South Australian ICAC was stripped of powers that prompted Commissioner Ann Vanstone KC to quit for a reason, Caleb Bond says

ICAC Commissioner Ann Vanstone KC quit this week amid much huffing and puffing. But, as Caleb Bond says, she can tell her story walking.

Boo hoo to outgoing Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Ann Vanstone KC and her complaints of being gagged.

She has not been silenced – and nor has ICAC been unfairly stifled.

Ms Vanstone would seemingly prefer the ICAC to operate outside the normal bounds of a law enforcement agency and have the ability to destroy people’s lives and reputations without evidence strong enough to lead to prosecution, let alone conviction.

The organisation has well and truly proven it cannot be trusted with that sort of power – and, quite frankly, nor should anyone be.

It doesn’t matter how much you dislike politicians or public servants and officials.

They are entitled to justice and procedural fairness just as much as anyone else.

First they came for the politicians and I did not speak out – because I was not a politician (and they’re a pack of scumbags).

Just wait until it’s your turn.

Under legislative changes in 2021, ICAC’s powers were rejigged to deal with matters of serious and systemic corruption, removing dishonesty from the definition of corruption and leaving lower level misconduct and maladministration to the State Ombudsman and a new Office of Public Integrity.

What’s wrong with that?

An independent commission against corruption should be focusing on actual corruption and not just misbehaviour in the public sector.

Groundbreaking.

Ann Vanstone throughout her career - Independent Commissioner Against Corruption, the Hon. Ann Vanstone QC - picture Tony Lewis Photography

The rules were also changed around public statements so the ICAC could only speak publicly about investigations when there was a finding of no corruption – that is, to clear someone’s name.

Otherwise, the details of cases where someone is accused of corruption would not become public until criminal charges were filed with the courts.

Again, what’s wrong with that?

That’s not a “gag”, as Ms Vanstone puts it. It’s affording accused people procedural fairness.

The cops don’t come out and publicly name individuals who are being investigated or who are under arrest until they have been charged and those charges are made public.

That is entirely fair.

Some interstate ICACs, particularly NSW, are worse – where they conduct their investigations openly and publicly, calling accused persons to give evidence in front of the cameras long before it has been established that anything criminal happened.

SA never went that far, thank God. But it needed tidying. And it was the behaviour of ICAC that led to that tidying.

The prolonged and bungled, on-again off-again investigation and prosecution of former Renewal SA boss John Hanlon, in which the ICAC broke international law in its desperation to ping him for misappropriating money (which they never did), was a disgrace.

It is an organisation that has historically spent millions and millions of dollars putting people through the wringer for things that are clearly not corrupt and then making public statements to say they might be a bad person but they couldn’t find anything bad enough to achieve a prosecution.

The cops don’t go around saying someone might be a thief even though they couldn’t find enough evidence.

The commissioner was previously an unaccountable ruler with the power to investigate and damn whomever he or she wanted.

Spare me the wailing on the way out.