Watchdogs must be accountable

Anti-corruption watchdogs are accustomed to putting the blowtorch to others; they should not operate beyond the boundaries of procedural fairness, however. That is the problem identified in the Northern Territory, where the Inspector of the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption, Bruce McClintock, found a “siege mentality” prompted the NT anti-corruption body to breach legislation in denying a newspaper editor procedural fairness. Mr McClintock found in favour of News Corp Australia, publisher of the NT News and The Australian, in a complaint stemming from a controversial ICAC report.

In June last year, in a public statement about its report into a government grant to the Darwin Turf Club, ICAC published a purported text message from the then editor of the NT News, Matt Williams, to DTC chairman Brett Dixon. The message quoted in the text was “erroneous and incomplete”, Mr McClintock said in his report.

As Chris Merritt wrote on Thursday, advocates for a federal ICAC with teeth should read Mr McClintock’s report to see what can happen when excessive power is vested in the hands of bureaucrats: “The lesson is clear: bureaucrats with ‘teeth’ are no substitute for justice and the rule of law.”

Mr McClintock’s report on the NT ICAC shows police are investigating leaks from the commission and the Supreme Court is dealing with four applications for judicial review – all broadly related to the incident concerning the editor. The complaint that triggered Mr McClintock’s inquiry says someone at ICAC leaked material smearing Williams to a rival publication. The NT parliament should look to reform its ICAC to ensure this sort of behaviour is never repeated. These commissions, in the Territory and elsewhere, have a growing reputation for harming the innocent while seeking to identify the corrupt. If they are to have a future, that needs to stop. The community needs to be safe not only from corruption but also from misuse of power.