The head of the investigation into alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan has been named as the first federal anti-corruption chief.
New South Wales (NSW) Court of Appeal judge Paul Brereton will lead the National Anti-Corruption Commission, which will operate independently of the government and be able to launch inquiries on its initiative or in response to referrals, including from whistleblowers and the public.
Deputy commissioners will be Nicole Rose and Dr Ben Gauntlett, and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said each would be appointed for a term of five years.
The body will investigate serious or systemic corrupt conduct across the commonwealth public sector by ministers, parliamentarians and their staff, statutory officer holders, employees of all government entities and government contractors.
“These are the people with the experience and capacity to guide the national anti-corruption commission through its first months and years of operation and set it up for future success,” Dreyfus said in Canberra.
“(This) is a significant milestone for the commission’s historic establishment and demonstrates that the government is on track for the commission to be operational by the middle of this year.”
Laws to establish the commission were passed federal parliament in December.
The commission will be able to investigate alleged corruption before the laws were passed.
However, public hearings will only be held in exceptional circumstances and where it is considered in the public interest to do so.
The laws provide protections for whistleblowers and exemptions for journalists to protect the identity of sources.
The chair of the parliamentary oversight committee, Labor senator Linda White, said the extra time had been taken to ensure appropriate scrutiny of candidates before a cross-party consensus was reached.
Liberal senator Slade Brockman, who is also on the committee, said there were some “issues” during deliberations, but he declined to go into any detail.
“They were more matters of process, and they certainly had nothing to do with the appropriateness of the candidates,” he told parliament.
“But there were some issues that needed to be considered by the committee, and that was done in a very timely way.”
Greens senator David Shoebridge, another committee member, said there were “lessons to be learned” about the interaction between the oversight body and the government.
“There were times ... I don’t think I was the only member of that committee who was frustrated about the timeliness of the information and the provision of the necessary information for us to do our statutory task,” he told parliament.
Friends Read Free