Her and Her Shadow.

A quick note today.

Kate McClymont, SMH's senior reporter covering "the [NSW] state's largest ever corruption inquiry", wrote yesterday:

"A barrister appearing for an allegedly corrupt player in the current ICAC inquiry asked me this week if I had seen House of Cards, an English political thriller in which conservative politician Francis Urquhart deploys blackmail and other nefarious methods to achieve his political ambitions.
"There were two things I recalled about the program, and one of them was that the journalist met with a sticky end, still clutching her tape recorder as she fell to her death.
"It was therefore with some disquiet that I learnt one of the central figures who has appeared at the recent Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry approached a private detective to have me followed." (See here)

The inquiry, involving the Obeid family and Ian Macdonald, former NSW Labor powerbrokers, today resulted in:

"A proposed open cut coal mine central to the state's largest ever corruption inquiry is set to be blocked by the NSW government after the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, announced that evidence heard during public hearings would be considered in deciding whether it should go ahead.
"Cascade Coal lodged a development application for the mine, at Mount Penny in the state's north west, in December 2010.
"The exploration licence for the Mount Penny area, approved by the former Labor minister Ian Macdonald, has become the subject of sensational allegations at the Independent Commission Against Corruption." (See here)

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McClymont shows that there still may be some courage and decency around.