The sudden resignation of controversy-plagued National Anti-Corruption Commissioner Paul Brereton has served to further highlight the failings of an organisation which began with such high hopes, having been one of the key demands of the first teal representatives and a core promise of the incoming Albanese Labor government.
Coming two years before his term was supposed to end, Brereton’s resignation announcement didn’t save him from an already-organised grilling in Senate Estimates last week, in which Senator David Shoebridge and others tried to get him to take some responsibility for his own failures, and those of the organisation he has led for the past three years.
After multiple questions, the commissioner said, ‘I think everyone contributes to their own downfall, if you like, in some ways, and I’m sure I have contributed to this in some ways.’
What brought Brereton down, in the end, was his tendency to simultaneously serve two masters, or perhaps mistresses – Defence and the NACC. Beyond wearing his old military uniforms to public functions, Brereton continued to act as a consultant for the Inspector-General of the ADF, even while the NACC was investigating Australian war crimes.
Another issue for the boss of the federal corruption watchdog was that he failed to properly recuse himself when his organisation was looking at referrals from the Robodebt Royal Commission, even though he had a pre-existing professional relationship with one of the people referred.
Drawing attention
In Paul Brereton’s own words, ‘The ongoing focus on matters relating to me personally rather than the Commission’s work is drawing attention away from the Commission’s core purpose of strengthening integrity in the Commonwealth public sector.’
The problem is that the Brereton saga looks very like a personal microcosm of the issues plaguing the wider NACC, including lack of accountability, secrecy, hypocrisy and an inability to do what it was set up to do, namely put a stop to corruption at a federal level, without fear or favour, in a way that makes sense to people who aren’t lawyers.
The central problem remains, namely the lack of an independent, merit-based appointment process to find the best NACC commissioners and deputies.
A highly legalistic definition of corrupt conduct underpinning the work of the NACC has led to a situation where 7,624 referrals have led to less than 100 investigations, with only 34 of those still underway, and the details remaining mostly secret.
Scott Morrison escaped any form of censure for his well-documented role in Robodebt. The other big case of recent years, namely the monetisation of confidential information by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), has so far resulted in no visible progress.
Senator Barbara Pocock took Paul Brereton to task over this, as someone with a personal interest in the issue, who had referred evidence to the NACC.
She said she felt like she was on the set of Catch-22 as she tried to establish what, if anything, was happening about PwC. ‘I am expressing my frustration here,’ she said.
What did Mr Brereton have to say about the thousands of Australians who ‘want to know how this has evolved and how it’s been treated by our premier corruption agency? What do you say to them about a three-year delay in seeing progress?’
Brereton responded by saying, ‘We should not be prejudicing investigations by talking about them, and the individuals subject to them, in public.’
Oppression
Pocock was similarly stymied in her attempt to get some clarification about the NACC’s investigation into Robodebt, which she described as the worst failure of public administration in our history, as revealed by royal commission. ‘You were concerned about the “oppression” of repeated investigations for officials,’ she said. ‘Contrast that with the suffering inflicted on hundreds of thousands of robodebt victims.’
In his defence, Brereton noted that the NACC had found two senior public officials associated with Robodebt had engaged in serious corrupt conduct.
But Senator Pocock pressed on, saying, ‘No government minister has been held accountable and the political and bureaucratic architects of the scheme have walked away scot-free. Australians are rightly outraged, disappointed and frustrated by this lack of accountability…
‘It is incredibly disappointing that we have not seen justice. Many people feel that across our country. We expected more from a newly established, robust, well-resourced integrity body and I hope we can do better in the future.’
Alas, there’s no sign that things will improve any time soon at the NACC, notwithstanding the imminent early departure of Commissioner Brereton and one of his deputies.
As far as the government and opposition are concerned, it looks increasingly like the NACC’s failings are a feature, not a bug.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
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