What next? ICAC wants NSW Parliament to lift its game on integrity

Two of the “serious corrupt conduct” findings against former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian centre on the extraordinary decision to commit public funding to two projects backed by her ex-boyfriend, disgraced former MP Daryl Maguire: building works for the Australian Clay Target Association (ACTA), and the construction of a Riverina Conservatorium of Music, both in Maguire’s electorate of Wagga Wagga.

The ACTA decision was particularly egregious, as it involved handing the association public money to put together a business case for its proposal, one based on a benefit-cost analysis that was inadequate to inform any rigorous assessment of the project.

Apart from its findings about Berejiklian and Maguire, ICAC makes a number of recommendations about what NSW Parliament could do to prevent a similar scandal from arising again.

The first is based on the dry statement that “the community may conclude that the applicable codes of conduct had little or no effect in discouraging the conduct of Mr Maguire and Ms Berejiklian identified in this report”. ICAC wants a more comprehensive code of conduct for MPs that emphasises principles of conduct in public life and “public trust, public interest and public duty”.

The Dominic Perrottet government had already moved to significantly strengthen conflict of interest disclosure requirements by MPs and particularly ministers through last year’s Integrity Legislation Amendment Act, but ICAC wants to see much greater guidance on managing, not just disclosing, conflicts.

It wants NSW Parliament to tighten its code of conduct so it’s clear there are only limited circumstances in which MPs can do what Maguire did at a near-industrial scale — mingle private and public business. It wants parliamentary friendship groups — the Asia Pacific friendship group was a key vehicle for Maguire’s corruption — to be much more tightly regulated by Parliament so they can’t be used for commercial activities. It proposes Parliament remove any doubt that breaching the MPs’ code of conduct can have real consequences, including being forced out of Parliament.

ICAC also wants more training for MPs — lots more. It complains of MPs giving evidence to its inquiries being unable to recall what if any training they had about using public resources properly, or managing conflict of interest. It devotes seven recommendations to a comprehensive ongoing training program for MPs and their staff, and suggests naming and shaming MPs who don’t participate.

On the proper administration of grants, ICAC has again been beaten to the punch by Perrottet. He commissioned a review of grants administration, and in September last year, after vowing to end the pork-barrelling that Berejiklian became associated with, established a significantly stronger grants administration guide that ministers, staff and public servants have to follow.

ICAC’s only suggestion is that the rules around handing public money to project proponents to develop business cases be made clear, and that the new training program for MPs should include teaching them about how you can’t just allocate public money for political purposes.

Whether NSW Premier Chris Minns has Perrottet’s appetite for integrity reform remains to be seen. Even accepting the ongoing implementation of Perrottet’s reforms on conflict of interest disclosure and grants administration, there’s still much work to be done to focus MPs’ minds on using public money properly.