FIVE years after its investigation began, the ICAC has found that two former board members of the Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC) were engaged in corrupt conduct, along with two figures on the other side of land deals investigated by the corruption watchdog.
The ICAC had been officially alerted by lawyers acting for Newcastle business figure Terry Lawler, whose former firm had audited the land council, and who was appointed by the NSW government as Awabakal administrator.
The government had been concerned about the same land sales, which were brought to public attention in a series of articles by then Newcastle Herald reporter Carrie Fellner.
One of the ICAC's main targets was a former assistant commissioner of the Australian Taxation Office, Nicholas Petroulias, who had already served two years in jail for corrupt conduct when he engaged with the land council.
The ICAC has asked the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider charges against Petroulias and a solicitor he was working with, Despina Bakis, and former land council board member Richard Green. No such referral was made in relation to Green's board colleague Debbie Dates, although the ICAC says all four engaged in corrupt conduct.
While individuals are ultimately responsible for their own behaviour, it could be argued that the very mechanism of allowing land councils to sell their land puts potentially vulnerable people in potentially compromising situations.
The Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 was introduced to allow land councils to lay claim to "surplus" Crown land as a means "to compensate Aboriginal people in NSW for dispossession of their land".
Critics have described it over the years as a backdoor method of handing Crown land to developers and Awabakal is by no means the only land council to come under scrutiny for the way it has conducted its affairs.
At the same time, the government has also faced criticism, with an April report from the NSW Audit Office finding a lack of "governance arrangements to ensure accountability ... and effective risk management", among other issues.
Taken together, the various findings suggest a need for a broader investigation into a system that is not always benefiting those it was intended to help.
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NOTE: The ICAC inquiry relates to Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC).
Awabakal LALC is not Awabakal Ltd, which provides various services to Aboriginal people in the region, including the Awabakal Medical Service in Hamilton. It began as Awabakal Newcastle Aboriginal Co-operative Limited in 1977 and was renamed Awabakal Ltd in 1977.
