Minns said he wouldn’t ‘gloat’ about Icac hearings into the Liberals. Instead, he’s quietly taken out the trash
Amid revelations that could damage the Liberals’ state election hopes, the NSW government dropped key documents on three contentious issues Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast During the first week of the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s (Icac) Operation Rosny’s hearings into allegations against people associated with the New South Wales Liberal party, Chris Minns took the high ground. “There’ll be no gloating or taking political advantage,” the NSW Labor premier told reporters. “It’s an important process, and ultimately, hopefully, it makes all political parties cleaner and sends a message to anyone who’s thinking of breaching the laws or committing a corrupt act, that someone is watching.” There’s a less generous way to describe what the Labor government has quietly gone about doing during Icac’s second of at least eight weeks of hearings: “taking out the trash.” This week, the NSW government dropped key documents on not one but three contentious issues, burying them – intentionally or not – amid revelations that could damage the election hopes of state Liberal and opposition leader, Kellie Sloane, who was not an MP at the time of the alleged wrongdoing being investigated by the corruption watchdog.
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The committee had written about the difficulty it experienced after a court of appeal decision in favour of the premier’s chief of staff, which removed the upper house’s power to compel witnesses to appear before inquiries – another issue Tudehope had been prosecuting. At a press conference on Wednesday on the government’s response to the inquest into the Bondi Junction attack, amid questions about why it had only committed “in principle” to a recommendation to provide short- and long-term accommodation for people experiencing mental health issues and homelessness, Daley rejected the suggestion the government had buried the Sackar report the previous day. “A few weeks ago we were getting criticised for not releasing the report. But on Wednesday, Daley said he considered the committee’s findings “closed”.
