While many of us thought it a ludicrous proposition that an integrity agency would allow such a politically sensitive inquiry to drag on,Berejiklian’s calculation was correct. Perhaps naively,many expected a report soon after the commissioner overseeing the inquiry,Ruth McColl,ended her term,which had already been extended by six months. That was October.
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Then the ICAC confirmed that McColl needed more time and she had been retained,indefinitely,as a consultant to allow her to finish her work. That work will now not be completed until the “second quarter of 2023”,according to the ICAC. By then,it will be almost three years since it first came knocking on Berejiklian’s door.
“Substantial parts of the report have been drafted,” the ICAC statement says,which also highlights what commissioner McColl SC was up against when it came to finalising her report. As well as “complex matters of law and fact”,the ICAC points out it involves two public inquiries over 30 days (first Maguire’s,then Berejiklian’s),more than 2800 pages of transcript,516 exhibits that make about 10,600 pages and 957 pages of submissions – the last of which were received on October 18 last year.
“It is necessary that the issues relevant to the investigation are addressed carefully,” the ICAC says,stating the glaringly obvious.
No one would ever argue against procedural fairness,but the lengthy delays are also grossly unfair. And Berejiklian is not alone.
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One-timeLiberal sports minister John Sidoti stood down from cabinet in September 2019 and then languished on the backbench for 18 months after the ICAC confirmed a preliminary investigation into him. At that stage,it was not clear whether the inquiry would proceed. Eventually,public hearings were called and Sidoti retreated to the crossbench.
Sidoti always denied any wrongdoing in relation to his property dealings in the Inner West,but it took three years before the ICAC found he had “engaged in serious corrupt conduct”. Sidoti immediately threatened to appeal the finding in the Supreme Court and to run in Drummoyne as an independent in March. He has since given up on both.
The ICAC,despite the best efforts of Scott Morrison during the federal election to undermine it,has a long track record of being integral to the democratic process in NSW. It has proven the value of an anti-corruption body with teeth. However,the Berejiklian and Sidoti experiences highlight it is not perfect.
As recently as November,parliament’s ICAC committee stopped short of recommending the commission should be forced to hand down findings within a fixed time frame. Instead,it said the government should amend legislation “to require the ICAC to develop and publish time standards for completing ... reports,and to report on its own performance against these standards”.
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The NSW Law Society warned against imposing time limits,while the former director of public prosecutions,Nicholas Cowdery KC,said they would be arbitrary and could produce “unfairness and ineffectiveness”.
Of course. But it is also not fair that inquiries that cost people their careers – including taking out a popularly elected premier – drag on. People who find themselves before the ICAC deserve better,and voters rightly expect more from an integrity agency that wields – appropriately – a huge amount of power.
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