NSW committee has ‘power to probe ICAC’s Cunneen inquiry’

The head of ICAC, Megan Latham, has been put on notice that a parliamentary committee intends to ignore her.

The head of the NSW anti-corruption watchdog, Megan Latham, has been put on notice that a parliamentary committee intends to ignore her objections and subject her agency to robust questioning about particular inquiries.

The warning was outlined in a report made public this week in which the committee said advice from the NSW Crown Solicitor meant it had the authority to ask the Independent Commission Against Corruption about particular matters that had been dealt with by the agency.

This is at odds with the views of ICAC commissioner Ms Latham, who infuriated committee members at a public hearing last year when she repeatedly refused to answer questions about her agency’s failed pursuit of prosecutor Margaret Cunneen SC because she believed this would amount to an impermissible attempt to reinvestigate that matter.

After taking advice from the Crown Solicitor, which has not been made public, the committee issued a report this week that said the advice confirmed it was legitimate for the committee to examine particular matters to inform itself about ICAC’s decisions and processes provided it did not try to reconsider those decisions.

“The committee has broad and expansive powers to oversight the ICAC and will use them robustly,” the report said.

It was “entirely proper to refer to a specific matter” in order to examine ICAC’s functions, structures and procedures, it said.

“The ICAC Act allows the committee to ask questions relating to particular conduct or investigations ... Where such questions are for the purpose of monitoring or reviewing the way in which ICAC conducts its functions,” it said.

Commissioner Latham told the committee in August that section 64(2) of the ICAC Act meant it was not allowed to ask her about the agency’s decision-making processes during the Cunneen ­inquiry.

She believed that provision also meant the committee was not allowed to ask her about the policies for determining the content of a 622-word press release that said material assembled by ICAC indicated Ms Cunneen had attempted to pervert the course of justice.

Victoria’s Crown Prosecutor Gavin Silbert QC examined that material and found it provided no grounds for a criminal pros­ecution.

The committee’s report said ICAC had been granted formidable powers and comprehensive oversight was needed to prevent the abuse of those powers and to encourage public confidence.