Rebecca Connor’s two-year stint as head of the mining titles operations unit included reports of serious conflicts of interest between department staff and the mining industry; allegations of former titles staff modifying mining files; the alleged leaking of confidential information by staff to mining companies; meetings between department staff and mining representatives they had previously worked with, and former department staff making inappropriate direct appeals to senior department employees to benefit their mining industry clients.

She was sacked in May for reasons including not reporting a male friend’s emailed naked photo.  

Ms Connor said she was suspended on November 10, 2017, a day after allegedly warning a senior manager she was making a protected disclosure alleging serious misconduct by a former titles staff member, leading to a mining lease approval that Ms Connor advised senior managers to revoke because it was unlawful.

Her sacking, and reports other senior Department of Planning staff were made redundant or resigned after raising corruption allegations, or after supporting staff alleging bullying linked to corruption allegations, has led to calls for a new independent investigation into the department’s handling of mining processes.

The calls come after the Independent Commission Against Corruption in 2013 warned of a policy and regulatory environment “conducive to corruption”, and that weak processes and lack of transparency were factors in corrupted Hunter mining licence processes leading to the jailing of former ministers Eddie Obeid and Ian MacDonald, and former union boss John Maitland.

“I don’t think it’s changed at all. The culture is still there,” said Ms Connor, who was shocked when staff used department emails to invite mining industry representatives to a department staff farewell and asked for payments and a gift contribution to be made to a department staff member’s personal credit card.

Ms Connor’s complaint was not investigated despite the involvement of 10 current and former staff, after a department governance manager advised a superior there was not “much value in conducting an investigation into this matter” because the employee who received the credit card payments had left the department.

But the governance manager strongly criticised “the conflict of interest and personal relationships that continue to exist between current employees… and the mining industry, especially mining agents, and the lack of understanding of the actual and perceived conflicts, in a similar vein to that which we have previously identified”.

“There are obvious and real concerns associated with mining industry personnel making payments to department employees’ personal credit card (or any other bank accounts) and the perception of corrupt conduct that may arise as a result,” the governance manager wrote in a May, 2017 email.

The governance manager recommended “targeted training… (again)” by the Independent Commission Against Corruption for staff involved with mining “to address similar behaviour from re-occurring”.

Ms Connor said the credit card case demonstrated “there was no real understanding of what corruption is and what could be perceived as corruption” by some within the department.

“They don’t see that there’s a line they’re crossing and there’s industry capture in the way they’re doing things. They just see this as how they do business with the mates from the mining industry they see all the time. Obviously I became the pain in the ass who kept saying ‘You can’t do it that way’,” Ms Connor said.

NSW Labor’s shadow industry and resources minister Adam Searle said material raised by Ms Connor, and unanswered questions about the department’s role in mining company Ridgelands’ reduction of an undisclosed community fund from $5 million to $500,000, required a “full external inquiry”.

“This is yet more evidence of disturbing mismanagement by the department which raises the real risk of corruption,” Mr Searle said.

“What this calls out for is a full and external inquiry into all of these issues and why they were not addressed at the time.”

NSW Greens planning spokesperson David Shoebridge said an independent inquiry was needed to bring about a “radical reset” in how coal mining applications are assessed.

“The industry and the regulator have such longstanding and deep connections that it is almost impossible for the regulator to protect the public interest. Reform needs to start with stopping the revolving door between the department and the mining industry, and breaking politics’ addiction to fossil fuel donations,” Mr Shoebridge said. 

Ms Connor was sacked after an investigation found it was “probable” she made “aggressive” statements about a former titles staff member at a meeting on November 7 which discussed transferring the employee back to the titles area.

Ms Connor had previously raised allegations about the employee, including that computer records showed the employee viewed and modified mining titles files, after Ms Connor was required to sign that a file was true and correct in response to a subpoena for a court case.

Emails and department statements that formed part of the investigation into complaints against Ms Connor show Ms Connor’s allegations against the employee were seen by some as personal antipathy between the two.

An investigation report by consultants in March into allegations against Ms Connor noted her denial of all allegations and belief they were “in retribution to complaints about corruption that she had made”.

The report noted her retribution allegation was “unable to be tested as part of this investigation”.

The report noted a “change management process” from 2016, which required Ms Connor to “refresh” up to 60 per cent of staff in the mining titles area by removing them from the department or transferring them, led to “significant disruption” and contributed to “a long history of conflict between many of the staff of titles services and also between the various business units”.

The report found four of seven allegations against Ms Connor were not sustained. It found she breached the department code of conduct by failing to report an emailed image of a naked male friend that was found on her department computer after she was suspended. It found she also breached the code of conduct by declaring a conflict of interest but failing to “accurately reflect the nature of ongoing social connections” she had with a woman she employed.

On March 26 the department advised Ms Connor the investigation report findings were accepted and “you have engaged in misconduct”.

Ms Connor filed an unfair dismissal application with the Industrial Relations Commission of NSW on May 28 after the department advised her she was sacked on May 9.

The Department of Planning and Ms Connor settled the case in June, “without any admission of liability on the part of any party”. Under the terms Ms Connor was paid a financial settlement and her resignation letter effective from May 9 was accepted by the department.

“I think the whole department needs to be broken down and rebuilt,” Ms Connor said.

A Department of Planning spokesperson said it was reviewing the allegations raised by Ms Connor and was not able to comment until it had the opportunity to investigate further.