'Seriously corrupt' label for Berejiklian 'over the top'

as we've been reporting Ike released that bombshell report this morning concluding that Gladys bergiclian was corrupt for not disclosing her relationship with Daryl Maguire and never reporting any suspicions about his conduct joining us live now is the Australian's legal Affairs contributor Chris marriage Chris really appreciate you making the time thanks so much tell us what's your analysis of that report today I get several hundred pages

long so I'm not sure if you've got through all of it yet but so far what stood out to you um I think it's a little over the top two volumes about five or six hundred pages and when you look at the substance of what's going on to describe Gladys spiritually and as seriously corrupt I think it amounts to a debasement of the the term there's

the source of this inquiry was icax jurisdiction over the ministerial code of conduct now one of the findings against uh Miss barajiklian is that she exercised her duties uh in a partial or a not impartial manner when it came to benefiting Daryl Maguire's electorate now if you have a look at the ministerial code of conduct there's a very clear card out uh for uh benefits that

are designed to increase the popularity in an electorate of a particular politician so I I wouldn't be at all surprised if there is some consideration at least of an appeal and challenging that finding that uh Gladys engaged in partial conduct when it came to allowing grants to be sent to Daryl Maguire's electorate that carve out I think needs to be given very clear attention because the

politicians who drew up this this code of conduct would have been aware that they would be possibly in the gun for doing exactly this sort of thing and if it if it's now going to be considered corruption to for politicians to allocate grants to electorates in the hope that that will increase their political popularity I think we're entering a very strange New Era of liberal democracy

so Chris what options what Avenues are there for gladysburgh now because as you point out we've had these serious findings of corruption but they're not being referred to the DPP for any charges we heard from Margaret canine a bit earlier in the program she described that position as being a sort of halfway house that's pretty tricky for that aspergicly and to navigate yes I agree entirely

I think the this is the worst possible outcome had she been referred she would have been able to challenge the substance of the finding against her as as it is she is limited to what's called judicial review a superior court could still look at this and see if there has been what's called an era of law not and not an era of factual analysis but an

era of Law and this is where this point about the uh the carve out in the ministerial code of conduct could be a point that gains a little bit more attention over the coming days uh I think that said judicial review is a very inadequate form of oversight or a form of a method of holding itac to account in effect it it limits the ability of

anyone to look over icac's shoulder and and say well this is not quite right you didn't do this correctly or if it's infected with uh with error factual error about what happened we will never know because the the New South Wales governments a lot of them going all the way back to 1988 have decided that ikeac should not be subjected to a full Appeal on the

merits that's uh that's the the optimum outcome and that's what happens in a court if a court makes a decision you do have the right to seek to appeal the entire decision but that's not the case with icac in ins to a limited extent um it's the law assumes that icac is infallible and that's not a good way to be I know that you've written in

the Australian that the time delays in this process by icac was was ludicrous I think was the word you used to describe it is there any justification at all as to why this took so long this has been hanging over the former Premier it's had for for three years now um look I I wouldn't think so um people who know a little bit more about icax

operations uh than me and I'm talking about uh Jeffrey Watson who's a former Council assisting at arcac way back in January he was saying look this doesn't appear to be a a complex matter the argument that substance is fairly clear-cut and I agree with him entirely I mean the argument when you when you get right down to it are those those points which I've just mentioned

and to drag it out for 20 months uh I I can't see any any reason for that and I think um uh premium means Chris means is uh hope being hopeful I think when he when he talks about introducing uh voluntary time standards though I mean the commission already has voluntary time standards and they don't comply with them in I think it's about 60 of matters

uh based on its own submission last year to a parliamentary inquiry so I think the time for voluntary um key performance indicators I think that's long past I think I think New South Wales needs to be sure that nobody else is subjected to such a ludicrous delay as uh has been the case with Gladys perijiclian it's just unfair Chris Merritt really appreciate your analysis and for

taking the time to join us today thanks so much