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Weak Endeavours: The Meekness of Australia’s Anti-Corruption Body

The warning signs of the Australian National Anti-Corruption Commission’s ineffectiveness were there from the start. The enacting legislation that brought it into existence, for instance, limit public hearings to “exceptional circumstances”, a reminder that the authorities are not exactly happy to let that large expanse of riffraff known as the public know how power functions in Australia.

Then came its first major decision on June 6. Pundits were on tenterhooks. What would this body, charged with enhancing the “integrity in the Commonwealth public sector by deterring, detecting and preventing corrupt conduct involving Commonwealth public officials” do about referrals concerning six public officials from the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme? The spiritually crushing automated debt assessment and recovery program, had, after all, been responsible for using, in the words of Commission report, “patently unreliable methodology as income averaging, without other evidence, to determine entitlement to benefit.” From its inception as a pilot program in 2015 till its conclusion in May 2020, a reign of bureaucratic terror was inflicted on vulnerable Australians.

The answer from Australia’s newly minted body was one of stern indifference. While the NACC was aware of the impact of the schemeon individuals and the public, the seniority of the officials involved, and the need to ensure that any corruption issue is fully investigatedthe commission felt that “the conduct of the six public officials in connection with the Robodebt Scheme has already been fully explored by the Robodebt Royal Commission and extensively discussed in its final report.”

In other words, there would be no consequences for the individuals in question, no public exposure of their misdeeds, no sense of satisfaction for victims of the scheme that their harms had been truly redressed. In refusing to act on the referrals, the NACC had, in the words of former NSW Supreme Court Judge Anthony Whealy KC, now chair for the Centre for Public Integrity, “betrayed a core obligation and failed to fulfil its primary duty.”

An absurd spectacle ensued. The inspector of the NACC, Gail Furness, found herself being called upon rather early in her tenure to investigate the very entity that had been created to expose maladministration and corrupt conduct after receiving 900 complaints about the NACC’s own alleged corrupt conduct. In the mess of not pursuing the Robodebt officials, it also transpired that Commissioner Paul Brereton had delegated, rather than recused himself, from the process given a conflict of interest. By merely delegating the role of reaching the final decision to a Deputy Commissioner, however, Brereton had not entirely precluded hispart in the drama.

Two recent incidents confirm how the NACC is intended to (mal)function – at least in the eyes of Canberra’s secrecy-drugged political establishment. Far from being effective, the body’s role is intended as impotently symbolic, an annexure of the corruption consensus that rots at the capital’s centre.

The first came in the defeated efforts of Senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie to introduce an amendment directing the NACC Commissioner to hold public hearings if “satisfied that it is in the public interest to do so.” As Pocock explained to the Senate, the committee process into examining the NACC Act revealed “evidence from commissioners from state integrity commissions that … there should be a presumption towards having public hearings.” The current legislation, as shaped by Labor and the Coalition, was designed “in a way that we have no real oversight of what is happening in the NACC.” And that is exactly how that same unholy alliance hoped matters would remain, with both Labor and the Liberal-Nationals voting down the amendment.

In justifying that craven move, Labor Senator and Minister for Employment and Workplace relations Murray Watt held out feebly that the “appropriate balance” between holding public hearings, and considering whether they might “prejudice criminal prosecution, reputations, safety, privacy, wellbeing or confidentiality” had been struck. Any attentive student of secrecy in politics will be mindful that any balance between public interests and exceptional circumstances will always favour the pathway of least transparency. In Australia, public interest tests are almost always read down to favour opacity over openness.

In keeping with the disease of closed power, the second matter concerned revelations by the NACC about certain operational details regarding Operation Bannister. The investigative effort was established to investigate whether a Home Affairs employee’sfamilial links” to contracted service provider and Paladin founder Craig Thrupp, had instanced corruption.

Paladin Holdings has handsomely profited from the Australian taxpayer, raking in over half a billion dollars to manage the brutal Manus Island detention centre between 2017 and 2019.The senior executive in question, pseudonymised as Anne Brown, received $194,701.10 from Paladin for “management and consulting services” in 2017. The money was transferred to her home loan account to assist full repayment, though she denied undertaking any work for Paladin or assisting them with the tender to Home Affairs in securing the contract.

Browne’s partner, retired Home Affairs executive pseudonymised as Carl Delaney, directly aided Paladin in securing the lucrative tender. He joined Paladin’s board of directors in 2019and was remunerated to the sum of $5,000 for his efforts.

Thrupp also purchased another apartment for Brown and Delaney in the same complex worth $920,000, along with accompanying furniture. Two months later, it was rented back to Paladin for $1,000 per week, though eventually sold in 2020, with Brown and Delaney pocketing the proceeds.

The question being investigated was whether the failure by Brown to disclose the aforementioned events (she thought she had no obligation to do so from April 2018 when she was on long-service leave pending retirement) had affected her suitability to hold a security clearance. These included the evolving nature of her relationship with Delaney and themoney and property lavished on them from Thrupp. Even Commissioner Brereton acknowledged that “she should have at least known that at least her relationship with Delaney ought to have been reported” though inexplicably thought the non-disclosure“understandable” and not actuated by intent, dishonesty or corruption.

The investigation had initially begun as a joint investigation by the Australian Commission into Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) and the Department of Home Affairs. It then fell to the NACC from July 1, 2023 to finalise matters. On October 9, the report by Commissioner Brereton was released. The allegation that Brown had abused her office as a Home Affairs employee “to dishonestly obtain a benefit for herself or to assist Paladin to secure the garrison services contract is unsubstantiated.” She had not failed to disclose a potential conflict of interest between herself and Thrupp (“a close relative”), and her partner Delaney, in their links to Paladin, “in accordance with Home Affairs procedures”.

The report does not find Brown’s failure to report the “change of her circumstances to Home Affairs and AGSVA [Australian Government Security Vetting Agency]” remarkable, as it “does not appear to have been intentional.” Failure to do so was insufficient to “bring it to the notice of the head of the relevant agency.”

For a body that offered so much promise, the NACC has failed to impress. Instead of restoring trust in the public service and politics, the Commission has shown a lack of appetite to pursue its broader remit, preferring a stymying caution. The status quo remains, distinctly, intact.

 

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7 comments

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  1. Carina McNaughton

    Check out Shane Dowling Kangaroo Court of Australia for the latest development. NACC is not an independent body but rather in bed with the Atorney Generals office.

  2. Harry Lime

    Like most things with the duopoly,they only pretend to be serious about these public interest matters,after all,if you actually acted in the interests of the public,you might end up with half the parliament caught up in all sorts of dodgy machinations.Anyone interested in saving democracy in this country,never vote for Labor or Liberal,they’re rotten to the core, even if some of them don’t realise it.

  3. simba

    The 2 political party arrangement in our country has got to go. Labor have been the biggest disappointment ever and they must go. Why there is not a bigger outcry for their right wing machinations and policies beggars belief.
    Aukus, USA sycophanty, Israel genocide, Anti corruption, Whistleblower protection, Gas and mining policy, etc. the list of failures is many
    Similarly who in their right mind would vote Liberal with their current leader [what or who would have Peter Dutton as the face of the party and hope that they can win an election is mind-boggling] and the nodding brigade as the government in waiting. There is not a single opposition member that inspires confidence.

  4. David Baird

    Nailed it, Simba! The major parties are two sides of the same coin. One party is simply better at pretending to concern about the welfare of the average citizen. The current government’s actions and failures in the areas you list say it all. Australia’s alleged leaders are in thrall to Uncle Sam, the Zionist lobby and the corporate world, bend over backwards to the mainstream media and affect concern about the environmental damage being wrought by their own action/inaction. The NACC is just more proof of their untrustworthiness. We’ll no doubt muddle along until the other mob have their turn, of course, but nothing will change.

  5. Clakka

    Clearly Oz politics and its internecine manoeuvres and entanglements through bureaucracy and the judiciary are subject to the ‘Brereton’ affect. One might, for example, compare reports from the OSI, and take note of delays by Marles in releasing a crucial report affecting the jailing of McBride.

    Shane Dowling, amongst other ‘independents’ provide us with a service whereby we might have some chance of unfolding various internecine webs, but notably those trails are as hen’s teeth when it comes to referencing by the msm. Factors like Dowling’s NSW warrant, that he might come up against the evidence Act, and might get embroiled in defamation, are likely to have any legal punters leaving their purses in their pockets.

    When it comes to the court of public opinion, regardless of the ‘presumption of innocence’, pursuit of admissible evidence and formal charges, governments when it suits them may decide to act in league with the msm to bring about the obliteration of persons and / or organizations as done with the CFMEU construction division. Alternatively, they may elect to ignore the msm trespasses into such territory as repeatedly done by the likes of Seven West Media, or to stay out of imbroglios such as the Christian Porter affair, or threaten the msm independence, eg., raids on Smethurst and ABC, or to obtain party political raids, eg., Conroy and ALP offices, or to bring down the cone-of-silence on matters such as the infestation of insects in Timor-Leste halls of power, and the predilection for the sonorous showers of Bambang.

    AGs, as the most senior law offices of the state, always have their fingers in the pie of things done and seen to be done or not done – and provide their determinations as and when asked for and maybe needed. After the LNP forming the dreadnaught Dept of Home Affairs as a gift to Dutton (and Pezzullo), it became a masterpiece of delay, deception, and political entanglement and strangulation of rights, with no chance of navigation through its murky depths. That the ALP has transferred control of ASIO and the AFP out of Home Affairs and into the Attorney-General Department is surely a good thing to ensure ‘arm’s length’ accountability and smoother operations, transparency and reform of the erstwhile dysfunctional Home Affairs.

    One ought be under no delusion, however, that any AG’s most significant function, rarely talked of, will be to maintain the ‘Supremacy of Parliament’ aka ‘Parliamentary Sovereignty’, and to that extent, will be constantly firing warning shots across the bow of government’s cabinet, and providing background for discussions with the ‘opposition’ (who would also require to maintain such ‘supremacy’), should occasions arise when urgent legislation is needed to maintain the ‘supremacy’.

    To that extent, to suppose there is anything such as enduring independence or independent oversight of government or parliament and their instrumentalities is a ruse. And whilst the public may decry the increasing biases, bling, guile and ineptitude of the fourth estate, it is a razor’s edge that politics is willing to tread.

    One glaring example of this is the incarceration of Julian Assange. A classic international tango of guile and deception. Despite the constraints imposed in the final plea deal, Assange’s recent address and Q&A to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the members from 46 national parliaments across Europe, later passed a resolution recognizing that Julian had been a political prisoner.

    Thankfully, hope remains in some quarters. It may be convenient to toss both sides of the ‘duopoly’ in a basket claiming they are as bad as one another, but this is simplistic nonsense. All and any pretenders to rule of Oz are and will be faced by the same ‘democratic’ framework, and run their own ruses within it. As the successful chameleon Churchill said, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”

  6. Steve Davis

    And Clakka, at the moment the best form of democracy appears to be the Chinese system.

    They turned their backs on representative democracy, going instead for consultative democracy.
    It seems to be working well, and has a high approval rating.

  7. wam

    Independent is the scariest word for a party politician not people for there are few long term independent individuals and they are either religious , like Harradine or shysters like Xenophon. Now with loonie greens thrown in.
    The canberra idea of independent is no pollies just absolute control of the terms of reference. ie no independence at all.
    ps
    If you a socialist, whatever you do don’t vote for the loonies.

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