Court rejects bid to stifle ICAC inquiry A legal bid by mining magnate Travers Duncan to prevent ICAC Commissioner David Ipp from handing down findings on the granting of mining exploration licences in NSW has been dismissed. Justice Clifton Hoeben dismissed Mr Duncan's claim in Sydney on Wednesday, saying there were "fundamental difficulties" in the case. He also said Mr Duncan's case did not show that Commissioner Ipp had demonstrated bias while heading the inquiry. Mr Duncan launched the Supreme Court action last month in an attempt to prevent the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) publishing the findings of its inquiry into the granting of mining exploration licences in NSW. The ICAC has been investigating claims that former Labor minister Ian Macdonald rigged a 2008 tender process for coal exploration licences in the Bylong Valley to benefit Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid and his family. Mr Duncan, who was an investor in Cascade Coal, a mining company that bid successfully for one of the licences, had argued that Commissioner Ipp had demonstrated apprehended bias. During the hearing Mr Duncan's barrister Noel Hutley, SC, said Commissioner Ipp had taken it upon himself to approach the head of the premier's department to concoct "a legislative pathway to allow for an interference or prevention" in granting approval for the Mt Penny project. Written submissions tendered on behalf of Mr Duncan stated that in the midst of ICAC's investigation - named Operation Jasper - the commissioner and the Department of Premier and Cabinet met around January 15 this year and discussed the development application for an open-cut mine at Mount Penny. Shortly afterwards, the commissioner sent advice to the director-general of the department, Chris Eccles, saying the minister could declare the Mount Penny mining project a "state significant development" thus allowing the matters before ICAC to be taken into consideration when determining its approval. Mr Hutley said Commissioner Ipp failed to disclose this and other correspondence to the inquiry and that could indicate that he had already predetermined the matter. But Justice Hoeben dismissed those claims on Wednesday, saying in his written judgment that Mr Duncan failed to identify any evidence that Commissioner Ipp had already made his findings and was therefore not open to persuasion. He found that it was reasonable for Commissioner Ipp to talk to government departments and that there was "nothing sinister" in such contact. "What the Premier's letter and the Commissioner's response to it achieved was to alert the parties, in particular the plaintiff and the interests associated with Cascade Coal, to the fact that the evidence adduced in Operation Jasper might be able to be taken into account by the Planning Minister," his judgment says. The plaintiff has failed to establish any basis for a claim of apprehended bias with respect to these actions. He dismissed the summons by Mr Duncan and ordered that he pay the Attorney-General's costs.