From the ABC:
The New South Wales corruption watchdog has recommended criminal charges be laid against former state Labor minister Ian Macdonald over a second controversial mining licence.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption today handed down its findings from Operation Acacia, the last of four high-profile inquiries into ministers in the former NSW Labor government.
In findings handed to the NSW Parliament, ICAC Commissioner David Ipp found former union official John Maitland and businessmen Craig Ransley, Andrew Poole and Michael Chester also acted corruptly.
Mr McDonald, Mr Maitland, Mr Ransley and Mr Poole have been referred to the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions for possible criminal charges.
Operation Acacia investigated the Doyles Creek mining licence issued by Mr Macdonald when he was resources minister in 2008.
During public hearings the ICAC heard Mr Macdonald “gifted” the licence in the Hunter Valley to Mr Maitland without a competitive tender and against departmental advice.
The ICAC has found Mr Macdonald granted the Doyles Creek exploration licence even though he had previously acknowledged the application was defective.
“The Commission finds that he did so to benefit, Mr Maitland, a man with who he had a close professional relationship, to whom he was closely politically aligned, to whom he was indebted and who was a ‘mate’,” today’s report says.
