Margaret Cunneen claims ICAC is leaking to News Corp … News Corp says ICAC is leaking to Fairfax … Inspector Dave says he’s not leaking to anyone … Spivs and logrollers line-up for free kicks … Get your fresh leaks here 

YOU’VE gotta laugh, or cry, at the chutzpah of the hacks at News Corp. Here they are getting barrel loads of leaks to do with stories favourable to Margaret Cunneen and the fragrant Obeids, yet at the same time publishing thunderous editorials denouncing what they claim are leaks from ICAC to Fairfax journalists. 

Talk about an irony bypass. 

Actually, The Australian has no evidence at all that ICAC has leaked to Fairfax, or anyone else. It’s an uncorroborated, self-interested assertion whose origins lie in the fact that News Corp was asleep at the wheel when it came to reporting the conduct of the Obeids. 

At one point when the Obeids had their backs to the wall The Australian published a puff piece, painting them as misunderstood and hard done by. 

It was only when nine, far-right, NSW Liberal MPs were caught by ICAC with their hands in the trousers of property developers, in breach of NSW fundraising laws, that The Australian and Miranda Devine struck-up the band in a concerted denunciation of ICAC. 

ICAC inspector, former judge David Levine, was on the money when he told the NSW parliamentary oversight committee: 

“Realistically, Mr Chairman and members of the committee, the issue of leaks is intractable and at times risible, and is evidence in my mind – for me – of a blood feud between News Limited and Fairfax Media Limited.

It is a futile task for me to embark upon trying to deal with any allegations by one side or another which has been publicly made or by any one individual to determine whether there has been a leak and, if so, by whom and to whom and of what. It is futile.” 

While we’re in the mode of surmising about leaks, who do you think is leaking these stories to The Australian’s legal affairs scribbler, Chris (CoolAid) Merritt, and News Corp media writer Sharri Markson, famous for gushing articles about the brilliance of her editor-in-chief, Chris Mitchell? 

We asked Inspector David Levine and Margaret Cunneen whether they had leaked any of this information to the media. 

Levine came straight to the point: 

“I do speak with journalists (as I am now doing) from time to time but only in response to an enquiry. If I am free to answer I will; if not, I will not and, if appropriate, will explain why. I have had no experience where that approach has been disregarded by journalists.

The office of the Inspector of ICAC, made up of three part time workers, does not leak anything to anyone. It publicly provides information, and I, comment, when it is proper, lawful and called for as a matter of public interest.” 

Margaret Cunneen had another slant, telling Justinian she thinks ICAC leaked details of her text messages to News Corp. Why ICAC would leak something adverse to its own interests to a media organisation gunning for its scalp, remains a mystery. She went on: 

The timing of the journalist getting the texts is interesting and suggestive of ICAC being responsible. The first story, about my complaint about the seizures by Notice to Produce and the later charade with the search warrant, was becoming common knowledge because I sought senior counsel’s advice about it. But I never disclosed to anyone the substance of the texts. I believe that information was given to ‘take the sting’ out of the criticism of ICAC implicit in my complaint (revealed the day before).” 

All very interesting, even though the question remains not fully answered. 

The campaign against ICAC is one of The Australian’s orchestrated assaults. We’ve seen this sort of thing before, where the paper hyperventilates in “exclusive” reports, endlessly repeated, until everyone drops dead with boredom – vide the tireless, and ultimately hopeless, campaign against Julia Gillard and the AWU slush-fund; the diatribes against the ABC by the blustering pooch fancier Chris Kenny; and global warming denials on a grand scale. 

Miranda Devine, a columnist at the Daily Smellograph, is also on the case. She had a recent piece sticking-up for one of the sidelined right faction Liberal MPs, Mike Gallacher, who came under scrutiny in Operation Spicer.  

“He can’t understand why it won’t publish its findings on Operation Spicer, the political donations inquiry.” 

The explanation is not too difficult. As a result of the High Court decision in the Cunneen case and amending legislation, Spicer (election funding) and Credo (Australian Water Holdings) have been held up. 

As expected, Devine laid it on a bit thick. Gallacher, is “a working class battler who dragged himself up by his bootstraps from Mr Druitt High, and public housing in at [sic] Lethbridge Park”.  

As a result of evidence before ICAC that has blotched the parliamentary careers of characters who were in the pocket of banned donors, Devine claims, “ICAC has interfered with the running of democratically elected NSW and federal governments”.

One would have thought the democratic process has been enhanced by their removal from parliament. 

IN any event, a couple of things need a fresh perspective. 

Cunneen’s phone texts critical of DPP Lloyd Babb and his conduct in the Gilham murder appeal were most likely part of a pile of material gathered by ICAC as part of Operation Hale and sent to the DPP in May this year, with a request to explore the possibility of charges against her for perverting the course of justice and giving false evidence.  

Subsequently, the chief crown prosecutor for Victoria, Gavin Silbert, gave advice (which remains secret) and the NSW solicitor general simply declared that Cunneen would not be prosecuted.  

Since a body of material about who she communicated with about her cases, and what was said, went from ICAC to the DPP, a thesis, different to the one advanced by Cunneen, is that the leaks to The Australian could have come from someone in the loop at the office of the DPP. 

There’s another thing that emerged from the leaks published in The Australian, and it concerns a complaint from the Obeids that ICAC filmed documents outside the terms of its search warrant. 

One of these documents was advice from the solicitor general sent by the crown solicitor to the department of premier and cabinet concerning a public-private partnership proposal being pushed by the Obeids’ Australian Water Holdings. 

What is private advice from the solicitor general doing in the Obeids’ safe? This needs to be followed-up, but don’t expect The Australian, now acting as the Obeids’ flack merchant, to pursue it.  

At play here are well-lubricated vested interests who have influence in the right wing corner of the NSW Liberal Party – including property developers, pubs and clubs. 

They have now found a voice in the conservative press. The aim is to tear the wings off ICAC, like a butterfly, so that it’s back to business as usual for the latter-day descendants of the Rum Corps. 

Hence, the repeated calls in the Murdoch press for ICAC commissioner Megan Latham to stand aside, pending David Levine’s report on the Cunneen affair. 

Latham has wisely ignored this nonsense. To do otherwise would be a huge victory for the spivs and log-rollers who have steadily streamed in and out of ICAC’s witness box. 

As a small example of the sort of rough-house tactics that are going on, it’s worth mentioning that News Corp tried to lure Fairfax’s top investigative journalist, Kate McClymont, to jump ship. 

She declined the offer and now, we understand, News hacks are trying to dig-up dirt on McClymont and discredit the work she did. 

Meanwhile, the NSW legislative council also looks set to vote down amendments that, in line with the recommendations of Smiler Gleeson and Bruce McClintock, would give ICAC power to launch prosecutions.

On October 30, The Australian wheeled out every young woman’s dream, Charles (The Wolf) Waterstreet, to declare that “investigators have a dog in the race” and should not be prosecutors. As it happens, The Wolf also had a dog in the same race. 

The government maintains it has “zero tolerance for corruption”. 

You also can find pleadings here in the current proceedings against ICAC and others, commenced by the Obeids and by Newcastle property mogul Jeff McCloy.   

For good measure, here’s Inspector Dave’s latest annual report, where he gives ICAC a clip on the ear.