The Bully
LISTEN TO Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island is an SBS Audio production.
Credits
Created and hosted by Richard Baker.
Produced by Liz Burnett.
Sound Design and Mix by Max Gosford.
Executive Producer is Joel Supple
Artwork by Paolo Lim (The Illustration Room)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
27 minutes ago
- ABC News
Pokies giant Mounties accused of letting gamblers wager $140m in dirty money
The first licensed club group targeted by the nation's financial crimes intelligence agency is accused of turning over almost $140 million from 10 gamblers considered high risk of money laundering and counterterrorism financing. The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) has published court documents related to its Federal Court case against Mounties, the operator of 10 venues across Sydney's south-west, North Shore, and the Central Coast. The documents reveal Mounties' network of about 1,400 poker machines had $4.17 billion fed through them over the four financial years from 2019 to 2023. AUSTRAC is alleging in the civil suit that Mounties systematically failed to meet its anti-money laundering (AML) and counterterrorism financial (CTF) obligations, citing a sample of 10 gamblers considered high risk. "Mounties served innumerable customers without adequate controls," the financial crimes intelligence agency alleged in the court documents. "The Sample Suspicious Customers alone had turnovers in excess of $139,855,108 and payouts in excess of $10,464,856. "As a consequence of Mounties' [alleged] contraventions of the Act, the Australian community and Australia's financial systems have been exposed to systemic [money laundering and counterterrorism financial] risk over many years." Mounties Group, registered as Mount Pritchard and District Community Club, declined to comment. However, it issued a statement last week. "We are reviewing AUSTRAC's Originating Application and Concise Statement, relating to alleged contraventions of our obligations to maintain a compliant program and conduct appropriate ongoing due diligence of customers under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act," it said. "We have been dedicating significant investment and resources to transform our AML/CTF capabilities since being notified by AUSTRAC of its concerns. Among the group's 10 venues is Mounties in Mount Pritchard, which consistently ranks as the licensed club with the most lucrative poker machines in NSW. AUSTRAC's chief executive, Brendan Thomas, said taking one of the most successful licensed clubs to court would send a message to other licensed clubs and hotels operating in the state. "This is the first time AUSTRAC has brought proceedings against a registered club. It is a chance for other pubs and clubs to check that they've got proper controls, that they understand what's happening in their own operations, and that they're doing everything they can to comply with the law," he said. More than half of the country's gaming machines are found in NSW. In the financial year ending in 2024, nearly 88,000 poker machines generated $8.4 billion in profit, according to a recent report from the state's auditor-general. The machines generated a further $2.3 billion in tax revenue. AUSTRAC provided a sample of 10 gamblers it considered high risk of money laundering or counter-terrorism financing in its court filing. It claimed they demonstrated at least one of the following markers of suspicious activity: Of the sample of 10 suspicious gamblers, AUSTRAC alleged Mounties identified eight of them and reported seven of them to the agency's chief executive. But it describes its compliance system as "not designed to enable Mounties to understand, recognise, identify, mitigate or manage the money laundering/terrorism financing risks posed". Mounties Group outsources its money laundering and counter-terrorism financing compliance program to Betsafe, a third-party used by other licensed clubs. Betsafe also declined to comment. AUSTRAC alleges Mounties' compliance program is not adequate to stop criminals from gambling with dirty money in its poker machines over four years. It also alleges Mounties customers could have engaged in a practice known as "bill stuffing," where cash is put into a poker machine only to be withdrawn as a cheque, with little or no game play taking place. Furthermore, it is alleged that customers could have paid other gamblers in cash for their winning vouchers, tickets, or credits; use multiple cashiers or terminals to avoid being observed by staff; and gain the trust of staff to get around being detected, or have to show their identification to collect their winnings. The civil case is before the Federal Court.
News.com.au
27 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Kiama MP Gareth Ward to fight expulsion attempt by Labor government in Supreme Court
Convicted rapist and sitting MP Gareth Ward will return before the Supreme Court in Sydney's CBD today as he fights attempts by the Labor-controlled state government to have him expelled from parliament. The Kiama MP was taken into custody on remand last week while awaiting sentencing after he was found guilty by a jury of three counts of indecent assault and a fourth count of intercourse without consent. The charges relate to acts against two young men – an 18-year-old at Meroo Meadow in 2013 and a 24-year-old man in Potts Point in 2015 – and sparked calls for the south coast MP to resign from parliament. A motion was expected to be introduced by Labor to the Legislative Assembly to expel Ward, with support from the Coalition earlier this week. If successful, it would mark the first expulsion from the NSW lower house since 1917. Instead, the matter was set down for a full-day hearing at the Supreme Court after an 11th hour injunction was applied for by Ward's lawyers, who argue the state parliament does not have the power to expel him. The last-minute legal move makes it almost impossible to expel Ward, who is still being paid by parliament and is the current member for Kiama, before the Legislative Assembly adjourns until next month. Leader of the House Ron Hoenig earlier in the week said the court did not have the authority to stop matters being but before legislators, but that the state government would abide by the injunction out of respect. The matter sets the stage for a peculiar legal challenge. Premier Chris Minns told 2GB on Tuesday morning most people would 'appreciate it's an unconscionable situation to have someone who's currently sitting in jail in Silverwater convicted of serious sexual offences who is demanding to remain a member of parliament and continue to be paid'. Asked why Ward had not resigned, Mr Minns said 'clearly, he's got no shame'. Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said that, if the government was prepared, they could resume 'in the interim with a small quorum of MPs'. 'We would be willing to do that. It would be possible, for example, to have just 20 MPs, the quorum deal with the matter,' he said. Mr Speakman said 'As a general principle, we are supporting the government's efforts in court. 'That includes as a general principle the arguments that it's putting in court and the outcome that it seeks, which is that the injunction is lifted and the parliament can proceed to expel Mr Ward.' The injunctive orders issued by the court, 'pending further order', restrain the defendant, Mr Hoenig, from 'from taking any steps to expel or otherwise resolve to expel' Ward between July 30 and 10am on Friday.
Sydney Morning Herald
an hour ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘There's nothing that I've made that will last': Shaun Micallef refuses to be sentimental
Shaun Micallef's long-time collaborator Michael Ward – aka the green-faced Kraken from Mad as Hell – is standing backstage at the ABC studios in Melbourne giving me advice on what not to ask Micallef. The comedian – and newly minted runner-up on Dancing with the Stars with dance partner Ash-Leigh Hunter – is not sentimental, Ward warns, so don't ask him what he would save if his house was going to be destroyed tomorrow, which is the premise of his chat show, Shaun Micallef's Eve of Destruction. 'Well, I'm certainly not sentimental about my work,' confirms Micallef shortly afterwards, jokingly describing Ward as 'that idiot you met'. 'I become very disenchanted, very quickly, with anything I've done. You're in love with it when you do it, but then afterwards, I can look at it reasonably objectively, and go, 'I could have been better'. I mean, it's television, so who cares. It's nothing, you know? And most of the stuff is disposable that I've done over the years. There's nothing that I've made that will last.' It's a surprising admission from 63-year-old Micallef, who has long been considered a national comedy treasure (sorry, I know he'd cringe at the description) and one of our sharpest political satirists after his 10-year run on Mad As Hell. To many his work does last: it's why I'm here, very keen to talk to someone I have watched ever since I was teenager; it's why my husband continually pulls out his Milo Kerrigan impression and it's why so many of the young comedians he featured on his recent SBS show, Shaun Micallef's Origin Odyssey, were in awe of him. But it also explains why Micallef has lasted nearly 40 years in the business, especially when most of his comedy is done with a bomb thrower's anarchic glee. He isn't precious, and while his work is sharp and exacting, he'll also try anything. David Byrne parody? Yep. German cabaret? Yep. Documentary about religion? Yep. Taika Waititi TV series? Yep. Dancing with the Stars? Incredibly, yes. 'I just keep looking for things I haven't done and see where that takes me,' he says. That try-anything-attitude also explains Shaun Micallef's Eve of Destruction, which begins its second season this month. On the surface, it seems almost easy, a bit soft and cuddly, with Micallef talking to two guests about their two most treasured possessions, the things they would save if their house was about to be destroyed. 'Well, maybe, after Mad As Hell, that's right,' he says. 'It's not political, it's not acerbic, it's not, even Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation. When I did that, it was overly complicated … But we've done the opposite on this one, it's more in the conversation. And that's harder. I remember when the show came out and the idea was announced … I think somebody had said, 'Well, what the hell is this? This is such a dumb idea' – and it is, but that's not the point. It's just the starting-off point.' Loading Micallef cooked up Eve of Destruction because he wanted to try something different after Mad As Hell, which ended in 2022. Still much missed, the weekly satire skewered politics like nothing before it, but it also meant Micallef was plugged into the news cycle 24/7, constantly turning jokes over in his head. Eve of Destruction, on the other hand, offered a gentler way forward. 'I had wanted to do more of Mad as Hell with somebody else in the chair, and I could just produce, but that didn't work out that way,' he says. 'So this was the next – maybe better – thing to do, because it's a different animal. And maybe it wouldn't have been fair to a younger performer to have to inherit something that had been made by somebody else ... 'I was quite interested in just talking to people, having conversations. And I wasn't – and I'm not – an interviewer, but I was just interested in helping other people tell whatever story they wanted to tell. 'Because I'd had the good fortune of being in the spotlight for a long time, I thought I might as well use whatever ability that I had to maybe open doors and to usher in younger talent, or different talent, or more diverse talent, or people I hadn't worked with before. I just wanted to play with some other people, essentially, and not be the one doing the schtick, as I'm, you know, getting on.' Loading Guests this season include comedians Frank Woodley and Rhys Nicholson, Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Ariarne Titmus, footballer Josh Cavallo, actor Lisa McCune and writer John Safran. Unlike Mad As Hell, which was tightly scripted and in which Micallef read everything off an autocue, on Eve of Destruction he has no notes and instead just follows the conversation where it needs to go. 'It's not a five-minute anecdote fest,' he says. 'Andrew Denton is the best recent example of someone who knew how to do an interview show. And he always used to say to me, the secret is just listening, so your next question is informed by the answer they give to the previous one.' In person, Micallef is much more softly spoken than he is on television. He has spent the last couple of months messing with the glitzy, shiny-floor format that is Dancing With the Stars. He left the show's co-host Dr Chris Brown lost for words when he kissed him on the lips during Monday night's final. It's all great fun, but I do wonder if we are finally witnessing the great softening of Shaun Micallef. 'I don't know,' he says. 'I don't have a great, or, I suspect, accurate understanding of how I'm perceived. So for me, performance is always the third thing on my list. It's the writing, it's the producing, and if it makes it easier if I act it, I'm the centre of it, or the person who's sitting behind a desk and reading the lines that have been written.' I'm keen to know what he thinks of the cancellation of US talk show The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a decision, it is widely believed, was heavily influenced by US President Donald Trump. 'We were allowed to do anything,' he says of Mad As Hell. 'There was never any expectation that, politically, we'd be on one side or the other. So that's one of the benefits of this country and this network [the ABC], the public broadcaster. Loading 'I guess, over in the United States at the moment, it's so crazy that people are worried about how the Mad King will respond. I always think Trump's a bit like a modern version of that Austrian king who built those beautiful castles [Ludwig II of Bavaria], but they were just insane. 'Rather than raise his ire, they may well pull a show, or appear to have pulled a show, or indicate they will pull a show. We're never going to be in that world here, Australians are too cynical anyway. And they wouldn't stand for it.' Does he think we're missing the kind of sharp political satire that Mad As Hell once delivered? 'It's good to have it,' he says. 'I wouldn't like to think that there's just some huge unhealable gash in the fabric of satire. People are allowed to say what they want. And I suppose what Mad As Hell did was combine it with a whole bunch of other things … We had a lot of young writers, and they were angry, too, about the housing market and everything. So it was an angry show. Maybe what's missing is the anger, because it's all a bit jolly [now]. 'I don't know whether that makes a difference, ultimately, to anything, but it's more satisfying for an audience to feel like their frustrations, their anger, are being expressed or acknowledged or reflected back to them. Sometimes it's quite satisfying.' Our time is nearly up, but I am still keen to find out if he is sentimental about anything. A nything. 'I mean, I've tried,' he says. 'I'm lucky enough to be in this profession where you have lots of downtime, so when the kids [Micallef has three sons] were growing up, I could live in the moment a bit, or not. 'So I look back on that and think, 'Oh, thank god that happened'. Thank goodness I was around enough, because I remember my parents saying, 'Oh, it'll be over pretty soon'. And I said, 'Yeah, sure, it will. This is going to last forever'. But you turn around and they're 27 and driving away, and you're waving goodbye to them, and that's it. So if the memories are important, I'm very sentimental about that. I don't forget anything.'
