{"product_id":"2026200015115-secondhand-a-quarter-to-midnight-the-australian-crisis-organised-crime-and-the-decline-of-the-institutions-of-state","title":"A Quarter To Midnight: The Australian Crisis: Organised Crime And The Decline Of The Institutions Of State","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: No dust jacket\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Condition as shown in image\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt a moment when Australia's democratic foundations trembled under the weight of corruption and criminal influence, Justice Athol Moffitt sounded a chilling alarm: the nation's most trusted institutions were being systematically hollowed out from within. A Quarter to Midnight chronicles the alarming penetration of organised crime into the very fabric of Australian civic life, drawing on Moffitt's own landmark 1974 Royal Commission — a judicial inquiry that first exposed the links between underworld figures and the NSW club industry — to argue that the rot had spread far deeper than the public dared to believe. With the authority of a sitting judge and the urgency of a prosecutor, Moffitt presents a forensic and damning account of how political negligence, police corruption, and institutional complacency allowed criminal networks to entrench themselves across the country.\n\nWritten with the unflinching clarity of someone who witnessed the crisis firsthand, this work stands as both a vital historical document and a sobering warning about the fragility of democratic governance. Moffitt's style is measured and precise — the prose of a jurist — yet the cumulative picture he paints is nothing short of devastating, illustrating how power, when left unchecked, inevitably invites predation. Decades on, the questions he raises about accountability, transparency, and the resilience of state institutions remain as urgent as ever — leaving the reader to wonder whether, in the end, midnight was ever truly averted.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49203197018331,"sku":"2026200015115-SECONDHAND","price":12.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/78920704-ea0d-483a-8681-38c18062c797.png?v=1788145420","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200015115-secondhand-a-quarter-to-midnight-the-australian-crisis-organised-crime-and-the-decline-of-the-institutions-of-state","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}