One common factor among ICAC witnesses makes their questionable actions even more stupid

August 26, 2026 — 5:00am

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The American industrialist Henry Ford once observed that failure is the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. He also said the only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.

In professional politics, second chances after making serious mistakes are a gift not to be wasted.

But a central theme of a new inquiry by the Independent Commission Against Corruption is the way in which so many political operatives threw away their own opportunities for fresh starts. Time and time again these men were caught up in scandal but given another shot, only to find themselves entangled in new drama. This history makes their already questionable actions even more stupid.

The leader of the Liberal Party’s Botched Second Chance Club is arguably Chris Spence, a former MP for the Entrance who this week found himself in the witness box at the corruption watchdog for the second time in 12 years.

Spence is a one-time One Nation operative so underwhelming and uninspiring that he ordinarily would have no hope of being elected to the NSW parliament. But the 2011 election which pushed Labor out of Macquarie Street was so seismic it swept plenty of deadwood MPs into Barry O’Farrell’s new government.

Spence was among them. Within three years, he was a central target of an inquiry into illegal donations and forced to........

© The Sydney Morning Herald