A bottle of wine may be the least of the NSW Coalition Government's problems

It’s not just that then NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell denied in evidence before the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) that he had received a bottle of Penfold’s Grange wine worth almost $3,000 from Nick Di Girolamo on 20 April 2011, nor his failure to declare this gift on his member’s disclosure declaration, that caused him to resign.

The situation is more complex than that and, much of it centers around his friendship with Liberal Party fundraiser and lobbyist Nick Di Girolamo possibly intruding into his decision making in an official capacity.

In 2009 Australia Water Holdings Pty Ltd (AWH) donated $14,350 to the Liberal Party of Australia (NSW Division), in 2010 donations totalled $26,100.00 to the NSW Division and in 2010-11 it donated $61,603 in thirteen different parcels, according to disclosures lodged with the NSW Electoral Funding Authority.

Along the way the company also managed to spend $1,350 fundraising for an unspecified political campaign team.

In 2010-11 AWH also donated $2,200 to the Australian Labor Party (NSW Branch) and $10,000 to the National Party of Australia (NSW).

According to media reports, then Shadow Minister for Natural Resource Management and now NSW Minister for Primary Industries Katrina Hodgkinson passed that $10,000 donation straight onto the Nationals state branch.  

On 6 June 2007 Nick and Jodie Di Girolamo made a personal donation to the “Liberal Party” of $2,500 and on 30 September 2010 Nick Di Girolamo made a personal donation to the “NSW Liberal Party” of $1,833.

In 2011 Australian Water Holdings contracted Liberal Party power broker Michael Photios, who was then acting as a government relations consultant, to supply advice to then CEO Nick Di Girolamo and lobby the O’Farrell Government on the company’s behalf for a fee of $5,000 per month.

On 18 January 2012 state-owned Sydney Water Corporation and Australian Water Holdings Pty Ltd signed a project management service contract and Liberal Party member/fundraiser and AWH part-owner Nick Di Girolamo was appointed to the board of State Water in July 2012 at which time Ms Hodgkinson was water minister with responsibility for the corporation. 

In 2013 Mike Baird as Treasurer told an estimates hearing that all board appointments were made on merit and approved by cabinet.

On 17 March 2014 it was reported that the Liberal Party of Australia intended to return to Sydney Water the $75,636 in AWH political donations which had been improperly billed to the state-owned water corporation as AWH administration fees.

Mr. Di Girolamo appears to have resigned from Sydney Water on the day the two NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) investigations Credo and Spicer were announced. He is also reported to have resigned from the board of Australian Water Holdings in 2013 and possibly divested himself of shareholdings in that company since then.

Di Girolamo gave evidence during the first investigation and, both the fact that AWH was blatantly gouging the state-owned water agency Sydney Water for millions of dollars and his high level of access to the NSW Coalition Government and then Premier Barry O’Farrell came to light.

When questioned in the NSW Parliament on 26 March 2014, Premier O’Farrell did not deny a 26 May 2011 meeting between himself, the former finance minister and Mr. Di Girolamo about AWH at which it was allegedly decided that Sydney Water should stop the public tender process and replace its managing director in the new tender process.

Neither did he deny writing a letter of support on 28 September 2010 in his capacity as Opposition Leader, in order to assist Australian Water Holdings in securing that lucrative contract with Sydney Water nor deny an earlier 12 August meeting with Di Girolamo and Obeid concerning his support of AWH’s bid for the Sydney Water contact and a September 2011 meeting with Di Girolamo.

On 16 April 2014 Barry O'Farrell resigned as NSW Premier after he was found to have mislead the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.

That this level of contact between O'Farrell and Australian Water Holdings may not have been  in the best interests of the people of New South Wales is indicated by the fact that barely one day into his new premiership Mike Baird stepped back from his previous 12 November 2013 support of board appointments; I am happy to stand in this Chamber and state clearly that we are very proud of the appointments we have made to our State-owned corporations. And I stand by every statement I have made and, his 2012 particular support as Treasurer of Nick Di Girolamo. Conceding that his backing as the then shareholding minister for State Water Corporation and cabinet’s backing of a Sydney Water board appointment for Di Girolamo were wrong moves; In hindsight, should that have been done? No.

However, according to Fairfax Media Premier Baird and former Premier O'Farrell also have a wider history with regard to political donations and board appointments:

In July [2012], Mr Massy-Greene was appointed chairman of Networks NSW, which will manage the state-owned electricity networks, Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy and Essential Energy, when they are merged into a single entity.

No executive search was undertaken before the appointment, which was confirmed by Mr Baird in a press release on July 2.

At a budget estimates hearing at State Parliament today, opposition MPs revealed that Mr Massy-Greene's company, Eureka Capital Partners, has donated $15,000 to Mr Baird's election campaigns.

According to NSW Election Funding Authority records, Eureka Capital Partners donated $10,000 to Mr Baird in March 2007 and $5000 in March last year, shortly before the state election.

As chairman of Networks NSW, Mr Massy-Greene reports directly to Mr Baird and the Finance and Services Minister, Greg Pearce.

The Treasurer told the hearing he had known Mr Massy-Greene "through the years as someone ... through business".

Challenged by Labor MPs about whether the appointment was appropriate, given the donations, Mr Baird insisted it was made by the Premier, Barry O'Farrell.

"It's a Premier's decision, he made the decision," Mr Baird said. "We are appointing people on the basis of their merits."

ICAC is yet to hear evidence in the second investigation concerning allegations that between April 2009 and April 2012, former Liberal NSW Minister for Resources and Energy Christopher Hartcher and Liberal MPs Darren Webber and Christopher Spence, along with others including Timothy Koelma and Raymond Carter, corruptly solicited, received, and concealed payments from various sources in return for certain members of parliament favouring the interests of those responsible for the payments.

It is possible that a number of Liberal Party MPs and perhaps Liberal Senator Arthur Sinodinos may be called as witnesses during this investigation.

Mr. O’Farrell led a government that is likely to be judged as corrupt on a number of fronts by New South Wales voters whatever the final ICAC report concludes – in the meantime that bottle of wine has allowed him to escape the full glare of future media scrutiny while the political secrets still work their way into the light during Operation Spicer hearings.

NOTE: This post will be updated in the text whenever new information becomes known.

One blogger's reaction to what the mainstream media are not saying about the O'Farrell resignation

Blogger Victoria Rollison in The Australian  Independent Media Network, 16 April 2014:

Today the media have presented their preferred frame for the resignation of Barry O’Farrell as: he mistakenly lied to an ICAC enquiry because he forgot that he received a $3,000 bottle of wine from the CEO of Australian Water Holdings. But of course O’Farrell didn’t resign because of his problems with ‘memory’. He resigned because he could no longer deny a personal expensive-wine-recipient, hand-written-note-receiver, phone-call-taker-relationship with someone who was earning over a million dollars a year as CEO of a company in a public-private partnership with the government Barry O’Farrell was in charge of up until today. This information is completely absent from the media’s framing of this story. But just imagine for a moment if one part of this story was different. Imagine for a moment that Barry O’Farrell was a Labor Premier. Imagine if Tony Abbott, standing by O’Farrell and brawling with a journalist asking questions about corruption, was a Labor Prime Minister. The ‘chaos, scandal, dysfunction, smear’ machine works in overdrive for Labor stories, but can’t even get out of second gear when Liberals are involved.

Independent Commission Against Corruption claims Liberal NSW Premier O'Farrell's scalp

NSW Premier and Liberal Party MP Barry O’Farrell denied receiving a $3,000 bottle of Penfold's Grange Hermitage wine on or about 20 April 2011, from long-time Liberal Party member and then Australian Water Holdings CEO Nick Di Girolamo.

He did not declare this gift in either his ministerial or member’s declarations of pecuniary interests.

Further, in evidence before the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) on 15 April 2014 O’Farrell could not recall many details of his official or private contact with Di Giolamo.

Then this made its appearance reportedly courtesy of Mr. Di Girolamo:

 The Telegraph 15 April 2014

Subsequently Barry O’Farrell announced his intention to resign as premier.

UPDATE

Courier billing document listing Australian Water Holdings' Gift to Barry O'Farrell & Wife:

Quote of the Week

"It’s Politics 101"

[Liberal Senator and former federal assistant treasurer Arthur Sinodinos, giving evidence before the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption on the subject of the commercial use of his political connections, 3 April 2014]

Australian Water Holdings: Footy, limousines and pole dancing

It would appear that either the directors or the ten or so employees knew how to give themselves a good time…….

Excerpt from NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) Operation Credo-Spicer Investigation public hearing on 27 March 2014 on the subject of Australian Water Holdings Pty Ltd:

GEOFFREY WATSON SC (counsel assisting ICAC): And earlier in your evidence you used an expression horrified, you were  horrified by the expenses, apart from the salaries, you’ve told us about that, were there other aspects that horrified you?

MICHAEL COSTA (former NSW Labor Treasurer who succeeded Arthur Sinodinos as Chairman): Oh, Mr Canaway made it very clear what some of the expenses were via his due diligence um, arrangements and, you know, they were quite staggering.

WATSON: What sort of things?

COSTA: Oh, that stuff that’s been canvassed in the press, limousines um, um, I think he did mention pole dancing um, so I don’t know what that was all about um, look, it was, it was clear that the um, the, the expenses were out of control um  

WATSON: What about the box out at the footy stadium?

COSTA: I, I didn’t find out about that till much later and Robert Groom advised me of that, we - and when I was there I tried, we tried to cancel it um, but it wasn’t um, possible to cancel because they had a, a contract. I think I must have found out um, there might have been two or three games left or ah, but I never of course went there. The other um, was it, the other expenses were things like directors’ fees for the Queensland directors which I thought were ah, you know um, had to be cut ah, that whole Queensland operation though it was, I’ve got to say they were doing good work up there, I mean, the proposal they came up with ah, in terms of the coal seam gas was a very innovative proposal and if it had of been successful would have been um, um, you know, added enormous value to the company.

Why did Australian Water Holdings Pty Ltd owe $20,000 to the Liberal Party in 2010?

 

Political donation, lobbyist fee or yet something else again?

One of the questions asked and answered at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) Operation Credo-Spicer investigation public hearing on 20 March 2014:

MR O’MAHONEY( counsel assisting ICAC): Did you reference the, I think you referred to them as soft costs but the discretionary costs and you’re concerns about them with Mr Sinodinos?---

RODERICK XAVIER DE ABOITIZ (AWH shareholder): Yes, I did. With Nick I went into more specific detail because I sent him the email with my comments against the accounts that he mentioned.

MR O’MAHONEY: Can you remember any of the specific costs that you took issue with?---

DE ABOITIZ: Look, you know, it seemed like, I just said to him, for a start if you’re 20 paying lobbyists, just stop it, you can’t afford it, so at that time there was $20,000 that I think was owing to the Liberal Party and so these amounts were I believe payables that were “overdue”….

Former O'Farrell Government Resources Minister and present Member for Terrigal, Chris Hartcher, to face ICAC corruption inquiry

Media Release

ICAC public inquiries into alleged corruption concerning MPs, Australian Water Holdings and political donations

Tuesday 18 February 2014

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) will hold a public inquiry commencing on 17 March 2014 as part of an investigation it is conducting concerning allegations of corrupt conduct involving public officials and persons with an interest in Australian Water Holdings Pty Ltd (Operation Credo).

The ICAC will also hold a public inquiry starting on 28 April 2014 into allegations that members of parliament corruptly solicited, received and concealed payments from various sources in return for favouring the interests of those responsible for the payments (Operation Spicer).

Operation Credo is examining whether between 2004 and 2012, persons with an interest in Australia Water Holdings Pty Ltd (AWH), its predecessors and its subsidiaries, obtained a financial benefit through adversely affecting official functions of Sydney Water Corporation (SWC) by inflating charges made to SWC and deliberately preventing SWC from ascertaining whether the charges were justifiable.

It is also alleged that in 2010, public officials and others were involved in falsifying a cabinet minute relating to a public private partnership proposal made by AWH, with the intention of misleading the NSW Government Budget Cabinet Committee and obtaining a benefit for AWH.

Further allegations include that in 2010, the then Hon Edward Obeid MLC, the Hon Joseph Tripodi and the Hon Anthony Kelly MLC misused their positions as members of parliament to attempt to influence public officials to exercise their official functions with respect to the AWH public private partnership proposal.

It is also alleged that on or about 20 November 2012, AWH chief executive officer Nicholas Di Girolamo and Edward Obeid Junior created a false deed of confirmation with a view to misleading the ICAC and any future investigation into whether the then Hon Edward Obeid MLC misused his position as a member of parliament to attempt to influence public officials to exercise their official functions with respect to the AWH public private partnership proposal.

The Commission will also examine the circumstances in which false corruption allegations were made against senior executives of SWC. Further, the Commission will examine the circumstances that led to the signing of the current contract between SWC and the successor to AWH.

Operation Spicer will examine whether, between April 2009 and April 2012, certain members of parliament including Christopher Hartcher, Darren Webber and Christopher Spence, along with others including Timothy Koelma and Raymond Carter, corruptly solicited, received, and concealed payments from various sources in return for certain members of parliament favouring the interests of those responsible for the payments.

The Commission is also examining whether, between December 2010 and November 2011, certain members of parliament, including those mentioned above, and others, including Raymond Carter, solicited, received and failed to disclose political donations from companies, including prohibited donors, contrary to the Election Funding, Expenditure and Disclosures Act 1981.

Further allegations include whether Eightbyfive, a business operated by Mr Koelma, and AWH, through its chief executive officer, Mr Di Girolamo, entered into an agreement whereby AWH made regular payments to Eightbyfive, purportedly for the provision of media, public relations and other services and advice, in return for which Mr Hartcher favoured the interests of AWH.

As it relates to Operation Spicer, the Commission is also examining the circumstances in which false allegations of corruption were made against senior executives of SWC (see also Operation Credo).

The ICAC will hold a directions hearing in both Operations Credo and Spicer on Wednesday 5 March 2014, commencing at 3 pm.

The directions hearing and the public inquiries will be held in the Commission's hearing room on Level 7, 133 Castlereagh Street, Sydney. The Operation Credo public inquiry is expected to run for two- to three weeks, and the Operation Spicer public inquiry is expected to take at least four weeks.

Commissioner the Hon Megan Latham will preside at the directions hearing and the public inquiries. Counsel Assisting the Commission will be Mr Geoffrey Watson SC and Mr Greg O'Mahoney.

Media contact: ICAC Manager Communications & Media, Nicole Thomas, 02 8281 5799 / 0417 467 801

 Note: The yellow highlighting is mine

NSW State Emergency Service under the ICAC microscope

For many years I have heard female volunteer State Emergency Service workers complain about the blokey administrative culture of this vital agency.

Less often I have heard allegations about behaviour which came close to being unethical at best and at worst something else entirely.

Now The North West Star on 8 November 2013 reveals that these types of complaints may have some basis in fact:

NSW State Emergency Service Commissioner Murray Kear will come under the microscope at an ICAC inquiry next month.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption announced on Thursday that it would hold an inquiry from December 3, as part of an investigation into the sacking of former SES deputy commissioner Tara McCarthy.

The inquiry will probe whether Mr Kear dismissed Ms McCarthy in May in reprisal, after she alleged her colleague SES Deputy Commissioner Steven Pearce had acted corruptly.

It is expected to run for up to two weeks. The inquiry will also examine allegations that Mr Kear failed to appropriately investigate Ms McCarthy’s claims regarding Mr Pearce.

Mr Kear is also alleged to have made false statements or attempted to mislead an officer of the commission.

ICAC Assistant Commissioner Theresa Hamilton will preside over the inquiry, while Michael Fordham, SC, and Callan O’Neill will act as counsel assisting....

Abbott's candidate may turn out to have questions to answer in NSW ICAC corruption investigation

The Sydney Morning Herald 21 September 2013:

Mr Hartcher's preferred candidate, Karen McNamara, was installed after intervention by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, then the opposition leader.
Ms McNamara was elected to parliament at the September 7 federal election....

The Sydney Morning Herald 23 September 2013:

The new federal Liberal MP for Dobell, Karen McNamara, has been drawn into controversy about political donations on the NSW central coast due to her role as campaign manager for a state MP whose office has been raided by corruption authorities.

The electorate offices of NSW MPs Darren Webber and Chris Spence were raided by the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Friday. Mr Webber is the member for Wyong and Mr Spence for The Entrance.

The raids are believed to be linked to revelations by Fairfax Media last year that two staff members of state Energy Minister Chris Hartcher, who holds the central coast seat of Terrigal, had been referred to election funding authorities by the Liberal Party.

The Liberals alleged the pair -policy adviser Tim Koelma and Mr Hartcher's electorate officer Ray Carter - had breached election funding laws shortly before the 2011 election. Ms McNamara was Mr Webber's campaign manager for the 2011 campaign.

Fairfax Media can reveal that during her preselection interview for Dobell, Ms McNamara said that as campaign manager she had raised up to $100,000 for Mr Webber's campaign.

But the claim was questioned by a member of the NSW Liberal state executive, Hollie Hughes, who said she had been advised party records indicated official receipts were far less than that - as little as $50,000.

It is understood the Liberal Party finance director, Simon McInnes, confirmed to Mrs Hughes that the official fund-raising figure was far less than that claimed by Ms McNamara.

Ms McNamara said in a statement she had complied with her obligations as Mr Webber’s campaign manager ‘‘to the best of my knowledge’’.....

Is the net finally closing in O'Farrell Government?

On Saturday 20 September 2013 the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption raided the offices of two NSW Liberal Party MPs in relation to allegations made against NSW Resources Minister Chris Hartcher's senior staff.

http://abr.business.gov.au/SearchByAbnHistory.aspx?abn=15782103946

Click on image to enlarge

The Daily Telegraph 21 September 2013:

The offices of two Liberal MPs have been raided by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

In what is shaping to be a major scandal for the O'Farrell Government, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the offices of The Entrance MP Chris Spence and Wyong MP Darren Webber were searched by corruption investigators yesterday afternoon.

Computers and documents were seized by investigators from Mr Webber's office on the Pacific Highway at Wyong and Mr Spence's office on The Entrance Road at The Entrance.

Both MPs were contacted this morning and said they were unable to speak about the matter.

"I can't talk about what's happened," Mr Spence said.

The Sunday Telegraph understands the raids are in relation to claims of irregularities in donations to the Liberal Party on the Central Coast, which have been under investigation for more than a year.

Two staff members in the office of NSW Energy Minister Chris Hartcher, Ray Carter and Tim Koelma, were stood down in March last year over the allegations.

Central to the issue is a small business called Eightbyfive, set up as a discretionary family trust, which is accused of soliciting donations on behalf of state Liberal MPs and candidates.

Donors were allegedly told they could safely contribute and at the same time avoid any declaration to the Election Funding Authority.

Those involved with the trust have always denied any wrongdoing.......

Excerpts from The Sydney Morning Herald 21 September 2013:

The raids are understood to be connected to allegations that two staff of energy minister Chris Hartcher breached election funding rules before the 2011 state election.....

Records show a $5000 donation was made to the party's central coast candidates by LA Commercial Pty Ltd, a building company in Wyong, just weeks before the 2011 election.

The subsequent disclosure by the company's owner, Matthew Lusted, of the donation is understood to have alerted the party. It is believed Mr Lusted's company was asked to donate through Eightbyfive.

Mr Lusted was an unsuccessful Liberal preselection candidate for the federal seat of Dobell on the central coast, then held by the former Labor MP Craig Thomson....

Mr Hartcher's preferred candidate, Karen McNamara, was installed after intervention by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, then the opposition leader.
Ms McNamara was elected to parliament at the September 7 federal election....

Last year Mr Hartcher told parliament he was not under investigation in relation to the matter involving his two staff, but on Saturday declined to repeat the statement. ''The minister won't be making any comment,'' a spokeswoman said......

"All of them disgraced. The stench from Labor is matched by the stink from the spivs at the big end of town."

Mike Carlton in today's Sydney Morning Herald has very neatly summed up what most rational people are thinking about recent events at the NSW ICAC.

Labor richly deserves the savaging it is getting over the Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald scandals. It tolerated these scoundrels in its ranks far too long. A conga line of NSW ALP grandees and apparatchiks turned a cynical blind eye to their sordid intrigues.

...

But there is another point worth making. Of the eight other men fingered as corrupt by the ICAC on Wednesday, you would bet that most have never voted Labor. They include the corporate titans Travers Duncan, a mining baron; John Kinghorn, the founder of RAMS home loans; and Richard Poole, a merchant banker and company director. And there were the two legal lions John "What's the shortest distance to a pot of money?" McGuigan and John Atkinson, heavies from the global law firm Baker and McKenzie.

All of them disgraced. The stench from Labor is matched by the stink from the spivs at the big end of town.

Source: SMH, 3/8/13

Just how many unfortunate nicknames can one bloke have?

 LUKE AQUINAS FOLEY MLC giving evidence before ICAC last Tuesday morning and revealing to the world knowledge of obscure nicknames:

“Well, one of Ian Macdonald’s nicknames was bestowed by Bob Carr that he was Della’s pet crocodile, another nickname was that he was Obeid’s left testicle.”

An update on Steve 'Houdini' Cansdell

Sydney Morning Herald journalist Sean Nicholls is like a dog with a bone. And for that the public (and those in the NSW electorate of Clarence in particular) should be most grateful.

Cansdell, the disgraced former MP for Clarence, has pedalled off into the sunset with his taxpayer-funded booty (aka a state parliamentary pension) despite significant questions remaining unanswered about his involvement in Cansdellgate.

Nicholls wrote:

Lessons from political Houdini

The award for the most outstanding public escape act of recent times must surely go to the former member for Clarence, Steve Cansdell.
You recall Cansdell: he was the former professional boxer and parliamentary secretary for police who became the O'Farrell government's first political casualty only months after it took office.
The then 60-year-old quit Parliament after his admission that he had falsified a statutory declaration to claim a staff member was driving when his car was snapped by a speed camera.
Cansdell was trying to avoid losing his driver's licence. Despite the incident occurring back in September 2005, he fell on his sword in September 2011, amid a chorus of sympathy from his Nationals colleagues.
Cansdell was "paying a very heavy price for a lapse of judgment six years ago", the leader of the Nationals and Deputy Premier, Andrew Stoner, said at the time.
Only later did it emerge that shortly before Cansdell put his hands up, the staff member in question, Kath Palmer, had blown the whistle on the episode to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
So if Cansdell was not quite pushed - he claimed he quit to save the government and the party from embarrassment - he was very firmly nudged.
Not only had Palmer alleged the statutory declaration fraud, she alleged that Cansdell had also rorted a parliamentary staffing allowance by wrongly claiming it for the period she worked on the 2010 campaign of a Nationals colleague, Kevin Hogan, who was contesting the federal seat of Page.
And so began a very strange - many would say disturbing - series of events involving the ICAC, the police and the Speaker of the NSW Parliament that remain unresolved to this day.
In October last year, just over a year after Cansdell walked into Grafton police station with his lawyer to make his admission, police announced they had concluded their investigation into the statutory declaration matter.
"NSW Police Force will not instigate criminal proceedings," they said in a statement.
What had happened? The statement explained police from the Coffs-Clarence local area command had identified the woman who signed the declaration but that "she declined to be interviewed by officers".
Futhermore, it added, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions had said it was "not satisfied there are reasonable prospects for conviction for a Commonwealth offence".
For the NSW police, that was the end of the matter. But they omitted a couple of key details.
While it was true Palmer, through her lawyer, had refused to be formally interviewed, she had offered to make what is known as an "induced statement" - one given in return for indemnity from prosecution.
According to Palmer's lawyer, Mark Spagnolo, the police had earlier made it known they intended to charge Palmer with perverting the course of justice for her role in the false statutory declaration. Any admission in an interview was likely to lead to her being charged.
Police deny she was threatened with a charge but their decision to refuse her offer to supply an induced statement was rather ambitiously twisted to become Palmer "declined to be interviewed".
Second, the Commonwealth DPP claimed it had been verballed. It said it had simply advised the NSW police that they were not satisfied it was a Commonwealth offence - a subtle but important difference.
Things became even more intriguing when it emerged the ICAC had referred the allegation that Cansdell had rorted his parliamentary allowance to the Speaker of the NSW Parliament, Shelley Hancock, who was technically Palmer's employer.
The ICAC referred the matter "for action as considered appropriate". But no action was taken for a year by Hancock, until Spagnolo released the letter publicly through Fairfax.
After that Hancock, who is also the Liberal member for South Coast, promised that parliamentary officers would "review the material" sent by the ICAC. This included a spreadsheet containing the dates on which Palmer alleged Cansdell submitted claims for the allowance that differed from the days she worked. That was last October.
What has happened since then? Hancock passed the matter to the executive manager of the Department of Parliamentary Services, Rob Stefanic, who responded that he was "unable to reach any conclusions regarding the veracity of the claims made by the former electorate officer".
Stefanic added that because, in his opinion, the allegations were "of minor significance", that so much time had elapsed and that both Palmer and Cansdell had resigned, no further action should be taken "in the absence of more conclusive information". (Never mind that the allegations, if proven, are similar to those which saw two former Labor MPs, Angela D'Amore and Karyn Paluzzano, branded corrupt by ICAC.)
When Hancock was asked if the Parliament would contact Palmer to request "more conclusive information", she said it would not.
"As Ms Palmer did not make a complaint directly to the Parliament, the Parliament will not be contacting the complainant for further information."
So, 18 months since Palmer made her official complaint, there the matter lies: a tangled mess of contradictory claims, dead ends and official inertia.
Palmer is understood to be considering whether to pursue the matter with Parliament or drop it altogether to get on with her life.
Spagnolo has called for an inquiry into the police handling of the matter. The silence has been deafening.
Cansdell now says he has gone bankrupt.
And, while there is no suggestion he is implicated, the man he is alleged to have helped out by fiddling his taxpayer-funded entitlements, Kevin Hogan, has won Nationals preselection to contest Page at this year's federal election.
As a lesson in the frustrations of being a political whistleblower, it doesn't get much more instructive than that.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, 19/1/2013

Doubt now exists over all NSW mining exploration licences and mining leases granted since 1991

Chart from Eddie could always phone a friend
in The Sunday Telegraph 18 November 2012

 
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption is currently; investigating, among other issues, the circumstances surrounding a decision made in 2008 by the then Minister for Primary Industries and Minister for Mineral Resources, the Hon Ian Macdonald MLC, to open a mining area in the Bylong Valley for coal exploration, including whether the decision was influenced by the Hon Edward Obeid MLC (Operation Jasper).

There are now questions being asked about other NSW mining exploration licences and mining leases approved or extended between 1991 and 2012, with the media reporting allegations that an unspecified number of departmental files are now missing and therefore not available to the Inquiry.

Doyles Creek Mining, NuCoal Resources and Newcrest are three of the corporate names being mentioned in relation to alleged irregularities with their licences/leases.

Given the large number of exploration licences that have been granted over land on the NSW North Coast it might be advisable for concerned residents and community groups to investigate the application background of these licences, as well as the state political donation history of those mining companies involved.