The head of the corruption watchdog, Megan Latham, has batted away questions from a parliamentary hearing about the ill-fated inquiry into Crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen and defended comments she made likening the questioning of witnesses to "pulling wings off butterflies".
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Ms Latham, a former Supreme Court judge, was called to give evidence on Friday at a public hearing by the parliamentary committee overseeing the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
She came under attack from government MPs about the commission's inquiry into Ms Cunneen, SC. The inquiry was halted when the High Court ruled it was outside the commission's jurisdiction.
Ms Cunneen was being investigated over allegations she perverted the course of justice when she allegedly advised her eldest son's girlfriend to feign chest pains to avoid a police breath test after a car crash.
The allegations were denied and the Solicitor-General has advised that she will not be charged.
Ms Latham said the committee did not have the power under the ICAC Act to ask questions about "individual operational decisions".
In an opening statement, she said there were "very stringent processes" in place to ensure only matters warranting further investigation progressed to a full inquiry.
Liberal MP Chris Patterson asked how the commission could "get it so wrong" in relation to the Cunneen investigation with "all the checks and balances in place".
"I'll take that as a comment, not a question," Ms Latham said, adding she had "absolute faith in the professionalism of my staff".
She was asked about her comments to a NSW Bar Association seminar last year, leaked to the media, in which she told junior barristers that as an inquisitorial rather than adversarial body the ICAC was "not confined by the rules of evidence" that apply in courts.
She said it gave advocates a "free kick" and likened questioning of witnesses by counsel assisting inquiries to "pulling wings off butterflies".
Ms Latham told the parliamentary hearing that the comments reflected the reality that counsel at ICAC were "not constrained by the rules of evidence".
She locked horns with Nationals MP Trevor Khan about the relevance of the questions, prompting him to retort: "The rules of evidence don't apply here, either."
The independent inspector of the ICAC, former Supreme Court judge David Levine, said he was continuing his audit of the Cunneen inquiry and would seek the advice of counsel.
Mr Levine said his audit of the inquiry was compromised by the fact that under Commonwealth law he could not be given "telephone intercepts, if they exist".
Asked about allegations that ICAC had leaked to the press, Mr Levine said the claims were evidence of a "blood feud between News Limited and Fairfax Media" and it would be "futile" to investigate them.
The hearing comes as the Baird government considers a report on the future direction of the commission by former High Court chief justice Murray Gleeson and Sydney silk Bruce McClintock.
