Meet the NSW ICAC Chief Commissioner in Broken Hill at the Western region rural and regional outreach visit next week
Tuesday 11 February 2025
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC)’s Chief Commissioner, the Hon John Hatzistergos AM, will host a public forum in Broken Hill next Thursday (20 February) as part of the Commission’s Western rural and regional outreach program visit to the city.
The visit will mark the first time the Commission has included such a forum at Broken Hill. The outreach program aims to share anti-corruption initiatives and training across NSW, while giving the local community the opportunity to interact with the ICAC and learn about its roles and functions.
“Meeting the local community is an important part of sharing information about what the ICAC does and how it interacts with the people of NSW whom it serves,” Chief Commissioner Hatzistergos said.
“This is an opportunity to learn about the ICAC’s investigative and prevention work, and for us to explain in person the role that all members of the community can play to help in combatting public sector corruption.”
The public forum will include a panel discussion, where Chief Commissioner Hatzistergos will be joined by Law Enforcement Conduct Commission Commissioner, Anina Johnson; National Anti-Corruption Commission Deputy Commissioner, Nicole Rose PSM; and NSW Deputy Ombudsman, Jacqueline Fredman.
The panel will discuss the roles of their organisations, regional issues, and how community leaders and members of the public can contribute to helping oversight agencies fulfil their functions. Guests in addition to members of the public will include senior staff from government agencies, and community interest groups.
The ICAC will hold a range of activities and events throughout the week, including workshops for public officials located in the area, visits to local councils, high school sessions, visits to non-government organisations and visits to the local TAFE. There will also be a Q&A discussion session for local councillors with Chief Commissioner Hatzistergos.
Members of the community wishing to attend the public forum are requested to register via email at [email protected]. Address details will be provided on registration. The forum will commence with registration and refreshments from 9.30 am, then the panel discussion at 10 am, with some time for audience Q&As before proceedings finish at approximately 11 am.
Public officials’ workshops scheduled for this visit include:
- Corruption prevention for managers, which focuses on developing an understanding of the nature of corruption, how and why it occurs, and what managers can do to prevent it
- Corruption prevention in procurement and contract management, which aims to assist managers and staff responsible for procurement to identify where systems weaknesses and corruption opportunities may lie
- Preventing corrupt conduct in Local Aboriginal Land Councils (LALCs), which focuses on the specific corruption issues LALCs may face and how these can be effectively managed
- Corruption prevention for planners and regulatory officers, which will assist these officers to identify and manage the corruption risks in their roles.
The ICAC rural and regional outreach program has proved highly successful since its inception in 2001. Previous visits have included to the Illawarra, the south-east, the central west, the north coast, the northern inland, the south coast, the far west, the Riverina, Central Coast, Western Sydney, Hunter New England and the Blue Mountains. Prior to this month, the most recent visit to the Western region was based in Orange in 2018.
This is the second week of the 2025 Western outreach program, which is visiting Dubbo this week for the first time since 2014.