children you know you will get repeat business.

Ice is the drug that causes society the worst of the sordid dramas associated with the drug world. That is where our efforts to stamp out harmful drugs should focus.

Just so you know, I politely declined the offer of the money and the watch.