NSW Premier Chris Minns will be referred to the New South Wales Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) over his relationship with one of the key figures behind the redevelopment of the Rosehill Racecourse in Sydney’s west.
The Minns government gave the green light in 2023 to redevelop the Rosehill Racecourse to make way for 25,000 homes and an additional station on the currently under-construction Metro West line from the city to Westmead.
Crikey explains why Minns is being referred, how an ICAC referral works, and what it all means.
Why is Minns being referred?
Minns, who denies all wrongdoing, is alleged by a NSW parliamentary committee to have rushed through a deal with the Australian Turf Club, which owns the course, during an informal meet-and-greet with club official Steve McMahon, a former Hurstville mayor and Labor candidate and a longtime friend of Minns.
McMahon is the club’s head of corporate affairs and government relations, and has been friends with Minns for more than 20 years.
The NSW parliamentary select committee inquiring into the development of Rosehill Racecourse voted to report the premier to ICAC, according to news coverage, with the formal complaint to be made on Friday, December 6th, when the committee is scheduled to table its report.
How big a deal is this?
Dr Derwent Coshott, who teaches anti-corruption law at the University of Sydney, told Crikey, “You’re going to have a very different reaction based on who makes a report to ICAC … so if it’s a parliamentary committee making a report to ICAC, that’s obviously much more serious than someone writing an email who happens to work in some random local council”.
Who can make reports to ICAC?
Coshott noted that “anyone can make a complaint to ICAC”.
Any member of the public, including public officials, can lodge a complaint with ICAC. But according to ICAC, “the matter must concern suspected corrupt conduct affecting the NSW public sector to fall within the commission’s jurisdiction”.
Coshott told Crikey that while there were particular provisions under section 73 of the ICAC Act for the Parliament itself to make a referral — which requires a vote in both houses of the NSW Parliament and would oblige the commission to investigate and report back to both houses as to its findings — there were not specific provisions in the legislation with respect to parliamentary committees.
A report to ICAC does not necessarily mean that the commission will investigate, or imply of itself corrupt conduct.
What does Minns say?
Minns forcefully denied the allegations in a press conference in Sydney on December 5, calling them “unsubstantiated rumours”. Minns said the conflict of interest allegation was an “outrageous allegation” that is not “supported by the facts”, and said that the parliamentary committee acted in the “politicised” manner it did because it does not “have those facts or that evidence”.
Minns said he had been “completely forthcoming, completely open about my relationships with anybody involved with the ATC”, and that the report “undermines and corrodes community confidence in something that is important for public integrity in this state, and that’s the ICAC”.
Peter V’Landys is chief executive of Racing NSW, which holds oversight of the decision to sell Rosehill.
He told Crikey: “I agree with the premier.”
“You can have differences on policy, accordingly constructive debate should take place. There is no need to smear someone or weaponise ICAC to make your point,” V’Landys said.
“In most cases when you get personal in a debate, you’re losing the argument.”
What happens now?
The ICAC can take several courses of action, including directing a relevant agency to investigate a report on behalf of it, conducting an assessment enquiry to determine whether the agency may have dealt with the matter, taking no action, or launching an investigation.
The ICAC can’t prosecute people, but it can recommend prosecution of individuals to the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions.
Last financial year, the ICAC received 3,635 matters from reports. From those, it only commenced five full investigations. It held one public inquiry, which went for 11 days, and commenced two prosecutions.
What’s the go with NSW and ICAC?
New South Wales has a long and sordid history of public figures being brought down by the state’s corruption commission. Former Liberal premier Gladys Berejiklian resigned following the commencement of an ICAC investigation that eventually found she had engaged in “serious corrupt conduct”, after not disclosing a secret personal relationship with then Liberal MP Daryl Maguire, and not reporting potentially corrupt conduct on Maguire’s behalf. Section 11 of the ICAC Act obligates senior government officials and ministers to report possible corrupt conduct to the commission.
The ABC describes NSW as “always [having] had a sleazy subterranean network of fixers and door-openers who could influence decisions for the right price”, and Sydney as “traditionally … thought of as a corrupt old town”. But is there something in the water that leads to politicians from the harbour city being cartoonishly corrupt?
Coshott says yes.
“Look, the reason we got an ICAC, and the reason we got such a strong ICAC, is because there was something in the water in New South Wales. Go back to the Wood royal commission, go back to the ’80s, the ’70s. But at the same time, whatever was in the water in New South Wales, it was 10 times stronger in Queensland, if we go back to the time of Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
“State politics has always been dodgy in various ways, New South Wales and elsewhere — and we also have a strong independent commission against corruption because of state politics,” he said.
“There’s something in the water, which is why we need a strong water purification system, but the stronger the water purification system is, the more water it’s going to purify.”
