ICAC insider Geoffrey Watson SC has described the NSW corruption watchdog's mid-pandemic scrutiny of Premier Gladys Berejiklian as "a great moment", as debate rages about the timing of its investigation.
On Friday, ICAC announced it was probing Ms Berejiklian's conduct between 2012 and 2018 and whether there were any intersections between her public responsibilities and personal life.
Specifically, it will examine whether she was involved in promising, or awarding, millions of dollars in grants to two organisations in her then-boyfriend Daryl Maguire's electorate of Wagga Wagga.
About an hour after ICAC's bombshell, Ms Berejiklian announced her resignation and took a swipe at its timing, saying it could not have been worse.
NSW remains gripped by a significant COVID-19 outbreak which has so far claimed more than 350 lives, while many parts of the state will next week take their first steps out of lockdown and begin living with the virus.
NSW Liberal Party president Philip Ruddock, a former federal Attorney-General, and retired state Liberal MP Pru Goward, both questioned ICAC's approach yesterday.
But Mr Watson, an eminent barrister and former counsel assisting ICAC, said the organisation "did not care" about the timing of its investigations and would have expected a backlash.
"I think it's actually a great moment for ICAC because it's shown, yet again, it doesn't care how powerful the person is, it doesn't care how popular the person is, it does the right thing," he said.
"I saw that the Premier criticised the timing of it, I couldn't disagree more.
Mr Watson, a director at the Centre of Public Integrity, said ICAC's decision would have come after months of investigations.
"It's so carefully done, and I can tell you one thing, I have been down there at times when difficult decisions like this have been made, and it's done completely independently of party political matters," he said.
On Friday, Ms Berejiklian said she "always acted with the highest level of integrity" but had to resign because she had no idea how long it would take ICAC to complete its investigation.
"My resignation as Premier could not happen at a worse time, but the timing is completely outside of my control as the ICAC has chosen to take this action during the most challenging weeks of the most challenging times in the history of NSW," she said.
Ms Goward described ICAC's timing as "unfortunate" while Mr Ruddock told Channel Seven that Ms Berejiklian had not had a chance to address the allegations.
