About: Fiona Patten in conversation with Charles ‘The Good Bloke’ Staunton.
Charles Staunton was a good cop. Until he got sacked from the police force and sent to jail for refusing to inform on his mates. On both sides of the law that loyalty makes Charlie a ‘good bloke’. And in a world of shadows, where trust is the highest currency, a good bloke is worth his weight in gold. Charlie becomes a private detective and Mr Fix-it in Sydney’s underworld. His associates are colourful, their adventures hair-raising. The good times roll the good bloke around the world, into fancy hotels and fast-lane living… then smack-bang into the Pacific Mariner Cartel. Cool under pressure and handy in a gunfight, Charlie becomes ‘The Prince’ – a master of disguise and mythic smuggler of millions to all corners of the earth. Until the DEA kicks down the door and arrests him in one of the biggest drug busts in history.
Speakers:
Charles Staunton & Fiona Patten, Leader, Reason Party
Born in a London taxi in 1958, Charles Staunton emigrated to Sydney with his family in 1965. He joined NSW Police in 1978 but was drummed out in 1987 after refusing to ‘grass’ on colleagues. Charles built a career as a private investigator and Mr Fix-It in Sydney and then a globetrotting money smuggler for the Pacific Mariner Cartel. In 1997 in Montreal Charles was arrested by the DEA for trafficking 25 tonnes of hashish worth over one billion dollars. He served three and a half years in a supermax prison before moving to London. He has two sons, four grandchildren and lives in London.
Fiona Patten is the leader of the Reason Party and was a member of the Victorian Legislative Council between 2014 and 2022, until she lost her seat at the 2022 state election. She recently received an honourable mentioned by the McKinnon Prize Shortlisting Committee, an independent, non-partisan award that acknowledges outstanding political leadership across the political spectrum. Patten established the Australian Sex Party in 2009 to focus on personal freedoms after deep frustration with stagnation on censorship, Marriage Equality and drug law reform. In 2017, the Australian Sex Party changed its name to the Reason Party. During her time as a Victorian MP, Fiona has been credited for playing pivotal roles in achieving social reforms in Victoria, with examples including the passage of Victoria’s assisted dying legislation, and the trial of a medically supervised drug injecting room in Richmond.