The NACC has announced that Commissioner Brereton will no longer participate in consideration of Defence referrals. They did this in a statement on its website on the afternoon of Friday 31 October announcing that Commissioner Brereton "has decided that he will not participate in consideration of any referrals which involve the interests of any Defence or ADF individual or unit that is or comes before the Commission, regardless of whether it might reasonably be perceived to involve a conflict".
The NACC goes on to say "The Commissioner is taking this step, although it is unnecessary from the perspective of properly managing actual or apparent conflicts, solely in an endeavour to recentre the focus on our important operational and educational work."
Senator David Shoebridge, Greens Justice and Defence Spokesperson said:
"This is a 'major-general' backdown from Commissioner Brereton who, up until now, tried to stare down the growing public revolt over the conflicts of interest.
"In a show of contempt for transparency the NACC only disclosed this major development with a website post put up after 5pm on Friday night. There's a name for this, it's called, "putting out the trash."
"This announcement leaves so many unanswered questions:
- Why is Commissioner Brereton still a Major-General in the ADF?
- What happens to all the defence referrals he has been working on, and making decisions on, until now?
- Why is Commissioner Brereton being paid over $800k a year not to work on defence referrals?
"Defence, which is embroiled in a series of multi-million dollar procurement scandals, is one of the largest customers for the NACC which had over 120 Defence referrals as at April this year.
"It is not just that the NACC's statement came late on a Friday night, so too did the Government's tabling of the NACC Annual Report which was over two weeks late.
"Astoundingly, given the serial failures of the NACC Commissioner Brereton to deal with conflicts of interest in his own role, the NACC says conflicts of interest is one of its three main corruption prevention themes.
"Corruption complaints concerning conflicts of interest are also identified in the NACC annual report as major elements of its ongoing work.
"It remains untenable for Commission Brereton to stay as the NACC Commissioner given his repeated failure to deal with his own conflicts of interest.
"This latest step only highlights the damage he has done to the NACC's public standing.
"Anti-corruption agencies should be modelling best practice, not cynically making significant announcements late on Friday afternoons.
"The Albanese Government needs to act and, if Commissioner Brereton will not leave of his accord, bring the matter before the Parliament for a decision on his future," Senator Shoebridge said.
