From where is the extra $6 million for NSW CLCs coming? … South Australian bar accounts in limbo … Eight months late the new ICAC is born
That means the money will in have to be sliced from some other part of the AG’s budget.
There was a degree of chest beating from Speakman’s PR machine that this money would offset the cuts of $3 million a year that Soapy Brandis was inflicting on community legal centres.
Nineteen days after Speakman’s announcement, as a result of a determined campaign by the legal assistance community, Brandis reversed the cuts and restored federal funding, but the NSW AG said that the $6 million allocation over two years would still go ahead.
Shadow AG Paul Lynch put a question on notice to Speakman:
“1. From what source will the over $6 million come that you announced on April 5 as additional funding for Community Legal Centres in NSW?
2. What programs for services will be cut to fund the amount referred to above.”
The AG replied last month:
“I am advised that funding will be met from existing resources.”
This is government speak for “unfunded”.
It’s great that the CLCs are getting the money they need, but not so great for someone else who will be sliced and squeezed. However, that’s not a pressing consideration when the main aim is to give the government a good headline.
There appears to be a stand-off between the former treasurer and the SABA council.
Bar prez Ian Robertson SC, told the rank and file that he hopes the accounts can be “reviewed” by council this month. “We will endeavour to obtain approval of them without the need to convene an extraordinary meeting.”
According to one source, two days before the AGM the then treasurer, Shane Spence, circulated accounts to the entire membership, comparing the past six years of the SABA’s financial position.
The bar executive says this report was distributed without its approval and it contained errors that should be corrected, otherwise the president will have to correct them at the AGM.
Spence claimed that there had been a dramatic decline of the association’s financial position and that the executive officer Jan Martin had been paid too much.
There was also some contention about whether subscriptions would have to be raised and if the accounts should be on a cash or accrual basis.
Jan Martin works from a virtual office part-time at an hourly rate capped at $36,000 a year. She was paid a one-off amount of $5,000 for a large amount of work preparing reports for the Professional Standards Council.
The treasurer, an ex-copper, withdrew her nomination for reelection at the AGM and said that she had been bullied, which was promptly denied by heavies on the executive.
The inner-sanctum is anxious that this allegation does not feed into the narrative that the SA profession is run by a Boys’ Club.
It has been proposed that an outside consultant be brought in to review the accounts and the workings of the bar council and to ensure that procedures are non-discriminatory.
One wag suggested this should be done by an all-male committee at the Adelaide Club.
More boosterism from NSW – this time from Aunty Gladys Berejiklian, the premier of the state.
Gladys issued a statement yesterday (August 7) crowing about “a stronger anti-corruption agency”.
“The NSW government has zero tolerance for corruption, and today marks the start of a new era for NSW’s anti-corruption agency.
The reconstituted ICAC will have stronger powers to investigate, expose and prevent corruption …” blah, blah, blah.
One of the important aims of the amended legislation was to force out commissioner Megan Latham, who had inflicted damage on a raft of dodgy Liberal parliamentarians. The corrupt politicians had tried to hide the fact that they had their sticky fingers in the pockets of prohibited donors – to wit, property developers. The Coalition under Nick Greiner created ICAC so it could go after Labor politicians, not Liberals.
Another important mission of the amendments is to make it more difficult for ICAC to hold inquiries in public. An open hearing will now require the approval of the chief commissioner and one other commissioner.
A further exciting innovation is that anyone against whom a corruption finding is to be made should be invited to respond and that response be included in the final report. In fact, the hardliners in the government hardly want ICAC to mention the word “corruption” at all.
Structurally, ICAC now has three commissioners, instead of one. Retired Supremo Peter Hall is the inaugural chief commissioner, and two senior counsel, Patricia McDonald and Stephen Rushton, have been appointed commissioners.
Bruce McClintock SC replaces David Levine as the ICAC inspector. Among McClintock’s former clients is the multiply corrupt Eddie Obeid.
The government has such a zero tolerance attitude to corruption that it took eight months after the amending legislation was whisked through parliament for it to commence operation.
The new ICAC comes into being four days after its Operation Credo report came down, where it found former Labor ministers Eddie Obeid, Joe Tripodi and Tony Kelly engaged in serious corrupt conduct in relation to Australian Water Holdings, chaired by Senator Arfur Sinodinos. It recommended that the DPP examine the prospects of prosecuting the three ex-minister and Laurie Brown, minister Kelly’s former chief-of-staff.
Further, the transition to the new commissioners was mishandled. Peter Hall was announced as the new chief commissioner before the legislation was proclaimed, giving rise to speculation that his appointment would be invalid.
This was confirmed in a letter at the end of June sent by the premier to Damien Tudehope MP, the religious right wing chairman of the parliamentary ICAC committee, which has the job of making the final determination of the government’s proposed appointments to the commission.
“I refer to my letter to you dated 20 April 2017 in which I referred for the committee’s consideration the proposed appointee to the office of Chief Commissioner of the ICAC. For the committee’s convenience, so that it can consider all proposed appointments together, I withdraw that referral and re-refer the Hon. Peter Hall QC as the proposed appointee to the office of Chief Commissioner.”