Former federal court judge Roger Gyles, QC, will chair a panel to select three new commissioners of the Independent Commission Against Corruption under a controversial restructure by the NSW government.
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The appointment of Mr Gyles – a former chairman of Transparency International and the current independent national security legislation monitor – comes after the resignation as ICAC commissioner of Megan Latham two years before the end of her contract.
It followed the passage of legislation that abolished the position of Ms Latham who was told she would have to reapply for her job.
Mr Gyles will be joined on the panel by former Treasury deputy secretary Kerry Schott and Blair Comley, secretary of the NSW department of Premier and Cabinet.
Ms Latham resigned on November 30 and will return to the Supreme Court bench.
The restructure sees the single commissioner ICAC model replaced with a chief commissioner and two part-time commissioners.
The government argues this will provide for more robust decision-making about when to proceed with investigations and private and public hearings as the chief commissioner and another commissioner will need to agree.
But Ms Latham had warned the move would create "a fundamentally weaker organisation".
A former assistant ICAC commissioner and current chairman of Transparency International, Anthony Whealy, said the change was "designed to attack [ICAC's] independence".
