Monday, June 29, 2015

Belle Gibson's 60 Minutes interview






Belle Gibson is a pathological liar and so good at it, last night on 60 Minutes, she had Tara Brown frustrated and tied up in knots. When confronted with all the evidence of her lies, she skillfully deflected them all, without flinching.







Belle, obviously very intelligent, was determined to make her mark in the world and saw the perfect way to do it.  It was relatively easy.  

She would be diagnosed with terminal brain cancer to get the required amount of sympathy and then have a miraculous recovery, explaining how she did it in her book, The Whole Pantry.

It worked well for a while and she developed a huge following but the wheels started to fall off when her ridiculous claims of being cured by eating healthy foods, reached the ears of people suffering from real cancers.  And they were furious.





She admitted 'she might have caused' people to stray from conventional medicine, but refused to apologise for it.

But she didn't just document her chemotherapy experience for a brain tumour, she also claimed to have three heart operations, two heart attacks, a stroke, and died on the operating table.

Belle is a very sick girl and I fear for the safety of her child.  She is a prime candidate for Munchausen by proxy - a rare mental illness people get who crave attention.  And this girl has the symptoms in spades.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Murderers, rapists and paedophiles deported





Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has confirmed that 490 foreign nationals have been sent back to where they came from since Tony Abbott came to power.  Among them were 24 rapists, 28 paedophiles and 12 murderers.

"The numbers will continue to build as we work through those people who are in our country on visas who have committed criminal offences" Mr Dutton said. "They won't be staying in Australia."

The Immigration Department is working closely with the Australian Crime Commission, the AFP and state police forces to identify people "who seek to do harm to Australians."  Outlaw motor bike gang members have also been targeted and those who have committed serious crimes.

Those sent home were from the Asia Pacific region, Europe and the Middle East.

Friday, June 26, 2015

Malcolm Turnbull - darling of the ABC





When Malcolm Turnbull was asked if he supported Tony Abbott's claim that the ABC had "betrayed" Australia and "heads should roll" after Monday night's Q&A programme, he refused to agree with his comments.

As the Minister for Communications, he is the man who has the power to chastise the ABC for giving oxygen to a known jihadist who said the Liberal government was to blame for young people wanting to go to Syria to fight with IS.  Then in defiance, they deliberately reran the episode.

Malcolm Turnbull is known as 'the darling of the ABC' and has been a welcome guest on Q&A many times.  For some reason, they like him, he likes them, and it shows.

Oh, he's making the right noises, he's launched an enquiry and said the ABC made a grave error of judgement, but he thinks the PM's comments that "heads should roll" at the ABC is totally out of order, so we are left to draw our own conclusions.

You have to go back in time to understand Malcolm Turnbull.  He has an impeccable pedigree but not a lot of common sense. Rhodes Scholar, lawyer, merchant banker, writer, he is one of Australia's richest men.

But disaster struck in December 2009 when he was leader of the Liberal Party who were then in Opposition.   Tony Abbott beat him in a leadership spill by one vote and he never got over it.

He made a speech about how Tony Abbott's (ETS) Emissions Trading Scheme was a farce and the Rudd government's plan was just what the country needed.  The irony seemed to be lost on Malcolm as he stood up in Parliament, committing political suicide. 

The Coalition made sure the chamber was almost empty when he rose to his feet. His speech was covered by CCTV throughout the halls of Parliament House, but no one was watching.  And when he crossed the floor to vote with the Labor's ETS Bill, it was the last straw.

To show such disloyalty to his own Liberal Party was considered unforgivable and a man once respected by many was regarded with contempt.  

One year ago, Malcolm told ABC's 7.30 programme "I don't have any plans, any desires, any expectations to be the leader.....but having said that.......politics is an unpredictable business."

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Time for ABC's Q&A to go

Tony Jones



I've stopped watching Q&A, the anti-government bias is just too much to bear, so I missed this week's episode and had to watch it on iview. 

I don't normally follow Andrew Bolt, he's a bit too conservative and one-eyed at times but I agree with him about the ABC's Q&A programme on Monday night - it was an utter disgrace. 

The ABC apologised and admitted they made an error of judgement but it's not enough.  It's time to say goodbye to the entire show, its producers, Tony Jones or better still, all three.

Andrew Bolt's blog yesterday.


Zaky Mallah

A FURIOUS Prime Minister Tony Abbott this week challenged the ABC: “Whose side are you on?”
And I challenge Abbott: We’ve known for years what side it’s on. Now, what will you do about it?
There should be no surprise that the ABC gave a national platform to Muslim extremist Zaky Mallah, once jailed for threatening to kill ASIO officers.
The ABC has been at this kind of thing for years, thanks to bias in our biggest media organisation that is systemic, unlawful and dangerous.
Monday should be the final straw.
Consider: Q&A chose Mallah from the audience to challenge parliamentary secretary Steve Ciobo over the Government’s plan to strip Australian citizenship from dual nationals engaged in terrorism.
It already knew Mallah had been jailed for threatening to kidnap and kill ASIO officers, although acquitted of planning a suicide attack on a Commonwealth building.
It should also have known Mallah had been arrested in 2003 after getting a rifle and writing a will entitled, “How can I prepare myself for Jihad”.
Had the producers checked, they’d have also found Mallah believed in imposing a caliphate on Australia, had travelled to Syria and dreamt of martyrdom for the Free Syrian Army, and had tweeted that two prominent female conservative writers “need to be gangbanged on the Sunrise desk”.
The Q&A team should have realised this man should not be rewarded with prime-time exposure, going mano e mano with an unsuspecting minister. It should have realised the danger of showing other Islamist misfits the fast way to getting their own thick heads on TV.
It should have heeded this warning from the judge who jailed Mallah: “Placing a person such as the prisoner into the public spotlight is ... likely to encourage him to embark on even more outrageous and extravagant behaviour ...”
Too true. Mallah on Q&A told Ciobo: “The Liberals have just justified to many Australian Muslims in the community tonight to leave and go to Syria and join IS (Islamic State) because of ministers like him.”
That was too much even for the show’s Left-wing host, Tony Jones, who ruled it “totally out of order”.
But wait. What Mallah said was little different to what Jones has allowed to be said many times already.
Blaming the Government and the West generally for creating jihadists is standard fare in the Left, particularly on the ABC, where every main current affairs program is — surprise! — hosted by Leftists.
Ever since the September 11 attacks those presenters have given too much oxygen to similar diatribes, ever since ABC host Virginia Trioli announced “it’s quite a possibility” the World Trade Centre was actually brought down by the FBI.
Even more toxic conspiracies and anti-Australian hatreds were regularly aired on Q&A, feeding the paranoid fantasy of Islamists that they are victims of an “Islamophobia” whipped up by evil politicians.
In April, one Muslim panellist chosen by Q&A claimed “most Western countries have disgraceful records” and “always sold us out”, and another agreed that “Australia is taking a lot of very horrific positions”, which a third said “sound toxic to outsiders”.
In September three panellists — three! — agreed the “uncanny” timing of anti-terrorism raids was suspiciously convenient for the Government.
“I’m very cynical about the Government’s use of these raids to politicise the Muslim problem of terrorism,” said one, and “there are some people who are going to take these legitimate concerns and go down a radical path”.
That’s the Mallah argument.
Another panellist agreed: “IS is barbaric and I think that a large part of it is the Western intervention.”
More of the same in November, when Q&A stacked an audience with Muslim hotheads to badger Attorney-General George Brandis, with one warning that the “gung-ho” anti-terrorism raids would just “drive (extremists) in a particular direction”.
Even last Monday, two other members of Q&A’s typically Left-stacked panel preached the inflammatory message that the Government spread fear of Muslims for political advantage — “seeking to make political capital out of these events” because “fear works particularly well if you are the incumbent Government “.
No wonder that Abbott on Tuesday told his MPs: “We all know that Q&A is a Leftie lynch mob and we will be looking at this.”
But where’s the action?
Will the Government sack the board for the ABC’s failure to observe what it admits is its “statutory duty to ensure that the gathering and presentation of news and information is impartial”?
And will it cut the vast ABC, with its five radio stations and four television stations, to a size less dangerous to democracy?

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Karen Nettleton wants grandkids to come home

Karen Nettleton



Karen Nettleton had a knock on the door this week. 

"The messenger told me that the man my 13 year old granddaughter was forced to marry, Mohamed Elomar, was dead."

And so was the man her Australian daughter Tara fell madly in love with and converted to Islam for - Khaled Sharrouf - the father who posted a picture of his young son holding the severed head of a Syrian fighter.





Karen Nettleton, the woman who helped her daughter and four grandchildren sneak out of the country to join her husband in Syria, is now pleading with the Prime Minister to let them come home. Last year Nettleton flew with them as far as Malaysia to avoid suspicion, then returned home while they went on to Syria.

Before he left Australia, Khaled Sharrouf, who was a bodyguard for notorious businessman George Alex, introduced Nettleton to Alex and he hired her as his bookkeeper.

But when she appeared before the Royal Commission into Union corruption last year, she didn't know anything.  "An interview was arranged for me by my daughter's husband" she told the commission but she had no information to give them about the weekly $2500 cash payments that were made out to officials of the CFMEU.  She just did what she was told.

Asked outside the inquiry if she had heard from her grandchildren in Syria, she said "I have no comment."

Fast forward to 24 June 2015.  "My daughter made the mistake of a lifetime.  Today she is a parent alone in a foreign and vicious land looking after a widowed 14-year-old and four other young children."

Tell someone who cares.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Drug addicted babies





At long last, someone in authority has recognized the tragic situation of more and more babies being born to mothers hooked on drugs or alcohol.  If the new legislation gets through, the expectant mother will have to sign a Parental Responsibility Contract, forcing them to undergo treatment for the health of their baby.

If they refuse, the state will take the baby the moment it is born.  The new law will also extend to pregnant women who are being bashed by their partner.  They will have two choices - either leave the abuser or attend domestic violence counselling.

Even though this law has been in place for several years, it only applies to a mother after the child is born rather than while it is still in the womb which enabled the mother to keep using drugs up until the birth.  

The new laws are awaiting final approval from Cabinet before they are submitted to Parliament.

A one year old drug-dependent baby called Holley who was removed from her mother is still suffering life-threatening complications and required 24 hour supervision.  She is now recovering in the care of a foster family.  In August, a court ordered that she be placed into long-term adoption though she will continue to have contact with her siblings, who are also in care.




Foster mother Jodie



Bernardos foster mother Jodie 46, has cared for 27 drug addicted babies.  "It's a different cry, it's a heartbreaking cry, you can't describe it but when you hear it, it's not a normal baby cry."

"Their little knees are brought up into their stomach and they are screaming, you can walk the floor for six or seven hours with the baby crying continuously - they are in pain.

When she first started fostering newborns 12 years ago, babies with an addiction were almost non-existent but her last seven babies were all withdrawing from drugs.  She picks them up from hospital, takes them home and begins doses of morphine every four hours. That can continue for up to four months.

"I've had cases where they have infections in their toes and under their armpits from the withdrawals" she said.  "Once they are off the addiction, they become like a normal child, it's very rewarding to see them at the end of it."

Drugs are killing our country.  There is no longer a work ethic in our young and even if there were, the jobs aren't there anymore for unskilled workers, young or old.  So if you are poor and uneducated, there's no point in hoping for a bright future because they isn't going to be one.

The police have admitted they can't stop the ice epidemic, it's now firmly entrenched into our culture, along with alcohol abuse.  And ice is so cheap and addictive, it's frightening.


Ice epidemic could bring nation to its knees
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ice-epidemic-could-bring-nation-to-its-knees-warns-nsw-police-commissioner-andrew-scipione/story-e6freuy9-1227285222295

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Hobart's Winter Festival Dark Mofo 2015





It's a pagan-style winter festival called Dark Mofo, a ten day event celebrating darkness and the longest night of the year and starts this weekend.  It was created by the Museum of Old and New Art and accentuates the obscure and the weird.  








At the heart of this year's event is the Fire Organ.  Commissioned especially for Dark Mofo, the monstrous, flame-throwing pyrotechnic sound machine breathes fire and pumps out ear-shattering sounds you can feel in the pit of your stomach.  It takes pride of place in Dark Park, otherwise known as the Macquarie Point precinct.




Dark Mofo executive producer Kate Gould explained how the "auditory experience" worked.  "Gas is pumped through the pipes and they're lit, so you see fire jets coming out the top and then this mad Dutchman actually plays them like an organ - he manipulates the volume of gas through the pipes."





There is also The Winter Feast, probably the most popular event which features the best of Tasmanian food.  Last year 45,000 people took a pew at the communal tables and this year's 65 stall holders are expecting to feed around 20,000 people per night.





Winter Feast


As Dark Mofo principal sponsor, the Tasmanian state government has injected $1 million per year towards the staging of the first 
three festivals.




Swimmers arrive for the nude swim in 2014



There is a nude swim scheduled to mark the year's longest night, but jumping into the freezing Derwent River in the middle of winter will probably prove just too weird for many.

Well done Hobart.

Friday, June 12, 2015

Lance Armstrong's arrogance





Earlier this year, Lance Armstrong told the BBC he would cheat again if he had the chance.  If he really said those words, and three different newspapers say that he did, he's obviously not sorry."I've admitted to it all, and have suffered enough" he said.

Banned and desperate to get back into the sport any way he can, he plans to ride in fellow cancer survivor and former English soccer star Geoff Thomas' charity bike ride which takes place in part of the Tour de France route, a day before the race begins on July 4. The charity ride aims to raise one million pounds to help find a cure for Leukaemia.



Surrounded with glory




But the UCI President, Brian Cookson, said the idea of Armstrong taking part in the charity ride is hugely disrespectful to the rest of the sport but admits he has no authority to stop him.  "Lance Armstrong can ride his bike around France as often as he likes, it's got nothing to do with me or the UCI" he said.




Kirstin Armstrong




Armstrong's first wife Kristin was a willing participant in her husband's drug taking and helped him cover it up, according to former team mate Jonathan Vaughters.  She used the code word "butter" to describe the synthetic blood-boosting hormone EPO and kept it in the couples' fridge. She also allegedly wrapped tablets of cortisone in aluminium foil and handed them out to riders.



Betty and Frankie Andreau



But not all the rider's wives and girlfriends were prepared to go along with the lie.  In a sworn affidavit, cyclist Frankie Andreau said that in 1996, he and his future wife Betsy visited Armstrong in hospital when he was battling cancer.

During that visit, Armstrong told them he was using EPO, testosterone, growth hormone, cortisone and steroids.

Betsy was furious and went to the media and when Armstrong found out, he started an intimidation campaign against her that lasted for years.

Armstrong sent an email to Betsy's husband.  "Helping to bring me down is not going to help y'alls situation.  There is a direct link to all our success here, may I suggest you remind her of that."

In 2009 Betsy received a voicemail from a friend of Armstrong.
"I hope somebody breaks a baseball bat over your head and I also hope that one day you have adversity in your life and have some type of tragedy that will definitely make an impact on you."


Brian Cookson, President of the Union Cycliste Internationale(UCI)


Armstrong is worried about the $100 million whistle-blower lawsuit instigated by his former US Postal team-mate Floyd Landis because it could wipe him out financially.

And it couldn't happen to a nicer bloke.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Jay Fowler's body found





There was another camping tragedy over this Queen's Birthday long weekend, this time 50 kms south-west of Newcastle.

The winter weather doesn't stop people from wanting to go back to nature in the bush, to sit around a campfire with family and friends. The June long weekend is the last possible break we get before the next one in October.

Jay Fowler, from Tenambit in Maitland, was camping with 10 of his family and friends at McLeans Lookout in the Watagan National Park.

On Monday morning around 9 o'clock, Jay left the group and headed into the bush with some toilet paper and didn't come back.

After a frantic search, his body was found yesterday at the base of a 100 metre cliff and while police say the body has to be formally identified, they believe it to be Jay Fowler.

The family is associated with the Christian Brethren community and have already received many online messages of support. One person wrote "Our prayers are with the Fowler family and those close, God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers."

Another said "We send much love to you all and praying for your support in your sorrow.  God's ways are beyond our feeble minds. Comforting to know we will one day know the reason for every deed in every day.  Safe with Our Lord Jesus Christ.  Very much love and prayers."

Jay's father Kevin Fowler and his wife are struggling to cope with the news.  He paid tribute to the tireless efforts of the emergency service workers who searched for two days and to the police for their understanding and sympathy.

A helicopter will be .used to retrieve the body and a report is being prepared for the Coroner.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Sydney couple die in shipping container











The loving couple who were found dead inside a shipping container have been identified as Australian Helena Curic and Canadian-born Derek Kehler.

They met in Canada while both working for an IT company in Vancouver.







It should have been a great winter long-weekend getaway. It's cold in Sydney at the moment and it's even colder up in Kurrajong, 75 kms from the city.

The owners bought a 50 acre property in the bush, a dream come true, and looked forward to great camping holidays with family and friends. 

Because shipping containers are relatively cheap, the owners had made a make-shift camp and the owner's wife invited her sister and her partner to spend the long weekend with them. 






There were three containers.  The couple were in the middle - a makeshift kitchen - while the owners and their two children were in the one next door.



All went well until 7.30 am on Monday morning when the owners discovered the couple, dead in their bed.  They died in their sleep from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning from a cooking pot of hot coals.



Flowers left at the gate



Hawkesbury Police Inspector Suzanne Rode-Sanders said the deaths were not being treated as suspicious.  "It appears they had some sort of makeshift heater inside the cabin and there wasn't any ventilation and as a result, they have asphyxiated with carbon monoxide poisoning.... you always have to be mindful that when there is any sort of open fire, it creates fumes and you need ventilation."

A Kurrajong resident said "These containers that are converted into cabins have sealed glass windows that don't open, you need to keep the door ajar." 

So simple, so tragic.

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Rebecca Hannibal's tragic mistake

Georgina Bartter


Some people might think that Rebecca Hannibal is about to get off lightly for supplying her best friend Georgina Bartter with ecstasy tablets that led to her death.  

The two friends were at a dance party on Sydney Harbour in November last year, looking forward to a great night out.  But it turned into a nightmare when Georgina collapsed and later died in hospital.

The tablets called "purple speakers" were stamped, originated in Europe and cost $40 each.




They say that taking MDMA at dance parties is considered more socially acceptable than getting drunk on alcohol. It removes inhibitions and allows people to feel happy at these events.

Sadly, Georgina Bartter believed it and now she's dead.

Rebecca Hannibal pleaded guilty in April to supplying the drugs to her friend.  Her Barrister Phillip Boulton SC asked the judge not to record a conviction and to limit the sentence to a good behaviour bond.



He told the court that people were being nasty to her on social media and that it was punishment enough.  She was suffering "symptoms of anxiety and depression" and has moved to Melbourne. "The grief involved in the Bartter family can only be guessed at but my client and her family are also grieving" he said.

"This is an extraordinary burden for anyone let alone someone charged with this offence, she has a lot to deal with that young people don't normally have to deal with."

Hannibal bought the drugs from drug dealer Matthew Forti before the music festival and assisted police which led to his arrest.

Hannibal will be sentenced next week.

Edit 26 June 2015:  Rebecca Hannibal, the NSW teenager who supplied ecstasy pills that killed her best friend Georgina Bartter at a Sydney dance party, has been sentenced to a 12-month good behaviour bond.

Friday, June 5, 2015

Duggar family scandal

19 Kids and Counting



When Josh Duggar was 14 years old, he admitted to sexually molesting his sisters and a baby sitter.  He committed at least seven acts of sexual molestation, according to a new police report.

Josh confessed to his father Jim Bob Duggar on three separate occasions and his parents waited at least 16 months before telling police, even though his behaviour was ongoing and getting worse, police allege.  During that period, his parents did not get professional counselling for Josh or his sisters.

In March 2002, Josh went to his father very upset and crying and said he had been sneaking into his sisters' bedroom at night and touching them on the breasts and vaginal areas.  The fondling was done over the girls' clothes, except in two cases, and happened when the girls were sleeping Jim Bob said.

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar could have faced a jail sentence for not telling authorities and not doing more to protect their daughters from what they knew was going on in their home.

But in Jim Bob's eyes, they did do something about it.  He took the problem to his church elders and it was decided that Josh should enter a treatment program and spent four months in Little Rock helping a family friend remodel a building.


When he came home, his father decided it was time to tell the police so he took Josh to see a family friend - State Trooper Joseph Hutchens - who is currently serving 56 years in prison.  Hutchens said that Jim Bob and Josh told him about only one incident and that's why he didn't report it to child abuse hotline.

At one point, Jim Bob stopped cooperating with police, refused to turn Josh in for an interview and hired an attorney.

Jessa Duggar, one of the sisters involved and featured in the reality show defended her brother about allegations that he was a child molester and paedophile.  "They are so overboard and a lie" she said.



Josh and his wife are expecting their fourth child



Josh Duggar, now married and expecting his fourth child apologised for his bad behaviour two weeks ago when the story broke and resigned as a lobbyist for the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group.

"I would do anything to go back to those teen years and take different actions" he wrote online.  "In my life today, I am so very thankful for God's grace, mercy and redemption."

This very private family scandal came to light by accident.

Someone in the church borrowed a book from the Duggars and found a note inside detailing Josh's molestations and sent it to Oprah.  No charges were laid because the statute of limitations had by then run out.


To get nineteen children through puberty into adulthood unscathed would be almost impossible in today's world, and I see many more headaches ahead for this family.

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Homeless student who lives under a bridge






Winter has just begun in Australia and snow has already fallen on the ski fields.  Yet under a bridge in Melbourne, 19 year old Alicia sits in her tent, surrounded by books.  Her meagre possessions include a camp stove, a mattress and a two-piece business suit hanging up in a dry cleaner suit bag.

She's been homeless for three years but is currently studying Year 11 at RMIT University campus which offers Year 11 and 12 subjects. Unlike normal high schools, she doesn't have to go to assemblies and most of her work can be done in class but she also spends time at the State Library, the Youth Projects Homeless Centre or studies in her tent by lamplight.

In the morning, Alicia and her boyfriend walk to a drop-in centre for breakfast and then she travels to class in the city five days a week.

She dreams of becoming a criminologist.  "I'm not one of those people who want to get married and have kids" she said.  "I want to start my career first."

Youth Projects chair Melanie Raymond was shocked when Melanie came to the drop-in centre one afternoon to do her homework.  "All she asked me for was a couple of highlighter pens, some folders and some paper clips" she said.  "If you can stick Year 11 under a bridge, you're as tough as nails - I would employ anyone who has overcome that adversity."

Alicia currently survives on $360 a fortnight which is shared between four homeless people. "I always run out, I'm dead broke now" she said.


Suit bag


The black two-piece suit was donated two months ago when she was asked to attend a tour of the Melbourne Magistrates Court.  "It makes an incredible difference" she said.  "You feel so much better."

If you want to make a donation to the young woman featured in this story - supermarket vouchers are most practical - you can contact Youth Projects direc at admin@youthprojects.org.au

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Sydney Mayor's daughter makes $330,000 profit in 12 days

Mr Hindi and his daughter Rachel



With Sydney real estate prices soaring to unheard of heights, Hurstville Mayor Con Hindi and his children have made a packet lately and their antics have come to the attention of Sydney Morning Herald journalist Kate McClymont.

She writes:


Although the son of Con Hindi, the property developing mayor of Hurstville, was only 20, late last year Malcolm Hindi splashed out more than $2 million for a waterfront property.
Malcolm Hindi, a university student, may be about to make a motza with rumours that Kogarah Council is set to re-zone the area to allow six-storey developments.
Last year, Con and Miray Hindi's daughter Rachel showed similar good fortune property wise when her parents sold her a development site they owned.
In less than a fortnight, the university student on-sold it for $980,000 – making $330,000 profit in only 12 days.
On 12 November, 2014, Malcolm Hindi set up a company Blakehurst Holdings. His partner Xiaomin Shen, 57, is the father-in-law of Liberal councillor Christina Wu. Cr Wu was Cr Hindi's running mate for the 2012 Hurstville council elections.
On the day it was set up, Blakehurst Holdings purchased 434 Princes Highway, Blakehurst. Blakehurst Holdings acts as a trustee for the Blakehurst Properties Unit Trust but the beneficiaries of the unit trust are not known.
The Blakehurst waterfront investment is not Malcolm Hindi's first foray into property development.
In August 2013, when he was 19, he paid $650,000 to buy a property in Rosebery Street, Penshurst, from his parents. Two years earlier the Hindis had been trying to sell the property for $879,000.
Before he had sold the property to his son, Cr Hindi put in a development application to Hurstville council. Cr Wu moved the motion that council approve the Hindis' planned development.
Cr Hindi claimed he had sold the property to his son Malcolm with the intention that Malcolm should live in one of the townhouses, and his sister in another.
He also said recent changes to the building code for that part of Penshurst would have allowed him to build three townhouses and a villa on the almost 800-square-metre block.
"I could have made a lot more money but I chose to develop it for my kids," he said at the time.
But 12 months later, his son Malcolm sold one of the new townhouses for $1.395 million. His mother, Miray, a real estate agent, recently handled the sale of the second Rosebery Street townhouse. The price remains undisclosed.
When the Hindis were negotiating to buy a deceased estate in Peake Parade, Peakhurst, towards the end of 2012, the area had been flagged to be rezoned from low density residential to medium or high density. Following its rezoning, in early 2014 the Hindis began negotiating to sell their development property to Peter and Myrna Abdallah's company Peake Industry. During the negotiations the Abdallahs were informed that Rachel Hindi now owned the property.
Land title records show that Con and Miray Hindi sold the property to their daughter on February 2, 2014, for $650,000. Less than a fortnight later, on 17 February, Rachel on-sold to the Abdallahs for $980,000.
Although he had sold them the site, when the Abdallahs put in their development application later that year, Cr Hindi voted to reject it without declaring any conflict of interest. It was later passed.
Cr Hindi, his family and relatives have several other developments on the boil. But the mayor's most controversial development site is at 40 Crump Street, Mortdale.
A spokesman for Local Government minister Paul Toole confirmed that late last week Hurstville Council was notified that the Office of Local Government has launched an investigation into the council's May 20 meeting in which prosecution of Cr Hindi was to be discussed for his failure to remediate the asbestos-riddled Crump Street site. The inquiry will also examine the decision that same night to suspend the general manager who had carriage of the investigation into Cr Hindi's site.
Cr Hindi and Cr Wu did not reply to Fairfax Media's emails or calls. Mrs Hindi, a former Kogarah councillor said, "We have always acted honourably and honestly." She also said "my husband has been very upset by recent articles you have written about him" and that he is contemplating legal action. Five councillors who have recently opposed Cr Hindi in council have also received defamation threats from the mayor.



Son, Malcolm Hindi



Most of us are apathetic about Council elections, and this article gives us a reason to sit up and take notice of what's really going on inside our local Council chambers.  And it's outrageous.