NSW Premier Mike Baird is meeting the corruption watchdog halfway with his promise to overhaul the ICAC Act following an independent review.
The government on Tuesday released the much-anticipated report of a review led by retired High Court chief justice Murray Gleeson and Sydney silk Bruce McClintock, along with a commitment to back each of their recommendations.
"We want ICAC to get cracking," Mr Baird told reporters.
"We want it to continue to hunt down serious and systemic corruption in this state."
Bipartisan legislation is expected to be put before parliament as early as this week to empower the ICAC to investigate corruption allegations involving ordinary members of the public where their conduct could "impair public confidence in public administration".
But that right to investigate private individuals would only be triggered in circumstances involving specific criminal acts, like collusive tendering for government contracts or fraudulently obtaining government mining leases.
This gives ICAC back some of the ground it lost in April, when the High Court ruled it did not have the power to investigate claims relating to the private behaviour of top prosecutor Margaret Cunneen SC.
The ruling was sparked by an ill-fated ICAC probe into allegations that Ms Cunneen had advised her son's girlfriend to fake chest pains at the scene of a car crash in 2014 so she could avoid a breath test.
The ICAC had argued, unsuccessfully, that it had the right to investigate the alleged behaviour because such conduct could have adversely affected police officers carrying out their duty and that of the courts.
The Gleeson review also recommended allowing the electoral commission to refer possible serious breaches of electoral and lobbying laws to the ICAC, and to limit the watchdog's power to make findings of corrupt conduct to cases of "serious" corruption.
But defining "serious" corruption appears to have been left to the ICAC - and, indeed, the state's appeal courts.
Opposition Leader Luke Foley said the Gleeson review had struck the right balance by addressing concerns that businessmen had been let off the hook under the High Court ruling, without offering "carte blanche to the ICAC to call anything they don't like corrupt conduct".
He has offered in-principle support for the government's promised bill.
The ICAC had delayed releasing reports into last year's Operations Spicer and Credo - which concerned alleged political donation rorts by Liberal MPs and possible fraud by a private company, Australian Water Holdings - until the outcome of the review was known.
Mr Baird, who has previously introduced new laws affirming the ICAC's right to hold those investigations, says the body will now be in a position to complete and report on those two probes.
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