Parliamentary ICAC committee in a quandary about Cunneen tapes … Lawyers called in … Damien Tudehope’s sorry history of covering-up
WHERE are we with the ICAC committee of the NSW parliamentary committee?
There was supposed to be a decision about the release of the Cunneen transcripts and intercepts last week.
The parliamentarians ICAC committee met on Monday, Feb. 15, and called off the session that was scheduled for Friday, Feb. 19, but gave no date for what is to happen next.
Lawyers’ opinions have been called for and have slowed down the thinking of an already pretty slow thinking committee.
It is understood that the solicitor general Michael Sexton has not provided the committee with advice. He responded to out query about this with “no comment”.
One of the issues in contention is whether the state parliamentary committee is bound by federal legislation, namely the Commonwealth Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act.
The conservative chairman of the committee Damien Tudehope said, after ICAC commissioner Megan Latham on Feb. 11 presented the Cunneen tapes for consideration, that:
“We have deliberated on this material this morning and there is a non-publication in respect of that material for the time being. I reiterate that that is not a decision not to publish but for the time being the committee has decided that there will be no publication of either the TI material or tabs 1-8 until such time – we may have to deal with that as we go forward as to how we deal with your submission.”
Tudehope had given earlier indications that he regarded with hostility ICAC’s investigation of prosecutor Cunneen over the alleged attempt to pervert the course of justice.
There’s likely to be a real tussle within the committee over whether to disclose the Cunneen material – something commissioner Latham has urged the the Hon. members to do.
It’s not the first time Tudehope has tried to head-off information he doesn’t want the public to know.
For instance, in 2012 it came to light that at the time he was NSW attorney general Greg Smith’s chief-of-staff he stepped in and blocked the release of government documents relating to an alleged paedophile priest, Father Finian Egan.
He said that under the Government Information (Public Interest) Act there was an “overriding public interest against disclosure”.
Tudehope had previously acted as Egan’s solicitor. When the priest was arrested and charged with multiple sex offences, Tudehope’s barrister brother, Anthony, was on hand to represent him. Smith used to attend Egan’s church at Carlingford.
In November 2013, the priest was found guilty of eight child sex offences. There’s more information about him here.
This history of official cover-up does not bode well for the prospect of the ICAC committee chairman supporting the release of the Cunneen tapes.
Cunneen’s lawyers have demanded that MPs not release any of the confidential intercepts or transcripts and to do so would be a criminal offence. This was after she said she didn’t “give a damn” whether they were released.