AS CALLS mount for a royal commission into the relationship between developers, lobbyists and government after the murder of Michael McGurk, questions have been raised as to how a 68-year-old disability pensioner was able to donate $75,000 to the NSW ALP.
As one source said of the donor, Richie Vereker, ''He doesn't have enough money to buy lunch.''
Mr Vereker, who was interviewed by police yesterday in connection with the murder of Mr McGurk last week, is a pivotal figure in alleged corruption tapes made by his friend.
Mr Vereker put Mr McGurk in touch with another friend, the controversial former federal minister Graham Richardson, to discuss corruption allegations on a tape recording concerning Mr Richardson's client, the property developer Ron Medich.
Mr Vereker said he and Mr Richardson met about March, he thinks at the Golden Century restaurant, to arrange the meeting.
''I said to Richo 'I don't know if that bloke is serious or not but he reckons he's got some bloody recording of you blokes all having a talk about something with Medich, so you should go and have a talk with him'.''
Asked if he had mentioned the payment of money in return for the tape to Mr Richardson, Mr Vereker said, ''Oh, shit no''.
On Mr McGurk's reputation as a standover man, Mr Vereker told the Herald, ''Sometimes where there's smoke there's fire, but I have never known him to stand over anybody.''
There should be a royal commission in the wake of the McGurk affair, the NSW Greens and St James Ethics Centre say.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption yesterday began a preliminary investigation into the tape.
The commission began the investigation after the Premier, Nathan Rees, announced police would be handing over a copy of the tape, if it existed.
Mr Vereker has had a colourful past. A one-time business partner of the late convicted insider trader Rene Rivkin, Mr Vereker, who does odd jobs for billionaire property developer Bob Ell, is a former Wollongong butcher, an ex-bookmaker and failed hotelier.
He was named in the ICAC inquiry into corruption at Wollongong council when he was at a crucial lunch meeting with developer Lou Tasich, who may face criminal charges, along with general manager Rod Oxley, whom the commission found to be corrupt.
When his meat company went into liquidation in 1993, owing more than a million dollars, Mr Vereker fled overseas where he started selling meat pies in Hungary. At the time his liquidator, Stephen Hathway, said: ''Investigators have discovered Vereker had a gambling history, and I think that's the other reason why he's not going to return to this country.''
Mr Vereker can be found most days in the Bellevue Hotel in Paddington, a pub favoured by Labor faithfuls. Fellow drinkers have told the Herald he is often seen in the company of Mr Ell and Mr Richardson.
One drinker said early last year Mr Vereker and Mr Ell were propping up the bar of the Bellevue when a man rushed in yelling at Mr Ell, ''Where is my money!'' He said that Mr Ell had ruined the man's family. He then assaulted Mr Ell, who was taken to St Vincent's Hospital.
Mr Vereker then went round the pub telling other patrons ''You didn't see anything'' and that there was no need to talk to police.''
kmcclymont@smh.com.au
