Gillman land sale and Oakden mental health abuse major issues for first commissioner of South Australian ICAC
The ICAC commissioner’s damning 2018 report into the Oakden Older Persons Mental Health Service found patients had been routinely abused over a decade.
Bruce Lander’s term (2013-20) as South Australia’s first Independent Commissioner Against Corruption produced major investigations into government activities and institutions.
Lander’s 2015 investigation into the $135 million million land sale deal at Gillman, near Port Adelaide, cleared Labor premier Jay Weatherill and treasurer Tom Koutsantonis but found two Renewal SA executives had engaged in maladministration. The commissioner’s damning 2018 report into the Oakden Older Persons Mental Health Service, where patients had been routinely abused over a decade, found maladministration by five individuals and promoted a public apology by premier Weatherill.
By April 2014, ICAC had received 752 complaints in its first eight months, with 43 claims of possible corruption investigated, This grew to 70 investigations during its first 12 months. From an investigation with the South Australian police into Operation Mantle, charges of theft and abuse of public office were laid against six police officers.
In April 2015, the commissioner announced prosecutions pending after several investigations. A 47-year-old Redwood Park woman was charged with abuse of public office, 233 counts of theft and 114 counts of dishonest dealing with documents. A 61-year-old Henley Beach man, previously working in the public sector, was charged with six counts of abuse of public office between February and July 2013. His alleged offences related to improper use of information for personal gain.
In April 2016, the BioSA chief executive was alleged to have “improperly exercised a power or influence” twice in 2012 while developing the biotechnology sector in South Australia. In December 2016, he pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In November 2015, the commissioner sought state government support for public hearings on cases of alleged maladministration. He also described his relationship with the South Australian police ombudsman as fractured but improving. ICAC investigations in April 2016 saw five men from the transport department charged with misappropriating goods bought with government credit cards. The prosecutor later dropped charges against two of them.
In August 2017, Liberal MP Troy Bell resigned from his party after facing 26 charges from an ICAC investigation into events before he entered parliament. Bell claimed innocence. His case was delayed by legal argument relating to whether the ICAC could directly refer cases to the director of public prosecutions and continue to investigate rather than referring its findings to the police. The supreme court found in 2020 the ICAC had acted within its powers.
Lander released a report in 2019 into South Australia's health department and warned that it was “ripe for exploitation by corrupt employees". It described a culture within SA Health that enabled misconduct and silenced dissent, where conflicts of interest were dealt with inconsistently and top doctors wielded outsized power, undermining the department's ability to monitor their performance. Premier Steven Marshall’s Liberal Marshall government said it would appoint a taskforce to address concerns but declined to provide ICAC with the funding that Lander said was needed to evaluate the central Adelaide health network.
ICAC restarted its look at the practices, policies and procedures of South Australia's corrections department in 2020, along with an investigation into allegations of improper conduct by Adelaide University vice chancellor Peter Rathjen and how the university handled those allegations.
Lander also started probing allowances paid to South Australian country members of parliament over the previous 10 years. The matter saw two government minsters, Stephan Knoll and Tim Whetstone resign, along with Legislative Council president Terry Stephens and former minister David Ridgeway.