Law firm Holding Redlich has been sued by the NSW Labor Party for allegedly providing negligent advice on $100,000 in illegal political donations delivered in an Aldi bag and the ICAC investigation that followed, setting the party back $1.8 million in legal costs.
Highly anticipated legislation creating a federal anti-corruption commission has received unanimous support and could pass by the end of the year, but a fight may be on the horizon over the commission’s power to conduct public hearings.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has announced legislation to establish a federal anti-corruption commission by mid-2023, pledging $262 million over four years to the body, which will have broad and retrospective powers to investigate public corruption.
The NSW Independent Commission has found that pork barrelling, in which a minister directs public funds for partisan political purposes, could sometimes amount to criminal corruption and has called for better regulation of grants funding.
A former manager at the NSW Roads and Maritime Services awarded over $12.2 million in government contracts to two companies owned by his friends, the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption has found.
A former Fair Work Commission vice president has sued the ABC for allegedly tricking him into participating in a Four Corners interview about his relationship with controversial union figure Kathy Jackson, who was found to have misused $1.4 million in union funds.
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption has found Holding Redlich managing partner Ian Robertson’s account of a meeting where he allegedly advised the former NSW Labor general secretary to cover up a $100,000 illegal political donation “inconceivable”, but declined to refer the lawyer for criminal charges or disciplinary action.