If you did not see the 4 Corners report on the influence of Calabrian mafia in Australia, you should. A lot of things may begin to make more sense.
As an Italian investigator explains, money from the drug trade is used to buy influence through property investment. We know that officials are then corrupted to ignore zonings, height limits, and community wishes.
When you understand the penetration of organized crime into political parties, the public service, and indeed the media, a lot of crazy decisions become far easier to understand.
Look around you. What do you see? A functioning democracy? Or one where the public is ignored, corrupt officials prosper, and a reckoning is more than due?
Matt Hartley, Byron Bay
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
