Conclusion

11. Conclusion:

The Urgent Need for a full ICAC Inquiry.It is my contention that the ongoing maladministration is prima facieevidence of a structural imbalance, whereby, the electedparliamentary executive, for all intensive purposes, has becomebeholden to and manipulated by a small coterie of privateentrepreneurial operators within the taxi industry, aided and abettedby questionable public service and a union hierarchy thatconsistently acts against the policy interests and financial well-being of its membership and those other workers within the industrythat it purports to represent.

I hereby implore the ICAC to view this matter seriously. I would notlodge this submission if I felt justice could be obtained by the morelogical process of political lobbying or electoral reform within therelevant trade union. I believe, with substantial documentation toprove it, the corruption in the NSW taxi industry is so endemic thatthe normal processes of effecting political change and industrialredress are not available to this complainant or the other 20,000bailee drivers/single cab owners.

Of more significance than even the financial and health and safetyissue for drivers is the damage that the current corrupt system doesto the NSW citizenry at large. The paucity of income compels manydrivers to engage in countless acts of dubious legality (trafficviolations, etc.). The cash-in-hand system aids and abets thisprocess. Members of the traveling public aware of the vagaries ofthe industry, from time to time, attempts are made to present driverswith fraudulent opportunities (e.g. stolen Amex card transactions).

But more significant than any allegations of financial corruption isthe moral corruption of the entire system emanating from thepoliticians and public servants down. This unhealthy state ofarrangements within the taxi industry has developed beyond adisservice to the traveling public and beyond a mere inconvenienceto the majority of taxi industry workers. It now poses a potentialthreat to the continuation of public safety, public order and goodgovernment in the state of New South Wales.

From all the above information, and much more that I, (and others),can supply in written and verbal testimony, it clearly emerges thatthere exists a wide-spread belief within the taxi industry thatMinister Shaw, former Minister Langton and others are/were eithercorrupt, mislead by corrupt departmental officials, or are/werecorruptly beholden to sectional business interests in a manner thatretarded their proper performance of their public duty to the peopleof NSW in general and the NSW taxi industry in particular.

Without fear or favour, I therefore formally lodge my complaint undersections 8 and 10 of the Independent Commission Against CorruptionAct 1988 against the Minister for Industrial Relations Jeff Shaw QCand his department, the Minister for Transport Carl Scully, therelevant Department of Transport officials and the other officers oforganisations mentioned above. I do so on behalf of myself as anaggrieved individual who has been denied the right to work at varioustimes as a result of the corruption that exists within the NSW taxiindustry. I do so also out of consideration to the bailee taxidrivers that I represent, on behalf of the overwhelming majority ofhonest workers within the NSW taxi industry, in consideration of thelong-suffering taxi commuters of NSW and in the interests of naturaljustice, good government and democratic rights (including the rightto earn a living) of the people of NSW and Australia.

Yours Sincerely,

Faruque Ahmed.
24.7.98, Sydney, Australia.


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Source: Sydney Taxi Corruption