Professor Gabrielle Appleby

The parliamentary joint committee that oversees the NAC did have a veto power over his appointment, but there was no independent selection panel.

There was no clear selection criteria, what you'd expect for a really important public appointment.

So it's going to be really important, I think, the government does a good job at showing the public it is doing its absolute best to find the right candidate, to assess the candidates against objective criteria, not tap a mate on the shoulder for such an important job, because the job ahead of them for leadership of the NAC is a really big one.

It's a big one at any point, but given the controversy under Brereton's leadership, it's an even bigger task ahead.

Well, that's an interesting question.

The legislation itself says that a candidate must either be a former judicial officer, so a former judge, or someone who's eligible for judicial appointment, so someone with legal standing, which limits the field.

It raises questions as to is a retired judge who perhaps doesn't have

experience in leading an organisation, the right person, given concerns about the organisational culture under Brereton, maybe a former commissioner of a state anti-corruption commission that had a particularly good reputation would be the type of candidate that you're looking for.

Because I think what is needed at this moment is someone who has both the

excellent legal skills because it is a high-level legal job, but the organisational leadership to bring the organisation into that role that was always designed for to be more publicly accountable, to have those more transparent governance structures that Brereton was criticised in relation to his handling of conflicts of interest, for instance.