The chair of a parliamentary committee examining a NSW police bugging scandal has accused Attorney-General Brad Hazzard of trying to "cajole", "threaten" and "bribe" him into not conducting the inquiry and referred him to the corruption watchdog.
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Shooters and Fishers MP Robert Borsak made the sensational accusations under parliamentary privilege on the opening day of the inquiry's hearings, which is examining NSW Ombudsman Bruce Barbour's two-year probe of the bugging scandal, which has at its heart a 2003 internal police inquiry codenamed Strike Force Emblems.
It involves some of the state's top police including commissioner Andrew Scipione and deputies Nick Kaldas and Catherine Burn.
The parliamentary inquiry was established last year against the wishes of the NSW government.
On Thursday, Mr Borsak said Mr Hazzard made an unannounced visit to his parliament house office on November 14 and the conversation lasted about 30 minutes.
"In my view ... the Attorney-General sought to cajole me, then threaten me and ultimately tried to bribe me into withdrawing from the inquiry, thus causing it to be delayed or probably to fail," Mr Borsak said.
Mr Borsak said Mr Hazzard said it was his legal duty to warn him that the inquiry "was upsetting all the judges and senior legal people of this state".
"He also said I was playing politics with the inquiry and it was threatening the rule of law in NSW," he said. "I, of course, vehemently rejected such an outrageous suggestion."
Mr Borsak told the inquiry that Mr Hazzard threatened him with a reference to the powerful parliamentary privileges committee "and then immediately offered me a secret briefing from the Ombudsman on his current inquiry. I refused this offer".
"The Attorney-General then offered me a secret copy of the Emblems report which he could fix up and get for me," Mr Borsak said.
Mr Borsak said he refused and later made a formal complaint against Mr Hazzard to the Independent Commission Against Corruption. The ICAC has declined to investigate.
In a statement, Mr Hazzard said he spoke to Mr Borsak and also another committee member, Labor MP Adam Searle "and advised that launching a parliamentary inquiry into a matter that was already being considered by the Ombudsman was completely inappropriate."
"While it will certainly generate publicity for Mr Borsak, the inquiry will achieve nothing except potentially cripple the Ombudsman's report and compromise hardworking police officers who gave private evidence in accordance with the Act," Mr Hazzard said.
"Mr Borsak seemed to have no understanding whatsoever of the necessity to be impartial or to allow the process being undertaken by the Ombudsman in camera to proceed appropriately.
"The NSW government has consistently opposed the establishment of the Select Committee, based on direct advice from the Ombudsman that the inquiry is likely to "frustrate and impede the progress of Operation Prospect, a matter that would not be in the public interest".
