3 days ago
NACC missteps over commissioner complaint
Sabra Lane: Australia's anti-corruption watchdog is again under pressure, this time for mishandling a complaint involving one of its own commissioners. It's the latest in a string of internal stumbles, raising questions about whether the National Anti-Corruption Commission is meeting the standards it was set up to enforce. Political reporter Olivia Caisley has the exclusive story.
Olivia Caisley: It was created to restore trust, a powerful new watchdog with a promise to clean up politics. But nearly two years on, the Commission is under pressure again, this time over how it handled a complaint about one of its own. The ABC can reveal the NACC failed to comply with its own legislation by wrongly dismissing a complaint about a commissioner last November. Under its Act, any referral involving staff, even about conduct before they joined, must be passed to the independent inspector. It wasn't. In a letter seen by the ABC, Deputy Commissioner Kylie Kilgour admitted the error and apologised.
Kylie Kilgour statement: Unfortunately, the Commission staff who received your referral assessed only whether your matter raised a corruption issue ... and did not consider whether the matter should be referred to the Inspector. I apologise for this error.
Olivia Caisley: The commissioner at the centre of the allegation was never told about the referral, which was eventually passed on to the inspector, Gail Gurness, in February. She later found it fell outside her jurisdiction. This is the third such mandatory referral the NACC has made about its own staff. And it's not the first time the Commission has faced criticism over its internal decision-making. Last year, it initially refused to investigate senior public servants over robodebt, only to reverse course after public backlash. A later review found the Chief Commissioner Paul Brereton failed to fully recuse himself despite a declared personal link with one of the officials involved. Green Senator David Shoebridge, whose party holds the balance of power in the Upper House, says the latest incident is another significant credibility setback for the body.
David Shoebridge: Because there was a statutory obligation on the NACC because of that conflict of interest to immediately refer it across to the inspector.
Olivia Caisley: With growing scrutiny over how the watchdog polices itself, pressure is now mounting for clearer guardrails. Will Partlett from the Centre for Public Integrity says the Commission needs to update its triage process if it hasn't already.
Will Partlett: If they didn't know they should have known particularly on an allegation of corruption with the commissioner.
Olivia Caisley: Senator Shoebridge says it's time for rehabilitation.
David Shoebridge: We want the NACC to work. We want the NACC to have strong public support and we want it to do its job, free from distractions, to fight corruption at a Commonwealth level and it's not doing that right now. So again we say to the Labor government, let's have a program of reform.
Olivia Caisley: A spokesperson for the watchdog described the mistake as human error and said safeguards have been put in place to prevent it from happening again.
Sabra Lane: Olivia Caisley there.
