News location:

Canberra Today 25°/29° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Article hits out at Canberra’s ‘coked up’ public servants

EX-“Canberra Times” writer Myles Peterson has labelled Canberra’s public servants “cocaine-addled” and “corrupt” in Sydney tabloid “The Daily Telegraph.”

The opinion article, published on January 26 with the headline “Coked up in Canberra”, claims cocaine busts in Canberra have been “spiralling upwards.”
“Late last year, kilos of the stuff was discovered within just 1km of Parliament House,” Peterson writes.
“If frequent police and Customs claims that only 1 to 2 per cent of the illicit drug trade is uncovered are to be believed, hundreds of kilos, with a street value gauged in the millions, are potentially wandering the capital’s streets looking for cashed-up buyers.
“Between 2001 and 2011 the number of EL1s grew by more than 100 per cent – an epidemic of highly paid bureaucrats for whom million-dollar homes, a coastal holiday house and the odd cocaine binge are well within their price range.”
Peterson goes on to write that public servants are taking advantage of Canberra’s rising property market to “corrupt levels.”
“Savvy former public servants have taken the exploitation to absurd, some would argue corrupt, levels,” he writes.
“Government-owned land is selectively released to cartels of ex-bureaucrats, who then make out like bandits on-selling postage stamp-sized blocks to Canberra’s housing-desperate underclasses.”
Peterson is also critical of centenary spending; writing “this year, Canberra’s local government will sacrifice a mountain of public cash (both local and federal) on the altar of celebrating itself.
“Hired spinmeisters have already labelled the expenditure a necessary, no, inspired act designed to bring a sense of pride in the nation’s capital to all Australians.”
To view the full article, click here.

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Share this

One Response to Article hits out at Canberra’s ‘coked up’ public servants

Mandy C says: 30 January 2013 at 11:15 am

‘Coked up in Canberra’ by Myles Peterson
Mr Peterson, talk about an over-generalization. Next you will be blaming Canberra public servants for Climate Change. I am a Canberra public servant and have been ‘wandering the Capital’s streets’ for over 20 years and am yet to be approached by anyone in the illicit drug trade (unless you count caffeine venders). I am also one of those ASO4’s ‘workers bees’ you mentioned who doesn’t earn $60,000 and certainly not $80,000 but is proud of the role I play and the people I work with both ASO’s and EL1’s. Prior to working in the public service I spent over 28 years in the public sector where excessively high salaries and ‘incentives’ at the executive/ manager level was expected and mostly not earned. Pointing the finger at any one group is no solution Mr Peterson.

Reply

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews