"The great investigative journalists who wrote the book didn't bother to take the four minutes to check the Asic website," Brown said.
Williams would also like the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) to have the power to suspend planners.
One way to achieve this with microsystems is to establish multi-user "silicon foundries"—places where industrial customers can have a wide range of designs mass-produced in much the same way that ASIC chips (application specific integrated circuits) are made today.
But until now the difficulty has mostly gone upwards: since the first ASIC chips were introduced in early 2013, it has increased by a factor of 10,000.
This argument, put by Hochtief to the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC), was rejected on October 20th on the ground that Hochtief is a listed company and its share price would reflect the value in Leighton anyway.
An application-specific IC (ASIC) can be either a digital or an analog circuit.
If that happens Asic will (fairly or not) go from being the "tough cop on the beat" to the keystone cops, and Turnbull, the former investment banker, will look like he's been protecting his mates.
On Wednesday the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (Apra) wrote to life insurers, coinciding with the Asic review, to demand improvements to the oversight and handling of insurance claims.
Signatories to the letter include: Simon Bligh, Dun & Bradstreet's chief executive Ben Elliott, Experian's chief executive Peter Maloney, GlobalX Legal Solutions' chief executive John Ahern, InfoTrack's chief executive They say collectively their organisations are the largest users of Asic services.
That's potentially almost everything Asic holds.
"We would say to the government rather than establishing a standalone commission, why not have Asic [take on the responsibility]?" A total of 93 people have been referred as a result of the inquiry: 48 for criminal charges and 45 for civil charges.
