The powers of the Independent Commission Against Corruption will be limited to investigate cases of corruption which come under “strictly defined circumstances”, New South Wales premier Mike Baird has announced.
The change in Icac’s powers comes after NSW crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen successfully fought against Icac’s right to investigate her over claims she told her son’s girlfriend to fake chest pains after a car crash to avoid a breath test.
The high court found Icac had acted beyond the scope of its powers when investigating Cunneen, leading to an independent review of the jurisdiction of Icac. The review was undertaken by former high court chief justice Murray Gleeson and barrister Bruce McClintock SC.
Baird announced on Tuesday that the government would agree to all of the review’s recommendations after taking delivery of the report on Friday.
The report recommends legislation be amended so Icac’s power to make findings of corrupt conduct “may be exercised only in the case of serious corrupt conduct”.
The panel supported the high court’s interpretation of the act in its finding in favour of Cunneen and said now it had been clearly defined by a court, that part of the act did not need to be amended.
It also decided against removing or limiting Icac’s power to hold public inquiries or enforcing formal oversight or internal reviews of decision to hold public inquiries and what witnesses to call.
Baird gave media 15 minutes’ notice of a press conference on Tuesday morning to announce the government would be supporting all of the panel’s recommendations.
He said he would limit Icac’s power to make findings of “corrupt conduct” to cases where the corrupt conduct is serious; broaden Icac’s education, advisory and prevention functions to cover the purpose of promoting the integrity and good repute of public administration; and allow the NSW electoral commission to refer possible serious breaches of electoral and lobbying laws to Icac.
The government has also cleared the way for the long delayed investigations Operations Credo and Spicer to be completed by treating any possible breaches of the electoral and lobbying laws being investigated as already having been referred.
“I think the important point about today is we want Icac to get cracking,” Baird told reporters in Sydney.
“We want them to continue to hunt down serious and systemic corruption in this state and we will continue to have zero tolerance to corruption in NSW and that is what I believe these recommendations do.”
The reports, Operation Spicer and Operation Credo, one into alleged corrupt developer donations to the NSW Liberal party and the other into Australian Water Holdings, were supposed to be handed down before the 28 March election but were delayed by Cunneen’s court action.
Operation Spicer examined allegations the NSW Liberal party accepted illegal donations from developers and implicated eight Liberal party MPs who defected to the crossbench.
Six of them resigned before the state election.
The then NSW premier Barry O’Farrell resigned after it was revealed at an Operation Spicer hearing that he had not declared a $3,000 bottle of 1959 Grange given to him by Australian Water Holdings executive Nick Di Girolamo.
Politicians from both sides of the parliament were embroiled in the allegations in Operation Credo which centred around Australian Water Holdings. Icac heard various people in the NSW government lobbied for the company to be awarded a state government contract worth millions at different times.
