Roxanne Thornton broke down in tears in the final 30 minutes of her evidence at the Independent Commission Against Corruption after admitting she made a charade of recruitment processes to hire her friends at the City of Parramatta council.
Thornton, who is on paid leave as group manager in the office of the lord mayor and chief executive, told counsel Arthur Moses SC that she knew her conduct was misconduct but did not believe it was corruption. She gave that evidence after four days at the inquiry, where she was grilled by Counsel Assisting Joanna Davidson SC over recruitment practices at the council.
The commission is investigating Thornton alongside executive Angela Jones-Blayney and former chief executive Gail Connolly, with the case focusing on how appointments were handled inside the council. Thornton has already admitted before the hearing that she made a charade of recruitment processes to bring in friends, a concession that placed her at the centre of the inquiry from the outset.
Her evidence then turned more combative and personal. Thornton told Moses, “I’ve played the game, you know, I’ve, I’ve admitted to everything, but this public shaming … I mean, you should all be f---ing ashamed of yourselves, you know? You just keep kicking me,” before adding, “I know I’m gonna lose my job. I’ve done the wrong thing. There’s people watching that are going to get heaps of joy out of this. F---ing good times. I’ve admitted to everything.” She also complained, “I don’t want to have a lunch break. You’ve had me here for four days.”
Moses pressed her hard in the final stretch, telling her, “Ms Thornton, Counsel Assisting was very polite with you, but let me be very blunt with you,” and later asking, “Your personal difficulty trusting people is not an excuse for you breaching your obligations to the council, correct? Do you accept that?” John Hatzistergos then intervened briefly, saying, “Alright,” as the exchange sharpened.
In the same evidence session, Thornton alleged that the council’s acting chief executive, George Bounassif, had been recruited “because of his relationship with people as well”. She also faced a question from Moses over whether she had lied to the ICAC about knowing that Gail Connolly had forged her signature as a witness on Connolly’s employment contract.
The hearing has now put Thornton’s conduct in plain view. What she has admitted is not a misunderstanding or an administrative slip: it is a deliberate abuse of recruitment rules at a public council, and the commission is testing whether that conduct extended further up the chain of management. For Thornton, the immediate future is already clear. She expects to lose her job, and the inquiry will determine how wide the fallout reaches for the others under investigation.
