ICAC's Operation Spicer devoted a considerable amount of time to trying to crack the riddle of the "big man".

In a December 2010 text, Hugh Thomson, who ran the Liberal Party's successful election campaign for former Newcastle MP Tim Owen, asked then Liberal MP Mike Gallacher: "How's our big man going with the 120K?"

Gallacher said he never received the text. ICAC concludes this was a reference to larger-than-life former coal baron Nathan Tinkler and not former Premier Barry O'Farrell, as Gallacher suggested.

In a written statement, Premier Mike Baird adds the "conduct revealed in today's report by the ICAC is completely unacceptable".

The 10 Liberal MPs who joined the crossbench or quit politics in the wake of Operation Spicer have all since left Parliament, except for former police minister Mike Gallacher. Baird says he will not return to cabinet or the parliamentary Liberal Party.

In a dig at Labor's Joe Tripodi, who scooped the pool with the sole corruption finding of the day, Baird says the conduct exposed by ICAC "constitutes a betrayal of public trust by both sides of politics" 

It has not gone unnoticed that none of the MPs found to have acted to evade political donations laws will face criminal charges.

ICAC made no such recommendations and there is a tricky legal question about whether such charges could be brought in 2016 in any case - some five years after the events in question.

Premier Mike Baird says none of the one-time Liberal MPs who were the subject of adverse findings will escape unpunished. The naming and shaming is enough, he says.

Premier Mike Baird is addressing the media now in Martin Place.

He says former police minister Mike Gallacher, who was the subject of damaging findings including about the credibility of his evidence at ICAC, will not be returning to cabinet.

Baird says it's a matter for Gallacher whether he remains in state parliament. Gallacher is currently on the crossbench in the NSW upper house. He says Gallacher has paid a "very heavy price".

ICAC's 168-page report on Operation Spicer is a beast. It makes findings against a swag of Liberal and Labor figures - but only one finding of corruption.

Here are the findings at a glance:

- ICAC found nine current and former Liberal MPs acted with the intention of evading political donations laws by taking banned donations from property developers: Chris Hartcher, Mike Gallacher, Tim Owen, Andrew Cornwell, Chris Spence, Darren Webber, Craig Baumann, Garry Edwards and Bart Bassett.

- ICAC also recommended the DPP consider charging Chris Hartcher with larceny, or stealing, in relation to a $4000 donation.

- In addition, it recommended the DPP consider charging Andrew Cornwell and his wife Samantha Brookes with giving false or misleading evidence to ICAC.

- All of the MPs but Mike Gallacher have since left parliament. All quit politics or joined the crossbench in the wake of ICAC's evidence.

- One Liberal MP, Marie Ficarra, was grilled at ICAC but had no findings made against her.

- The sole corruption finding was made against Joe Tripodi. ICAC found he leaked a confidential Treasury note to benefit Nathan Tinkler's company Buildev.

- ICAC also recommended the DPP consider charging him with misconduct in public office.

Still on Nathan Tinkler, former Newcastle Labor MP Jodi McKay, now in the seat of Strathfield, has emerged the victor in a face-off with Tinkler over an alleged offer he made to donate to her re-election campaign in 2011.

McKay gave evidence at ICAC that Tinkler told her he could subvert the ban on political donations from property developers because he had "hundreds of employees and I can get around the rules that way".

Tinkler said her account was a fabrication but ICAC says it prefers her evidence.

"The commission is satisfied that Mr Tinkler's views on donations suggest that he would have been more than willing to make such an offer to a politician," ICAC says in its report.

It concludes Tinkler was "attempting to get Ms McKay to accept a political donation in circumstances that would have evaded the effect of the funding laws".

Former coal baron Nathan Tinkler doesn't quite escape mention in ICAC's report but he earns relatively few rebukes.

Tinkler gave perhaps the most colourful evidence at ICAC. When the commission started investigating Liberal Party "sham" company Eightbyfive, which allegedly received $66,000 from a Tinkler company, he emailed a colleague on April 19, 2013: "Who is ICAC?"

The reply prompted him to respond: "Oh mate u r f--king kidding me..."

The inquiry probed allegations that companies associated with Tinkler, including property development company Buildev, paid tens of thousands of dollars in donations to Eightbyfive as well as the Canberra-based Free Enterprise Foundation (FEF). ICAC found the FEF was used to "wash" illegal donations.

But ICAC made no major findings against Tinkler. It did find two men who worked for Tinkler companies, Troy Palmer and Darren Williams, had acted with the intention of evading political donations laws.

The Greens' anti-corruption spokesman, Balmain MP Jamie Parker, is first out of the blocks on the reaction front.

He says ICAC's report points to the need for an "an urgent review of the laws against electoral corruption".

"If the Liberals are serious about political donation reform, they need to establish a Federal ICAC and introduce uniform federal and state donation laws," Parker says.

"Only in NSW can you receive a bag full of cash from a property developer in the back of a Bentley, and not be named as 'corrupt'."

The Bentley reference is a nod to the colourful circumstances in which Hunter Valley MPs Tim Owen and Andrew Cornwell were given $10,000 in cash each from property developer and former Newcastle mayor Jeff McCloy.

In fact, receiving a bag of cash from a property developer probably would not be corrupt in any other state or at the federal level either. Developer donations are not banned elsewhere, although they ought to be disclosed.

"The public will be disgusted that Christopher Hartcher, who has been found to have intended to evade the law and may be charged with larceny, was a cabinet minister in the Liberal government," Parker adds.

"The Premier should act now to call on Mike Gallacher, who was found to have acted with the intention of evading the law, to resign from Parliament."

Remember Australian Water Holdings and Nick Di Girolamo? Of course you do.

Di Girolamo, famed for giving a career-killing bottle of wine to former Premier Barry O'Farrell, also gets a mention in ICAC's Operation Spicer report.

ICAC heard the Chris Hartcher-linked Liberal slush fund Eightbyfive received more than $183,000 from Australian Water, a controversial infrastructure company at the centre of a separate ICAC probe.

The money was ostensibly paid for "government relations" but ICAC finds this was "never a genuine arrangement".

It finds Di Girolamo, the former chairman of the company, acted with the intention of subverting the state's political donations laws because the payments were a gift that was not disclosed.

ICAC notes that former Hartcher adviser Tim Koelma, who set up Eightbyfive, prepared and submitted parliamentary questions for Hartcher that "promoted the Australian Water agenda".

The arrangement between Australian Water and Eightbyfive was for Hartcher's benefit and allowed Koelma to work for Hartcher in the lead-up to the 2011 election, ICAC concludes.

Operation Spicer made its presence felt not only in Macquarie Street but in Canberra.

The inquiry probed allegations the NSW Liberal Party used a Canberra-based entity called the Free Enterprise Foundation (FEF) to "wash" illegal donations from property developers and channel them back to the state branch of the party.

The donations were not banned federally but were outlawed in NSW in 2010.

In its report ICAC finds that former Liberal party official Simon McInnesand party fundraiser Paul Nicolaou were "knowingly involved in ... concealing the true source of those funds" which passed through the FEF.

Uncomfortable reading for Liberal Party HQ, no doubt. But the report says there is insufficient evidence to conclude other senior Liberal Party officials including now Senator Arthur Sinodinos knew of the practice.

Former NSW police minister Mike Gallacher is the sole Liberal MP remaining in state Parliament of the 10 MPs who were embroiled in Operation Spicer.

No findings of corruption have been made against him but ICAC did conclude he acted with the intention of evading the statewide ban on donations from property developers. It has also made damning findings about his credit which are likely to cruel his long-held ambition of returning to cabinet.

"The commission does not consider Mr Gallacher was always a truthful witness and places no reliance on his evidence unless it is corroborated by other reliable evidence or objective facts," ICAC says in its report.

Gallacher was accused in May 2014 of hatching a "corrupt scheme" withNathan Tinkler's company Buildev to channel illegal donations to the Liberal Party before the 2011 election.

He vigorously denied the claims and said outside ICAC: "I know in my heart I am not corrupt."

One of the most memorable moments of Operation Spicer's public hearings was former upper house Liberal MP Marie Ficarra's left-of-field claim that it's "not easy to take blood from a miniature schnauzer".

Ficarra told ICAC about her sick pooch, Leisel, after she was grilled about whether she asked a property developer friend to make an illegal $5000 donation to Liberal Party slush fund Eightbyfive.

ICAC makes no adverse findings against Ficarra, who has since left parliament.

It says what actually happened "remains unclear" and in the face of "irreconcilable accounts" it is not able to make any findings.

Why has ICAC recommended the Director of Public Prosecutions consider charging former energy minister Chris Hartcher with larceny - otherwise known as stealing?

This is one of the major findings in the Operation Spicer report. ICAC finds that a political donation $4000, which was paid by a Bondi-based accountant in three instalments to subvert NSW laws imposing a cap on the maximum amount that could be paid by individuals, ultimately made its way into Hartcher's hands.

A convoluted series of steps were involved. ICAC says "these steps are inconsistent with an intention on the part of Mr Hartcher to apply the $4000 for the benefit of the NSW Liberal Party".

ICAC heard evidence that a "sham company" called Eightbyfive was used to disguise illegal donations from developers by issuing fake invoices for work.

Tim Koelma, a former adviser to Chris Hartcher, set up Eightbyfive. He claimed the company was paid for political and media advice. The inquiry heard there was not one "crummy, flimsy piece of paper" to support his claims. He says a flood in his garage destroyed documents that could prove his innocence.

ICAC says in its report that the company was used to benefit Hartcher and former first-term Central Coast MPs Chris Spence and Darren Webber before the 2011 state election.

It finds all of the men acted with the intention of evading political donations laws. That same finding is made against Nabil Gazal Jnr andNicholas Gazal, who paid more than $100,000 to Eightbyfive.

A review of the ICAC Act last year, triggered by a High Court ruling on the commission's powers, made it clear that many breaches of donations laws did not amount to "corrupt conduct".

It meant ICAC could not make a corrupt conduct finding against targets of Operation Spicer for subverting the NSW ban on developer donations. Instead, it has made a finding that current and former Liberal MPs and businessmen acted with the intention of evading those laws.

Property developer and former Newcastle mayor Jeff McCloy famously told ICAC he felt like a "walking ATM" after giving evidence he forked out thousands of dollars in illegal donations to Liberal Party candidates.

ICAC has found he acted with the intention of evading the statewide ban on political donations from property developers.

It has also made that finding against Newcastle property developer Hilton Grugeon, who was at the centre of an unusual scheme in which he paid former Liberal MP Andrew Cornwell $10,200 for an artwork worth a fraction of the price.

While the bulk of Operation Spicer was concerned with Liberal Party fundraising, the sole corruption finding made as a result of the inquiry has gone to...former NSW Labor ports minister Joe Tripodi.

Tripodi was investigated over allegations he "improperly took steps to benefit Buildev", a company part-owned by embattled coal mogul Nathan Tinkler.

This included leaking a confidential Treasury memo to Buildev, which damaged the prospects of a project rivalling Buildev's plans for a coal loader in Newcastle.

ICAC concludes that former Treasurer Eric Roozendaal, "either directly or through another", passed the report onto Tripodi. But it says "this may not, of itself, amount to an improper disclosure of the document". No adverse findings are made against Roozendaal.

The big news is ICAC has recommended criminal charges be considered against former NSW energy minister Chris Hartcher for the offence of larceny, and former Labor MP Joe Tripodi for the offence of misconduct in public office.

Operation Spicer briefly crossed party lines and investigated allegations that Tripodi leaked a confidential Treasury report to an executive at Buildev, a property development company majority owned by Nathan Tinkler.

ICAC also recommended that criminal charges be considered against former Liberal MP Andrew Cornwell and his wife Samantha Brookes.

The big news is ICAC has recommended criminal charges be considered against former NSW energy minister Chris Hartcher for the offence of larceny, and former Labor MP Joe Tripodi for the offence of misconduct in public office.

Operation Spicer briefly crossed party lines and investigated allegations that Tripodi leaked a confidential Treasury report to an executive at Buildev, a property development company majority owned by Nathan Tinkler.

ICAC also recommended that criminal charges be considered against former Liberal MP Andrew Cornwell and his wife Samantha Brookes.