Controversy
His career from early on until its end, was marked by a series of public allegations about impropriety and corruption. In October 2000, he was accused of sexually assaulting an Australian Democrats staffer at a New South Wales Parliament House function the month before. The complainant made an initial statement to the NSW Police, but withdrew it the following day. It was later alleged that one of the police officers who investigated the original complaint was a member of Tripodi's branch of the ALP.
In 2001, the manager of a committee chaired by Tripodi took out an apprehended violence order (AVO) against the MP after he publicly opposed a development application by her husband for a tavern opposite a primary school in Tripodi's electorate. The AVO was withdrawn shortly afterward.
Tripodi was also accused of branch stacking. In 1996, it was reported that he paid almost $7,000 in cash to the ALP head office to fund a "branch stack".
Tripodi was implicated in the Orange Grove affair, but subsequently cleared by the Independent Commission Against Corruption in 2005.
Whilst Minister for Roads, Tripodi was chased and grabbed by Coffs Harbour local member Andrew Fraser on the floor of Parliament in September 2005, apparently in relation to a lack of funding for the main roads, including the Pacific Highway in Coffs Harbour. Fraser apologised to Parliament and Tripodi. It was revealed that alcohol may have influenced Fraser's rage.
Coalition campaign advertising ahead of the 2007 election identified Tripodi—along with Treasurer Michael Costa and Planning Minister Frank Sartor—as one of the government's least popular. Independent MPs indicated that, in the event of a hung parliament, they would not support a minority Labor government in which Tripodi remained a minister.
During an ICAC investigation into Wollongong City Council in 2008, it was revealed that a former Council officer against whom corruption allegations had been made was a personal friend of Tripodi's and had subsequently been appointed to a senior position in a department in his portfolio Tripodi claimed the appointment had been "at arm's length" from him, and on 3 March 2008 the ICAC indicated there was no evidence that would sustain an investigation. This was criticised by Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell who stated that the community would feel let down by the ICAC's decision.
Read more about this topic: Joseph Tripodi, Political Career
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
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“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
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