NSW ICAC Commissioner John Hatzistergos, in the below video, exposes the lie that federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and the Labor Party have been saying publicly to justify secret hearings at the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC).

NSW ICAC Commissioner John Hatzistergos was giving evidence at the Committee set up to review the NACC legislation and the Chairperson Labor Senator Linda White said to Commissioner Hatzistergos as part of a question that the NSW ICAC only has about 4% of their hearings publicly.

The 4% or 5% figure is a lie which I pointed out in an article that I published on the 9^th of October titled “Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus cooks the books to justify secret hearings at the National Anti-Corruption Commission and video you won’t see at a Federal ICAC”. (Click here to read more)

I wrote that article after I contacted the NSW ICAC and asked them questions about the 5% Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus had said in an interview so the NSW ICAC knew he was telling lies about the NSW ICAC’s hearings.

Senator Linda White changed the figure from 5% to 4% but it is almost certain she was given the question from Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to ask NSW ICAC Commissioner John Hatzistergos hoping he would support the lie.

But Commissioner Hatzistergos didn’t hold back in the below video and put a sword to the lie. That left Senator Linda White looking embarrassed, and it was clear she did not know where the 4% figure came from which further indicates the question came from Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.

Towards the end of the video, Senator David Shoebridge asks about public hearings and Commissioner Hatzistergos makes the point about public hearings keep the organisation (NSW ICAC) accountable and that he does not support the idea that you can make findings of corruption in a private hearing.

I have filed submissions with the NACC Committee reviewing the legislation who is having public hearings this week and my article pointing out the 4%/5% lie is part of those submissions, so they knew it was a lie yet still put the question to NSW ICAC Commissioner John Hatzistergos.

At the moment they have published submissions for 105 parties but have so far refused to publish my submissions which shows the 4%/5% is a lie. I emailed them asking why and Senator David Shoebridge’s office said my submissions should be up by the end of the week and Senator Linda White’s office said:

Good morning Shane

Thank you for raising this matter with Senator White.

I reiterate the response you have already received from the Secretariat below. The Committee progressively works through submissions to determine authorisation for publication.

Whether they are authorised and how quickly are decisions taken by the Committee in deliberation. As set out in the motion passed in both Houses which established the committee, deliberations are not made public unless by resolution of the Committee.

I have no doubt they asked Commissioner John Hatzistergos the question hoping he would not challenge it and then they could say he had in effect confirmed it. But as I said above the 4%/5% lie had already become a public issue because I had contacted the NSW ICAC, put questions to them and published an article about the lie.

Watching the video above Commissioner John Hatzistergos seemed prepared to address the lie so it is an issue he had become aware of before the hearing.

Some people might think it is a minor issue. But it’s not. For an Attorney-General to cook the books and tell lies to try and justify secret hearings at a National Anti-Corruption Commission says he knows there is no basis for the secret hearings in the first place.

If they have to tell lies regarding how the National Anti-Corruption Commission should or shouldn’t work how much confidence should anyone have in the National Anti-Corruption Commission once it is operational?

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