At around 11.30am on Monday, the IAC lawyer assisted Dr. Peggy Dwyer, SC, he was busy explaining the revelations of the anti-corruption agency in the working groups of senior leaders in the Liberal Party of NSW and them. alleged lucrative links to fugitive property developer Jean Nassif.
Meanwhile, a few blocks away from Parliament in Macquarie Street, Liberal leader Kellie Sloane’s famous office chants for her top press release: “NEW DATA RAISES NEW CONCERN ABOUT NSW’S SKILLS PIPELINE.”
It was a busy day for Sloane, who spent the morning talking to commuters at Crows Nest metro station, announced the fake intelligence policy at lunch, then met with opponents of the Moore Park golf course sculpture in the afternoon. The message was not subtle: We publish through it.
Indeed, ICAC can be very busy in the air exciting suspicions that a group of well-connected young Turks from the right wing of the Liberal Party received $2 million from Nassif to set up branches and pre-select candidates who would be sympathetic to his development. And indeed, Nassif may have boasted to his promoter friends that he had “hands on the state government” and would “step on (the) neck” of the then building commissioner, David Chandler, by getting “one of my girls” appointed as NSW fair trade minister to oust him.
But the Liberal leader is determined to show the image of continuing with the work, despite the scandals that plague his party. You can understand why.
Operation Rosny, as the ICAC investigation is codenamed, is set to last eight weeks. It has the potential to overtake the Liberals just months before next March’s election, when the party is already there. struggling with the wrong number of votes. Sloane can’t spend two months on an apology tour.
But there are dangers to the Keep Calm and Carry On schtick. Appearing on Sydney radio station 2GB the morning after the inquest began, Sloane’s comment was that of someone who is only interested in an unpleasant incident that happened far away. It was “very good listening”, he said. It was ahead of its time, though, and “to be honest, I’m learning about it like everyone else is”.
While the Liberal leader had spoken to Eleni Petinos, the opposition spokeswoman for sports named in Dwyer’s opening speech to the inquiry, surprisingly, Sloane had not asked her if she had done anything wrong. In fact, Sloane said he had not discussed “the details of the allegations with anyone”.
“I wish ICAC all the best in eradicating any corruption,” he said.
This is extraordinary language from the leader of a party staring down the barrel of an earthquake corruption scandal even if the Liberals are not popular with voters.
Sloane, as he said, has the advantage of being a new politician with very little history of factions. That, however, he is not voicing his distaste for the allegations that have already been aired just three days into the trial – pledging zero tolerance for any allegations of corruption, and vowing to weed out the bad eggs in his party – is puzzling.
Instead, other than the 2GB interview, Sloane has avoided the media during the first week of the investigation. It was already known how few press conferences he holds (much smaller than any opposition leader I can think of), but giving ICAC greetings in rooting out corruption in the party you lead and then walking away from the rest of the action seems unusual.
This is not at all imaginary. For years, the IAC has been urging state governments to pass a series of reforms on lobbying laws after a 2021 audit found serious problems with the government’s lobbying.
“A new law, or a major reform of the (Influence of Government Officials) Act, is needed to protect the public interest from the inherent dangers of corrupt and undue influence,” the commission wrote in its Operation Eclipse report five years ago. The review made more than two dozen recommendations, including new duties for public officials involved and a ban on “undocumented or secret” meetings. The Minns Labor government has failed to implement any of the recommendations, despite repeated pleas from ICAC Chief Commissioner John Hatzistergos.
More than a year ago, NSW Special Minister of State John Graham said Labor would have more to say about the evolution of Operation Eclipse “soon”. Last month, Graham said lobbying reform was “imminent”.
A generous reading of the delay is that the government was waiting for any new concerns that Rosny would present before making changes. A more dubious reading is that it wants to maximize the political benefits of its response to Rosny being seen as Labor cleaning up NSW politics ahead of the election. It is aware, after all, that voters are less satisfied with institutional politics than usual.
The Liberals should be out the gate now, promising reforms to lobbying laws and, while they do so, an Electoral Commission bundled with resources and unleashed to stop the next batch of nasty hacks before they live out their Coen Brothers-esque coming-of-age saga.
Michael McGowan is the state politics editor.
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