Former Australian Deputy PM Alleges New Anti-Corruption Watchdog Subject to Political Weaponisation

Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce during Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on June 23, 2021. (Sam Mooy/Getty Images)

As the new independent federal anti-corruption commission begins operation in Australia, there are already claims that political parties are weaponising the watchdog to further their goals.

In an interview with Seven’s Sunrise program, Nationals MP and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce alleged that the Australian Greens party had politicised the commission after one of its senators made an immediate referral on July 1.

“The Greens have already started politicising it,” he said, pointing to Greens senator Barbara Pocock referring consultancy firm PwC to the NACC following its federal document leak scandal.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), which is headed by Paul Brereton—a former judge and senior army officer—officially became operational on July 1.

The commission is tasked with detecting, investigating and reporting on corrupt conduct in Australia’s public service sector involving federal officials, public servants, and government contractors. It also has a role of educating the sector and the community about corruption risks and how to prevent them.

By law, the NACC can receive referrals from anyone, but it will decide whether or not to investigate them. Furthermore, the commission can determine what to investigate on its own without a referral.

Greens Allegedly Weaponised NACC From Day 1

Joyce also compared the Greens’ referral to the allegation that Labor weaponised Brittany Higgins’ rape case.

“The thing I would be really careful about would be weaponising things before elections like the Brittany Higgins case,” he said.

On February 2021, Higgins, a former Liberal junior staffer, publicly alleged that she was raped in March 2019 by fellow staffer Bruce Lehrmann inside the office of then-coalition minister Linda Reynolds.

The allegation was reported widely by media outlets and caused significant damage to the reputation of the then-Coalition government at the time.

Brittany Higgins (with David Sharaz) arrives to give evidence in front of an ACT Supreme Court jury on the third day of the trial of her alleged rapist, Bruce Lehrmann in Canberra, Australia, on Oct. 6, 2022. (Martin Ollman/Getty Images)

Recently, The Australian newspaper revealed text messages between Higgins and her partner, David Sharaz, that suggested Labor Senator Katy Gallagher was involved in strategising with the pair how the rape allegation would be used by Labor after it was made public.

It was also reported that Higgins had received a secret compensation payment of up to $3 million (US$2 million) from the Labor government.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has indicated that he would back Higgins’ former boss to refer the compensation payment to the NACC for investigation.

Response from the Greens

Meanwhile, Pocock denied she was politicising the NACC, saying there was a need for transparency in the PwC case.

“Our public standard of transparency of the spending of public money has fallen a lot in the last ten years,” she told ABC radio.

“What I’ve done is listen to a lot of Australians who want their money spent on the things that need to be funded. They want corruption and poor behaviour in the government called out.

“Putting in this request to the NACC to investigate corruption within PwC, I think, is a very straightforward thing.”

The Greens senator also said that several other issues should be referred to the NACC, including the Robodebt program launched by the former Coalition government to recover welfare overpayments.

The program was later found to issue incorrect notices to a large number of welfare recipients and unlawfully raise almost $1.73 billion.

The former Coalition government agreed to settle the case with $1.2 billion in 2020, and the program was abolished in May 2020.

In addition, Pocock nominated the contract links to former Liberal minister Stuart Robert and a lobbying firm, Synergy 360, as a potential investigation target for the NACC.

“There are too many of them, unfortunately. They all deserve close attention,” she said.

As of July 3, the NACC has received over 40 referrals from politicians and the public.

Nina Nguyen contributed to this article.