Published February 20, 2016 - Sean Nicholls, SMH State Political Editor
Margaret Cunneen faces a push to refer her to Parliament's powerful privilege and ethics committee after she demanded that MPs not provide details of secret phone taps involving her to journalists "or any other person".
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On Friday, the Greens MP for Balmain, Jamie Parker, wrote to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Shelley Hancock, expressing his concern over media reports about the letter.
He wants Ms Hancock to allow him to bring on a motion to be debated in Parliament that Ms Cunneen be referred to the privilege and ethics committee.
"It is critical that members of the NSW Parliament can proceed in their work unimpeded by threats or constraints," he wrote.
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The Crown prosecutor's lawyers delivered her demand in a letter to the chairman of the oversight committee on the Independent Commission Against Corruption, Liberal MP Damien Tudehope, on February 12.
It followed publication by Fairfax Media of excerpts of a transcript of Australian Crime Commission telephone intercepts that sparked the ICAC's aborted investigation of Ms Cunneen over allegations she tried to pervert the course of justice.
The excerpts show Ms Cunneen saying she had sent a message to her son's girlfriend, who had been drinking alcohol, "to start having chest pains" after a 2014 car accident, to avoid a breath test.
They also reveal Ms Cunneen expressed the hope the delay would mean an ambulance would be called and the woman, Sophia Tilley, would record a blood alcohol reading of zero once tested, which she did.
In the letter Ms Cunneen's lawyers say she "hereby does demand" that MPs on the committee "refrain from directly or indirectly providing any audio or transcript of the taped conversation, or the substance of it, to any journalist or any other person".
The letter suggests that to do so would be a criminal offence.
The committee is seeking legal advice about whether it can publicly release the phone intercept and other material relating to the ICAC's investigation of Ms Cunneen provided to it by the ICAC's commissioner, Megan Latham.
On Friday, the Greens MP for Balmain, Jamie Parker, wrote to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Shelley Hancock, expressing his concern over media reports about the letter.
He wants Ms Hancock to allow him to bring on a motion to be debated in Parliament that Ms Cunneen be referred to the privilege and ethics committee.
"It is critical that members of the NSW Parliament can proceed in their work unimpeded by threats or constraints," he wrote.
"The ICAC is a critical anti-corruption institution and the parliamentary committee that oversees it must be able to conduct its business and take whatever action it considers appropriate, free from threats or inappropriate influence".
The privileges and ethics committee can consider whether an offence has been committed, including a breach of privilege or contempt of Parliament.
"I am hopeful the Speaker will allow this motion to be debated on the floor of Parliament to enable a transparent discussion of these important matters," Mr Parker told Fairfax Media.
If the motion is debated, it would require the support of the government to pass.
Ms Cunneen's lawyer, Hamish Cockburn, said no part of his letter "in any way attempts to impede, threaten or constrain members of the Joint Committee from carrying out their functions in a lawful manner".
Mr Cockburn said the letter does no more than demand MPs who have had access to the transcript and audio "not unlawfully disseminate those materials in contempt of Parliament or in breach of legal restrictions ..."
He said Ms Cunneen reserved her right to bring her own complaint before the committee in relation to the leaking of the transcript to Fairfax Media.
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