Mungana Scandal Again

Mungana is now just an insignificant ghost town near Chillagoe but in the 1930's it was the centre of one of Australia's most controversial scandals.  The discovery during the Great Depression that the Federal Treasurer, Mr E.G. (Ted) Theodore and Labor politician, Mr William McCormack had interests in a company which sold mining assets to the government at considerable profit had caused a great outcry.  Now forty years after the eminent historian, Dr K.H. Kennedy wrote his book on the affair, a new study of the scandal has appeared entitled 'The Curse of Mungana'.  This new book is written by David Moore who is the grandson of the conservative Prime Minister at the time of the Royal Commission into the affair.  Although found not guilty in the civil prosecution, this is not just the story of a failed mining venture and its victims but an expose of the arrogance of powerful politicians who compromised integrity for personal gain and it is pertinent to ask if ethical standards have really improved over the past eighty years.