‘Lynch mob’ takes down yet another political career

The problem for Gladys Berejiklian is that she could have shown leadership and tried to reform ICAC. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Adam Yip

How many fine political careers will ICAC destroy before someone puts a stop to this unwieldy and uncontrollable corruption body?

The Independent Commission Against Corruption has a proven track record – not of cleaning up misconduct in politics, which is as rife as ever, but of cutting short the tenure of politicians in their prime who later turn out to be innocent.

NSW is reeling from the untimely exit of a trusted premier who was leading the state through the first pandemic of our lifetimes.

At ICAC, the moment a figure is named as the subject of an investigation, their reputation is tarnished and their political career shattered.

And here lies the crux of the problem with ICAC. It reverses the principle that is the very pillar of our judicial system: innocence until proven guilty.

Gladys Berejiklian, Mike Gallacher, Barry O’Farrell, Murray Kear and others dedicated their lives to public service. Yet, according to ICAC, they don’t deserve the same rule of justice as alleged murderers, rapists, pedophiles and fraudsters.

Barry O'Farrell after his appearance as witness at ICAC hearings in Sydney in 2014. Picture: Chris McKeen

Why is it acceptable for a corruption body to operate above the law, answerable to no one? Here’s why: ICAC has always been addicted to the power and publicity of the bombshell political scalp.

A law unto themselves, there is no adequate oversight body or watchdog. Bruce McClintock is the current inspector but his time is occupied with other high-profile cases.

The way ICAC has conducted its investigations in the past has fallen outside of the law. During my reporting on ICAC with Chris Merritt in 2015 and 2016, we found evidence the agency had engaged in seriously questionable, if not corrupt, conduct.

ICAC raided barrister Margaret Cunneen’s home without the proper paperwork. The investigators went back to her home to do a video re-enactment of the seizure of her mobile phone – a phone that had been in their possession for a week. ICAC also leaked private text messages from her mobile phone to her boss in a breach for which it was never held accountable.

Former NSW Detective Gary Jubelin barrister Margaret Cunneen SC. Picture: AAP

In another incident, ICAC investigators made a video record of a document outside the scope of their search warrant. They did not have the power to seize the document, yet they filmed it page by page.

ICAC’s potentially unlawful conduct is, in my opinion, more deceitful than the politicians it seeks to expose. One Liberal summed it up when he said in fury after Berejiklian’s resignation: “They are not an anti-corruption body but an unregulated, unaccountable lynch mob.”

The problem for Berejiklian is that she could have shown leadership and tried to reform ICAC. She also could have moved to reinstate the careers or repaired the reputations of those unfairly named by ICAC and later cleared.

She choose not to do this.

In 2018, McClintock investigated how ICAC had acted in the case of former police minister Mike Gallacher who, like Berejiklian, had to resign at the height of an illustrious career even though no adverse findings were ever made against him.

Under questioning from Labor, McClintock said ICAC had insufficient evidence and the record should be corrected.

Former Labor leader Jodi McKay backed a notice of motion in the NSW parliament to apologise for how Gallacher was treated. But Berejiklian didn’t support it. She never reached out to her old colleague and was unprepared to confront ICAC over its wrongdoing.

The fact that Berejiklian failed to intervene when good people were set aside by ICAC meant she had no choice but to resign when the corruption agency came knocking on her door.

We do not yet know whether she will be found guilty or if time will prove her innocent of corruption allegations.

But we do know this: ICAC and its army of anonymous lawyers and investigators has left NSW rudderless and has robbed the people of a popular premier at a time of crisis and uncertainty.