Paul,

I agree with your comparison of Freya's hacking with the Phone hacking, and agree that she should face the same consequences.

The CFMEU resembles organised crime more than organised labour, and several CFMEU heavies would make Obeid look like a model citizen. It is typical of the CORRUPT GREENS that are taking donations from someone far worse than taking money from any developer.

The New Matilda is a far left whinge mouthpiece that publishes mostly left whinge polemics and will print pretty much any crap as long as it pushes a left whinge viewpoint, and often includes pieces from authors with no qualifications in the subject. It has no balance, no fact checking and often contains blatant falsehoods. As it is only a blog and not a newspaper it is not subject to any of the rigors that real news organisations are.

Only someone from the far left lunatic fringe would seriously compare the NM in same league as any of the tabloids such as the Australian, or the SMH.

Paul 1405,

You have considerable gall dismissing that $50,000 donation the Greens received from the CMFEU as reported in the Canberra Times,

<Get Zed: CFMEU donates $50,000 to ACT Greens to bring down Seselja

In a last-minute bid to prevent the election of Liberal Senate candidate and former ACT leader Zed Seselja in 2013, the ACT Greens received the largest donation in the history of the party branch from the pro-Labor Construction, Forestry, Mining and Electrical Union (CFMEU).

Fairfax Media can reveal a $50,000 donation was made to the ACT Greens federal account, which can only be spent on federal elections or administration, on September 3 last year, in the dying days of polling. It was by far the largest single donation ever given to the ACT Greens party and was more than twice as much as was given to the Labor Party over the same period.

It was also four times as much as a 2012 donation from the CFMEU's ACT branch, which made a few Greens members ''uneasy'' at the time.

CFMEU ACT division secretary Dean Hall said the donation had not come from the Canberra branch but from the national division, meaning he had no direct knowledge of it.">

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/get-zed-cfmeu-donates-50000-to-act-greens-to-bring-down-seselja-20140817-101iyf.html

Isn't the following the Greens policy on receiving political donations See here,

"The Greens are committed to:

prohibiting political donations from corporations;
adequate, fair and transparent public funding of all elections;
prompt and transparent disclosure of all donations on a public website maintained by the electoral office;
capping political donations at $5,000 per individual per year to a political party and $2,000 per individual per year to a candidate.
introducing legislation to prevent retiring members of parliament entering employment for two years with any private organisation that could obtain an unfair advantage."

However the Greens cannot abide by their own policy. They are cynical and shameless in criticising the major parties.

Beach, there is a difference between being reported in the Canberra Times, and being hauled before the NSW ICAC for CORRUPTION. Flog that dear horse all you like. Westpac donated $200,000 to the NSW branch of The Liberal Party in 2011-12. Am I jumping up and down about the huge donations the Liberals get from the big end of town, no because they were legal, well some were legal.
Beach,you foolishly call the Greens cynical and shameless, yet not one Green is under any kind of investigation. Please tell us why not? While you say nothing about the bus loads of CORRUPT LIBERALS fronting inquiry after inquiry, now who is being hypocritical. To stop all this corruption from political donations to the Liberal Party what is called for is 100% public funding of elections. Something Abbott opposes! Just like the way Abbott opposes a Federal ICAC. Yep, don't support something that is likely to turn around and bite you on the ass, right.

Paul1405,

The Greens presume to judge others and you have said plenty in this thread. If your tests of corruption are to be applied, the Greens are corrupt, definitely.

From the report, "It was also four times as much as a 2012 donation from the CFMEU's ACT branch, which made a few Greens members ''uneasy'' at the time"

and,

"CFMEU ACT division secretary Dean Hall said the donation had not come from the Canberra branch but from the national division, meaning he had no direct knowledge of it"

National division he said. Which presumably has the earlier political donations occurring under Bob Brown's leadership and continuing with that $50,000 under Christine Milne's leadership.

The national Greens are silent on who was involved in the deals and who made the decisions. It is unlikely though that the donations would not have been known about and approved by the Greens leader at the time. When will the Greens come clean on this?

Paul,

There are a number of flaws in the donation laws which all parties especially Labor have been exploiting.

1. The law exists in NSW not federally. Donations to the federal party are legal, as are disbursements from federal to NSW. (As the CORRUPT GREENS did.)
2. Secondly, the ban on corporations does not apply to individuals, so getting someone to donate personally instead of through his corporation is a loop hole that the CORRUPT GREENS exploited.
3. A organisation especially a union can accept donations (or in the case of the CFMEU extort them from developers, and pass the dirty money as a donation from the union, which the CORRUPT GREENS accepted.

To Beach, Shadow Minister and Al Capone

Firstly, to be a CRIMINAL you have to commit a CRIME, Al you can tell your other two buddies about that one, they unfortunately don't understand the concept. In the case of THE GREENS no crime , no criminal, no corruption. However in the case of THE CORRUPT LABOR and CORRUPT LIBERAL PARTIES we have party criminals committing crimes of corruption.
Moving on, in NSW we have an organisation called the ICAC, it is not The Independent Commission Against Condoms or Cheeseburgers, but that last 'C' stands for CORRUPTION! And we have had bus load of LIBERAL and LABOR PARTY luminaries, one after the other, fronting that Commission, and being found to be CORRUPT, resignations galore, resignations by the score! But not one GREEN!
Beach, has posted rubbish <<The national Greens are silent on who was,la,la,la etc etc>> THE GREENS have been totally honest and upfront about party donations, something I can not say about the LIBERAL and LABOR PARTIES.
<< If your (Paul1405) tests of corruption are to be applied, the Greens are corrupt, definitely.>> My test of CORRUPTION is being hauled before the ICAC and have the Judge say "YOUR CORRUPT!"