Hollywood star Mel Gibson is among the celebrities, sportsmen and prominent business types named by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists for having business dealings in the tax haven of Jersey.

Most of the others named so far are British. Jersey, after all, is in the Channel Islands. Moreover the ICIJ has done a deal with The Guardian to eke out the names over coming days for maximum publicity; and for a political agenda. The newspaper is linking the identities with their Tory Party donations. It is a neat hustle indeed to buy political influence with the money you should have been paying in tax.

Mel Gibson in character in the film Braveheart.

And, yes, they do it here too. The bigger licks go to the conservatives, but both sides of politics get donations from tax avoiders. Australia's largest coal company, for instance, Glencore Xstrata - which pays little income tax on its enormous coal revenues in this country - donates to both parties, though the Liberals get the lion's share.

Whether a tax scheme is legal or not, is one thing - perhaps a thing that can only be settled by a tortuous case in the Federal Court at taxpayers' expense - whether it is ethical, is another. And a large part of the ethics hinges on the source of the income. If you make it here, then siphon it off to Switzerland, you have probably done the wrong thing.