Here we go again....

Here goes another Labor disgrqace, this one has the added advantage of being related by marriage to Joe Tripodi. A man much misunderstood accourding to Eddie Obeid. I think the big problem is that every idiot out there in voter land understands them all to well.
The Labor brand is never going to recover in NSW until there is a huge purge. I just hope that the Liberals who come to power in 2011 are not so awful that we revert to Labor before they have properly cleaned out the stables.

NSW MP rorted expenses, corruption watchdog finds Sean Nicholls
December 7, 2010 - 10:54AM SMH


Angela D'Amore ... expenses fiddle. Photo: Peter Morris
The Labor MP for Drummoyne, Angela D'Amore, is expected to face calls for her resignation after the corruption watchdog found she acted corruptly in falsely claiming thousands of dollars in entitlements for two staff.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption is also recommending that the Director of Public Prosecutions consider bringing charges against Ms D'Amore, who is the parliamentary secretary to the minister for police, for two offences of misconduct in public office.

The commission found Ms D'Amore and a staff member Agatha La Manna "engaged in corrupt conduct by falsely claiming sitting day relief payments".

Advertisement: Story continues below It recommends ‘‘action be taken against Ms La Manna as a public official with a view to dismissing, dispensing with or otherwise terminating her services’’.

Ms D’Amore, who is the sister-in-law of retiring Fairfield MP Joe Tripodi, was investigated over signing false expense claims in three periods between August 2006 and June 2007.

The forms were for a now-defunct entitlement, called the sitting day relief allowance, under which MPs could claim the cost of a staff member in their electorate office to replace one required to attend parliament on sitting days.

One of Ms D'Amore's staff, Karen Harbilas, told the commission she had falsely written the name of another staff member, David Nicoletti, on the claim form after being told to do so by Ms D'Amore. Ms D'Amore denied the claim.

The ICAC says Ms Harbilas’s evidence was the key to exposing Ms D’Amore’s corrupt conduct. It says it has exercised its discretion to not make a corrupt finding against her.

During the hearings, Ms D'Amore's counsel argued the MP had simply been "careless" in signing claim forms which contained false details.

The ICAC report says Ms D'Amore instructed or authorised Ms La Manna and Ms Harbilas to complete false claim forms, which resulted in them receiving a total of $4500 "to which they were not entitled".

Ms D'Amore consistently denied any wrongdoing and her counsel even clashed with the commission over its name for the investigation, "Operation Syracuse", which appeared to reflect on her Sicilian ancestry.

Earlier this year, a Labor MP for Penrith was also found to have acted corruptly in claiming the same allowance.

During public hearings into her matter, Ms Karyn Paluzzano admitted lying to the commission about rorting the entitlement. She was forced to resign soon after, forcing a byelection in her seat of Penrith at which Labor suffered a swing against it of 25 per cent.