Section 56 of the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Act 2012 (ICAC Act) prevents the publication of information tending to suggest that a particular person is, has been, may be, or may have been, the subject of a complaint, report, assessment, investigation or referral under this Act.

A primary object of the ICAC Act includes achieving an appropriate balance between the public interest in exposing corruption, misconduct and maladministration in public administration and the public interest in avoiding undue prejudice to a person’s reputation.

There have been occasions where information has been published that does tend to suggest that a person might be under investigation by my office. In doing so, care is apparently taken to ensure that the ICAC is not explicitly identified as the investigating agency, although the story itself suggests the ICAC’s involvement, and in some cases it is difficult to draw any other inference.

One such occasion concerns a claim in the media that the Hon. Jennifer Rankine, Member for Wright and former Minister for Education and Child Development in the South Australian Parliament was under investigation for a matter relating to the appointment of a public servant, Vicki Antoniou. It was claimed in some media that Ms Rankine resigned from the Ministry as a result of an investigation.

I would not normally make a public statement with regard to a matter that may or may not be under investigation by my office. However, on this occasion I feel that I should correct the public record so that neither Ms Rankine nor Ms Antoniou suffers long term damage to their reputations.

A report was made to the Office for Public Integrity (OPI) relating to Ms Rankine’s conduct in employing Ms Antoniou in a department under the control of Ms Rankine.

Neither Ms Rankine nor Ms Antoniou were aware of my investigation until they were separately interviewed, which was after Ms Rankine had resigned.

I have now concluded my investigation. None of the allegations relating to Ms Rankine’s conduct in the employment of Ms Antoniou were substantiated.

I am satisfied that this matter requires no further action and I have closed my file.

PUBLIC STATEMENT BY THE HON. BRUCE LANDER QC INDEPENDENT COMMISSIONER AGAINST CORRUPTION 
The publication of this information has been authorised by the Commissioner under section 25 of the ICAC Act.

Related Downloads:
ICAC Public Statement - 4 May 2015