Former commissioner ‘made complete hash’ of Turf Club probe and ICAC should apologise, institute says

Former ICAC Ken Fleming QC ‘made a complete hash’ of his investigation into the Darwin Turf Club and its findings should be quashed, the Vice President of the Rule of Law Institute says.

FORMER Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Ken Fleming QC “made a complete hash” of his investigation into the Darwin Turf Club and its findings should be quashed, the vice president of the Rule of Law Institute says.

Speaking on ABC Radio on Wednesday, Chris Merritt said the removal of the report from the ICAC website was an “inevitable” “step in the right direction” and “should have happened earlier”.

But Mr Merritt said the report’s removal “doesn’t come within a bull’s roar of resolving things”, with findings against former board member Damien Moriarty and others that were not struck out by the Supreme Court still unresolved.

“What we’ve got now is the worst of all possible outcomes,” he said.

“We’ve got the Supreme Court saying some findings against Mr Moriarty have not been struck down, some have.

“The commission, ICAC, which has clearly made a complete hash of this under its previous commissioner, has simply decided not to republish that (report), so what’s the standing of those findings?

“Have they been withdrawn? They should be, quite clearly.”

RLI vice president Chris Merritt.

Mr Merritt said he “entirely” supported Mr Moriarty’s push for answers through a complaint to ICAC Inspector Bruce McClintock SC, saying “the cleanest outcome would simply be to withdraw the findings and apologise”.

“It’s amateurish, the way it’s been conducted, not just by Mr Fleming, but it’s been conducted by the current commissioner (Michael Riches) as if it was a simple matter of civil litigation between parties in a civil dispute,” he said.

“It’s not, this is an agency of the NT government, it’s clearly made a terrible mess of things and simply decided not to republish a report, even though adverse findings have been upheld by the Supreme Court.

“It just beggars belief, I don’t know what the outcome is.”.

Mr Merritt said one of the lessons “out of the NT disaster” was of the danger of having an ICAC taking “personal responsibility for investigations”.

“There needs to be internal tension within these organisations so that you don’t have one man, or person, conducting an investigation and then purporting to sit impartially and decide on the outcome of that investigation,” he said.

Mr Riches said he did not agree with Mr Merritt’s opinion.

Inspector accepts complaint on ICAC’s ‘deeply concerning practices’

EX-DARWIN Turf Club board member Damien Moriarty has vowed to continue to seek justice over “deeply concerning practices” in the former corruption watchdog’s investigation into the club.

Mr Moriarty — who’s Supreme Court challenge led to the withdrawal of then Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Ken Fleming QC’s report this week — said he welcomed a personal undertaking from new ICAC Michael Riches “to never republish the public statement”.

But Mr Moriarty said “this does not however bring the matter to a close”.

“I have determined to continue to pursue my complaint with the Inspector of ICAC (Bruce McClintock SC) as there are a number of deeply concerning practices I experienced during the investigation that were out of the scope of what can be considered in a judicial review application,” he said.

“My main remaining goal in pursuing this complaint is to encourage the ICAC to develop guidelines to ensure fair treatment of future witnesses and whistleblowers.”

Mr Moriarty said Mr McClintock had accepted his complaint, which had been put on hold pending the outcome of his court challenge, and would now be expanded upon “in the coming days”.

Former Darwin Turf Club board member Damien Moriarty.

“I have a significant complaint accepted by the Inspector of ICAC that was paused pending the outcome of this case and we expect to proceed with these serious issues and in addition, expanded matters in the coming days,” he said.

In January, former Attorney-General and Justice Department chief executive, Greg Shanahan, completed a review of the ICAC Act, commissioned by the Territory government, with public feedback closing earlier this year.

But Mr Moriarty called on the government to reopen submissions to allow Turf Club board members caught up in the now discontinued court action to participate.

“I also call on the government to allow the Shanahan review into the ICAC legislation to invite all parties involved with the Darwin Turf Club saga to be able to make submissions as the Supreme Court action afoot obviously prevented us from doing so earlier in the year,” he said.

ICAC agrees not to republish bungled Turf Club report as former chairman withdraws court action

THE Territory’s corruption watchdog will not republish a controversial report into a $12m government grant to the Darwin Turf Club (DTC), following adverse findings in the Supreme Court.

Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Michael Riches removed the report into the grandstand grant from his website last month after a partially successful court challenge by former DTC board member Damien Moriarty.

Michael Riches took over as the NT’s Independent Commission Against Corruption boss in July last year

It came after Justice Judith Kelly found former ICAC commissioner, Ken Fleming QC, had failed to afford Mr Moriarty procedural fairness and acted outside his jurisdiction in handing down the findings last year.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Mr Riches said as a result of his decision not to republish the bungled findings, former DTC chairman Brett Dixon and his business partner Matthew Moss had withdrawn their own Supreme Court challenges.

“I have previously commented on certain aspects of the Turf Club investigation in the public domain,” Mr Riches said.

“I do not intend to make any further comment on that investigative process, or the findings reached by my predecessor in his report and public statement.

“In deciding not to republish the public statement it should not be understood that I accept all of the criticisms made by parties about that public statement, or the findings made by the former commissioner.”

The NT’s corruption watchdog will not republish a report into a $12m grant to the Darwin Turf Club. Picture: Che Chorley

Mr Riches said the decision to consign the report to the dustbin of history would “put an end to contests which have been an unfortunate distraction to the important work of my office”.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Racing Minister Chansey Paech said the Territory government “values the racing industry’s important social, sporting and economic contribution”.

“We also knew a line in the sand needed to be drawn when it comes to the ongoing issues with the Darwin Turf Club,” he said.

“A new offer has been made to the club, that replaces the previous directions to repay the $12 million grant.

“This is an opportunity for the NTG, (Turf Racing NT) and the Darwin Turf Club to all move together in the right direction.”

Oppositions racing spokeswoman Marie-Clare Boothby said “a dark cloud till lingers over the entire grandstand saga, which stems from Labor giving away $12 million through an improper cabinet process”.

“The decision by the ICAC commissioner to remove the public statement, relating to the Darwin Turf Club grant from its website, may bring an end to court proceedings — but it doesn’t bring to an end the stench of deception linked to the Chief Minister’s office,” she said.

“Everything contained in that submission is in the public interest and far outweighs any claim of confidentially by the deceitful Labor government.

“If Labor don’t address this head on, it casts a permanent shadow over every grant approved by cabinet.”

Originally published as Former commissioner ‘made complete hash’ of Turf Club probe and ICAC should apologise, institute says