I would suggest Runner that you either attend some public hearings at the ICAC, Local, District and Supreme Courts and if possible hearings at the NSW PIC. Then re-assess your position.
At the very least read the transcript of the proceedings. To compare them to what the Star Chamber courts became in the 16th century is a blatant misrepresentation of what has occurred here, and the functioning of these very important bodies.
These individuals are coming unstuck from their own actions and the evidence presented in so many cases are documents from their own hand, which is an irony that never ceases to amuse me.
The first thing that all of those who have appeared should have remembered about the ICAC and the other standing commissions of inquiry is that they never ask a question that they do not have the answer to and the evidence to back it up. They are fools of the highest degree in this regard in addition to anything else that may be found.
Make no mistake I do not think that anybody will be convicted of any offence, even if they are charged, simple because the burden of proof required is exceedingly high and the evidence easily muddied and contorted to find that nth degree of "reasonable" doubt.
As I have said before where low level officials in Councils and Police Officers and other bodies have been in situations similar to those we see here, those individuals are not allowed to move into the shadows of the organisation they are either forced to resign or sacked. So it should be here, there are serious questions of integrity and ethical conduct that have been breached and I question how the public can have any faith in any Politician from either side of the house given they have either known of these activities and condoned them by inaction or they were wilfully blind. Neither side can take any moral high ground because both are compromised.
