The ICAC
inquiry into the closure of the Orange Grove Shopping Centre at Liverpool has just
been released and the early headlines will read: “NSW Government cleared.” At
first blush, the report is a good one for the government.

But the news is
not so good for Westfield with its heavyweight corporate affairs director Mark
Ryan coming in for criticism for his conduct: “misguided and at worst
mischievous” was the ICAC verdict.

AAP reports that ICAC assistant
commissioner Ian Harrison SC found that then Assistant Planning Minister Diane
Beamer’s decision to shut down Orange Grove was “not inappropriately or
illegitimately influenced.”

The ICAC also found there was no evidence of
corruption concerning Liverpool Council’s decision to give development consent
for Orange Grove. It also found there was no evidence to substantiate claims
that former premier Bob Carr ordered Ms Beamer to close the centre as a favour to
Westfield boss Frank Lowy.

But NSW opposition leader John Brogden is not
happy: “It’s like finding someone with 25 stab wounds in the back and calling it
suicide.”

On April 15, 2004, Mark Ryan made “strong assertions” to Graeme
Wedderburn, then premier Carr’s chief of staff, that there was corruption
involved in the council’s approval of the rival direct factory
outlet.

“In the opinion of the commission, in acting as he did, Mr Ryan
was at best indifferent, possibly misguided and at worst mischievous, but he did
not, and Westfield was not, engaging in corrupt conduct in doing so,” the report
said.

During the commission’s hearings, it was alleged Fairfield MP Joe
Tripodi told Orange Grove owner Bilal Gazal and the centre’s contract cleaner
Sam Bargshoon that Carr had told Ms Beamer not to allow Orange Grove to remain
open. Tripodi lobbied Beamer to keep the centre open.

Harrison found
Tripodi probably mentioned the names of Carr and Lowy in conversations with
Gazal and Bargshoon, “but not in the way ascribed by them.”

The ICAC
report recommends the NSW ministerial code of conduct include guidelines on
dealing with lobbyists. It also calls for a protocol to be set up for ministers
and their staff to manage corruption allegations made against external parties
with an interest in government decisions.

As ever, it’s the fine print
that counts, and we will be reading the report and bringing you a full report
tomorrow.