The Calabrian Mafia represents a minuscule element within Australia's Italian and Calabrian communities, yet the recent Four Corners/Fairfax investigation has highlighted the organisation's capacity to exercise political influence in Australia wholly disproportionate to its size.
Although revelations of widespread Mafia penetration of Australian political life have caused surprise here, the cultivation of "political proximity" is in fact intrinsic to the entire Mafia project. It distinguishes groups such as the Sicilian Mafia, some Neapolitan Camorra clans and especially the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta from other organised crime groups. In Italy, these organisations are able to influence local, regional and even national politics.
The ongoing Mafia Capitale investigation since 2014 has revealed extensive 'Ndrangheta penetration at the highest political levels in the capital, Rome.
Through their capacity to organise the vote, mafiosi create a resource that can then be traded on with politicians for political favours. The question however, is whether the 'Ndrangheta has been able to deploy the same techniques successfully here in Australia.
Italian and Australian anti-Mafia investigators have long highlighted the conspicuous lack of zeal shown by Australian politicians over several decades in pursuing the Australian 'Ndrangheta. Former NSW assistant police commissioner, Clive Small, said the NSW ALP has been "more anxious to hang onto the ethnic vote than investigate the party's connection to organised crime".
The ALP has been the traditional beneficiary of the working-class migrant vote, and there has been clear evidence of Mafia penetration of ALP branches, most notably in Al Grassby's old seat of Riverina in the Griffith area, the Belconnen branch in Canberra, and former NSW Labor Minister Joe Tripodi's seat of Fairfield in western Sydney. Tripodi even publicly thanked alleged 'Ndrangheta figures Pat Sergi and Tony Mittiga in his maiden parliamentary speech.
But more recently, the 'Ndrangheta has engaged with the Liberal Party. Perhaps this reflects the organisation's class mobility and a transition from its Calabrian peasant roots in Grassby's day into the group of wealthy criminal entrepreneurs we see today. Alleged 'Ndrangheta boss Antonio Madafferi's fundraising activities on behalf of an Italian Liberal Party candidate in the Melbourne seat of Bruce in the 2013 Federal election are highly significant, given this electorate has the nation's highest proportion of residents born overseas, and a large Italian-speaking population.
It's a power they are willing to use. 'Ndrangheta figure Domenico Perre was identified by the South Australian Coroner as the author of the fatal 1994 bombing of the National Crime Authority Headquarters in Adelaide, which killed AFP officer Geoffrey Bowen and badly wounded a police prosecutor. Police secretly taped him phoning from Adelaide jail telling his wife to "go and see [then SA Premier] Lynn Arnold and tell him that unless he intervenes in my case, no Italian will vote for him".
About 4.6 per cent of the Australian population identifies itself as having Italian ancestry, making Italian Australians the fourth largest ethnic group in the country. The capacity to influence the Italian vote is thus a potential game changer in marginal seats such as Bruce.
In organising the vote in Italy, the Mafia is known to play all sides of the political table, selling its influence to the highest political bidder. The same dynamic seems to be at work here in Australia, with long-time Fairfield ALP figure Pat Sergi recently appearing before the Independent Commission Against Corruption's investigation into illegal payments by developers to Liberal politicians, but at the same time being linked to NSW ALP figure Eddie Obeid. Apart from the Madafferi brothers' connections to Liberal Party figures such as Russell Broadbent, exposed in the Four Corners investigation, Frank Madafferi has also been linked in Fairfax media reports to Victorian ALP figure and local councillor Michael Teti, who was expelled from the ALP in the wake of the reports.
The Mafia has sometimes been described as a two-faced beast, with one face turned towards the popular level, aiming to manipulate and create consensus at the local level, but with its main face turned towards power. Some (often non-affiliates) play a role in mediating this interface with power, by presenting the organisation's acceptable face to the outside world. The real strength of the 'Ndrangheta in Italy lies in this "grey area", which involves not outright corruption, but rather a convergence of interests which is impossible to prosecute.
One alleged "mediator" figure, Pat Sergi, has been awarded an Order of Australia for services to charity. Tony Vallelonga in Western Australia is a trustee of Channel 7's Telethon Trust, while Mick Gatto is also active in charity work. Two lobbyists in the campaign to reverse Francesco Madafferi's deportation order in 2005 were Tony Labozzetta (former President of Soccer Australia) and Nick Scali (current director of the Italian Chamber of Commerce and founder of the Italian Opera Foundation),
Fairfax Media's reporting has highlighted in recent weeks that Australia's flawed political donations system, which can mask the real source of money pouring into politics, is vulnerable to influence by this highly determined criminal organisation.
Dr Stephen Bennetts is an Australian 'Ndrangheta researcher and anthropologist
Dr Anna Sergi is a Criminologist and lecturer in policing at the University of West London.
Both are members of the Australian 'Ndrangheta Research Group, University College, London https://www.ucl.ac.uk/australian-ndrangheta
