The Independent Commission Against Corruption has dropped its investigation of Margaret Cunneen SC following a High Court decision on Wednesday. The court made no comment on whether it was pertinent for ICAC to investigate the judge, but ruled that investigating corruption was outside the commission’s scope of powers.
Lawyers for ICAC are now kicking themselves for not explaining what the second “C” in “ICAC” stands for.
The ruling dramatically narrows ICAC’s scope. Under the High Court’s findings, if a politician purposely deceives the public, then that is corruption. But if a politician is deceived into action by a third party, then, in the exact words of the Chief Justice, “that’s just business as usual, why would anyone care about that?”
Because Ms Cunneen’s alleged conduct did not result in a police officer acting corruptly, but rather resulted in a police officer acting off corrupted knowledge, the High Court has ruled that ICAC could not investigate. Lawyers for Ms Cunneen have described this decision as “a great day for democracy and a great day for the people of NSW who can now rest easy knowing that their public servants are not corrupt, just being misled by people who have something to gain from the deceit.”
“This is not the Independent Commission Against Individuals Deceiving Public Officials To Receive Favourable Outcomes, or ICAIDPORFO,” Ms Cunneen’s lawyers further explained.
Acting NSW Premier Troy Grant stated that NSW government would review the decision and seriously consider legislating the creation of ICAIDPORFO, depending on how likely it would be that anyone who donates to the Liberal Party would be prosecuted by it.
As a result of this decision, many of the people ICAC has found to be corrupt, including mining mogul Travers Duncan and many others involved in the Obeid scandal, will be able to appeal their decision and be judged as “good ol’ boys just practising regular business”.
ICAC has released a public statement announcing that they’ll be “reviewing the High Court’s decision to see if they can subpoena the court on corruption charges.”
Matthew Farthing is the court reporter for The (un)Australian. He once jilted a courtroom sketch artist and then whilst watching the news, began to notice that a lot of people standing trial for child pornography looked a lot like him.
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