Significant allegations dealt with by the Commission include fraud (particularly in regard to procurement), bribery, the failure to declare or properly manage conflicts of interest and the misuse of government credit cards.

Channel 7's Gary Adshead and The West Australian's Robert Taylor were summonsed to appear at a hearing of the Parliamentary Inspector of the CCC which are held in private.

Short and Cooper appeared before the Commission on 26 June over “...identifying the person or persons who on or about 12 May 2006 provided information and/or assisted her (Short) in identifying the new suspect for the murder of Pamela Lawrence as being in custody for another homicide”,;[11] Adshead and Taylor were two of 21 witnesses who appeared before the Parliamentary Inspector of the Commission, Malcolm McCusker, in late June and early July when he investigated the leaking of a Commission document to the media on former Labor MP John D'Orazio[12] The journalists’ union, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, described the secret hearings as “insidious and sinister”.

“We are bringing it to public attention because we are deeply disturbed by its impact on the practice of journalism,” Alliance WA Branch Secretary Michael Sinclair-Jones was quoted in The Australian on Thursday 8 November.

He said the hearing had the characteristics of a star chamber, with interrogations and investigations held in secret and people who were unwilling to testify threatened with severe penalties.

In November, Robert Taylor was named in the WA Parliament as the recipient of more unauthorised “privileged” information, prompting a new Parliamentary investigation.