‘A serious mess’: The crisis inside the corruption watchdog
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What led to Paul Brereton's resignation from the NACC?
Do you accept responsibility for not telling your Chief Executive Officer that you'd done 10 hours of work for Defence during work hours with the NAG? No, I... Do you accept responsibility for not telling your Chief Executive Officer about the fact that you had that ongoing role and you were doing the ongoing work for Defence? Because you didn't tell him either of those things, did you? No. Do you accept responsibility for that?
No.
Paul Brereton, the outgoing head of Australia's National Anti-Corruption Commission, was grilled at Senate estimates this week. Brereton led the body tasked with investigating serious corruption in the Commonwealth public sector. But his time as its first commissioner has ended in a crisis of confidence over robodebt, his ongoing defence links, and whether the watchdog properly managed conflicts of interest inside its own walls.
What lessons arise for the NAC from this Robodeck controversy?
What controversies surrounded the NACC and Robodebt?
The lesson from that was that it obviously would have been better had I had nothing to do with that matter at all from the outset.
Brereton says he's become a distraction from the Commission's work, but his resignation begs the question, do the NAC's problems end with him? I'm Will Ed Ali. You're listening to 7am. Today, independent journalist Nick Fyke on how Australia's anti-corruption watchdog ended up in crisis and whether it can recover. It's Friday, May 29th. Nick, that was quite a showdown, I think you can say, between Paul Brereton and some senators in the Senate Estimates Inquiry. But before that, I want to go back to 2016 with the Brereton Inquiry into war crimes in Afghanistan, because that's intimately involved, isn't it? It is.
It's the start of a long story.
How did Brereton's past roles contribute to conflicts of interest?
So the Commissioner of the NAC is Paul Brereton, and he was also conducting the Afghanistan War Crimes Inquiry, started in 2016, ran to 2020. That was for the Inspector General of the ADF. He produced the Brereton Report. He was also a Major General in the Army Reserve. He went on obviously to be appointed as the inaugural commissioner of the NAC. And that relationship, his relationship with the ADF, was the foundation of a series of conflicts. And he had a professional association with some of the subjects that he was investigating at the NAC. But it turns out that it was not just an affiliation. He was doing ongoing consulting work with the Inspector General's office. And he also had a close association.
In fact, occasionally it was termed a personal association with Catherine Campbell, who was the subject of the Robodebt inquiry. She was one of the six who was referred to the NAC over Robodebt. So in multiple ways, the commissioner of the NAC was conflicted or there was a perceived conflict or conflict. the potential for a conflict in terms of his previous roles and his current role. That's been the basis of so much controversy and I think is at the heart of his resignation this week.
So tell us about what we saw on Tuesday night in Senate Estimates.
So the background is that a few weeks ago, the Green Senator David Shoebridge moved a successful Senate motion. He directed Brereton and the three other NAC deputy commissioners to attend budget estimates this week to give evidence and to answer questions. On Monday, though, Brereton announced his resignation, taking effect on 6 July.
What happened during the Senate Estimates Inquiry with Brereton?
There's still speculation as to why he resigned, but the pressure was rising on a number of fronts, some of which we've discussed. And the Brereton had earlier told Parliament and the NAC had also said that he'd resigned his position before becoming the NAC Commissioner. But this wasn't true. As we've discussed, he was still commissioning. And we know that Brereton was currently under investigation by the oversight. Gail Furness, she's the NAC Inspector, a kind of oversight role that she has. She had an investigation running. into his defence ties. And that was what primarily was the basis of a series of quite testy questions between Brereton and David Shoebridge and Senator Pocock also.
Commissioner, can you surely not see that Australians who watch this, the Commissioner of our highest integrity body, and your inability to take any responsibility at any turn
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What led to Paul Brereton's resignation from the NACC?
0:01–0:57
2
What controversies surrounded the NACC and Robodebt?
0:57–2:03
3
How did Brereton's past roles contribute to conflicts of interest?
2:03–3:45
4
What happened during the Senate Estimates Inquiry with Brereton?
3:45–6:23
5
What investigations are currently ongoing regarding Brereton?
6:23–7:48
6
What are the implications of Brereton's departure for the NACC?
7:48–10:31
7
How can the NACC rebuild public trust after Brereton's exit?
10:31–12:41
8
What reforms are necessary for the future of the NACC?
12:41–17:09
Speakers
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