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Haters hate as Jay shakes off Gillman scrutiny

Jan 23, 2015
Haters gonna hate: Jay Weatherill with Tom Koutsantonis. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Haters gonna hate: Jay Weatherill with Tom Koutsantonis. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

The first rule of ICAC is you do not talk about ICAC. The second rule of ICAC is you do not talk about ICAC.

You can’t. I can’t. Even the Premier can’t. Only the ICAC commissioner Bruce Lander can talk about ICAC.

So when he does, it’s kind of a big deal. Yesterday, the corruption watchdog chose to broadcast the fact he was investigating the Gillman fiasco. He was at pains to point out that this was “not a corruption investigation”, rather: “I am investigating the matter to determine if there is any evidence of maladministration.”

It’s unclear to what specifically this refers. Suffice to say there has been much-needed light already shed on this matter solely because of the actions of those insiders who correctly believed the public had a right to know how the deal was done.

If, though, Lander’s findings in any way concur with those of Justice Malcolm Blue or Auditor-General Simon O’Neill that there were serious flaws in the sale process, the Weatherill Government’s façade of “nothing to see here” geniality must surely, finally crumble.

Half the Renewal SA board resigned in protest at the deal; the Supreme Court has labelled it irrational, ignorant and unlawful; an audit found Tom Koutsantonis’s Cabinet submission was “misleading”.

Noted academic Dean Jeansch says he’s “rarely read such scathing judgments over 40 years of closely watching politics”, while Geoffrey Watson, the senior counsel assisting the NSW ICAC, mused: “Just looking at the way that government should be conducted, it is a very disturbing decision and to think that a careful judgment like (Justice Blue’s) would be brushed aside … dear me.”

And yet Jay Weatherill still unflappably maintains he would do it again “any day of the week”.

Strangely, he intimated the Government had plans that would make unlawful, irrational multi-million dollar deals pale into inconsequence, warning: “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

Rather a strange gambit: if you think that was poor governance, just wait till you see what else we’ve got planned!

Weatherill and co appear to have bought into the week’s prevailing theme, that insidious #Tay4Hottest100 campaign.

The Premier’s smarmy shtick has echoed starlet Taylor Swift’s four-minutes-and-two-second earworm: “The haters gonna hate, hate, hate … I’m just gonna shake it off.”

(And yes, I had to Google the lyrics.)

And indeed, there is something very Swiftian in this Government’s modus operandi.

Irish satirist Jonathan Swift wrote in 1707 that “laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through”.

Of course, Swift also believed that “politics, as the word is commonly understood, are nothing but corruptions” and (ironically) proposed children from low socio-economic families should be sold off as food, so one hopes this isn’t what Weatherill has in mind when he says we ain’t seen nothing yet.

But it seems the web of scrutiny will catch the small flies – the now-ousted CEO of Renewal SA, perhaps even the whistleblowers who shone public light on the labyrinthine dealings – but those wasps and hornets with whom the buck must stop will buzz on through.

Geoffrey Watson QC at an ICAC hearing in NSW last year. AAP photo

Geoffrey Watson QC on the Gillman judgement: “Dear me”. AAP photo

The simple fact is, the Government has owned this decision right from the start. Weatherill himself took personal carriage of negotiations. Koutsantonis made it abundantly clear to Renewal SA he wanted the sale to proceed, despite their objections.

So how many high-level admonishments will it take before someone says: “We got it wrong”?

How many scathing judgements from wise heads who know a thing or two about law, financial management and due process before someone says “I take full responsibility” and actually takes full responsibility?

Whatever the reality of the ICAC investigation (remembering of course that the first rule of ICAC is we don’t talk about ICAC) the political reality for Weatherill is Lander’s public statement will ensure the issue won’t go away.

The Premier was desperately hoping for some clear air to unveil his policy ‘vision’, one he appears genuinely confident will make the voting public “gasp”. But he won’t get it.

Just as fast food giant KFC’s hamfisted marketing cash-in might have cruelled Taylor Swift’s run to Triple J’s Hottest 100 countdown, the ICAC inquiry threatens to derail the soft-sell of Weatherill’s grand vision.

(One half hopes the state Libs have the foresight to jump up to the lectern during the Governor’s speech when parliament re-opens next month and shout in their most Kanye-esque manner: “Imma let you finish, but Gillman was one of the most irrational land deals of all time!”)

One could almost feel sorry for Weatherill: he was so close to unveiling his masterpiece but – as has been the case time and again with this Government, notably on child protection – he can’t escape the ghosts of his political past.

But like the wordsmith Swift (Taylor, not Jonathan), it’s like he’s got this music in his mind saying, “It’s gonna be alright.”

The timing of the ICAC statement of findings will be crucial, with parliament resuming next month. The Government clearly hopes the issue – undeniably complex and occasionally convoluted – will be lost in the cacophony of “bold” policy activity.

Until then, though, the haters will hate, and Labor will continue to glibly shake it off.

As for Lander, he won’t “discuss any particulars related to the investigation, nor make any further public statements during the course of the investigation”.

Because that’s the first rule of ICAC.

Tom Richardson is a senior journalist at InDaily. His political column is published on Fridays.

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