At least 50 ICAC findings in doubt following High Court Cunneen ruling

At least 50 findings made by the Independent Commission Against Corruption over the past decade have been thrown into doubt by a High Court ruling on the watchdog’s powers, including findings against a barrister and a solicitor who misled courts in criminal cases. Premier Mike Baird will meet ICAC Commissioner Megan Latham this week amid the fallout from the High Court ruling in the battle between the watchdog and Crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen, SC.The ICAC has said it will agree to court orders declaring invalid findings against mining mogul Travers Duncan and other businessmen who were embroiled in an inquiry into a coal tenement created on top of the Obeid family farm.The commission said it had “no arguable basis or option to resist” the orders in light of the Cunneen decision.But Mr Baird said on Friday that he was “open to whatever’s required to ensure those who have been found corrupt don’t get away with it”, including retrospective laws to address this and other matters.
A Herald analysis suggests a further 50 findings may have been outside the commission’s remit on the basis of the four-to-one majority decision of the High Court. However, this does not mean the findings could be overturned.The findings against Mr Duncan and his associates may be in a different category because they were made in recent years and were the subject of an existing legal challenge in the NSW Court of Appeal.The Cunneen case concerned one of the meanings of “corrupt conduct” in the ICAC Act. The commission has long considered the definition was wide enough to catch cases in which a private citizen allegedly misled public officials to gain an advantage.
But the court said the public official must also be involved in wrongdoing.This would cast doubt on findings made in at least eight inquiries since 2005, including Operation Ambrosia, an inquiry into a fraudulent scheme to obtain building licences. The investigation resulted in more than 20 findings against private citizens under the same provision of the ICAC Act.A similar scam involving security industry licences triggered an inquiry, Operation Columba, which culminated in findings against 10 people in 2009.The ruling would also affect Operation Segomo, an investigation in 2010 which found a barrister and a solicitor acted corruptly by knowingly misleading various courts by providing false information for their clients.