NACC Commissioner Paul Brereton is the subject of another inquiry being conducted by the NACC Inspector. Photo: ADF.
National Anti-Corruption Commissioner Paul Brereton is again under investigation for his role leading the federal integrity watchdog, this time for his continued ties to the Defence Force while in the job.
NACC inspector Gail Furness has confirmed she has begun a formal inquiry into Mr Brereton and possible maladministration for consulting for the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) over Afghanistan war crimes.
He allegedly did so without informing the NACC, even though the body had received and was handling Defence-related corruption referrals.
Ms Furness has also suggested that the NACC was not fully forthcoming in keeping her informed once the perceived conflict of interest came to light.
Mr Brereton holds the rank of Major General in the Army Reserve and retains a high-level involvement with the Australian Defence Force.
Media exposure of his consulting arrangements, and a subsequent “please explain” from Attorney-General Michelle Rowland, led the Commissioner to formally disclose them in October last year.
His declarations before then did not disclose his continued consultancy work for the IGADF.
It was also subsequently revealed that neither the Commission’s chief executive officer, Philip Reed, nor the NACC Inspector had been aware of Mr Brereton’s consulting arrangement with the Australian Defence Force.
The Commissioner has since indicated he would recuse himself from any Defence matters being dealt with by the NACC, a position he believed was not really necessary but which his deputy commissioners insisted upon.
The NACC dismissed any suggestion of an actual conflict of interest, but the Commissioner’s decision to step away from cases investigating Defence was quietly made public.
A statement was included as part of a monthly update posted on the Commission’s website last October.
“Commissioner Brereton’s longstanding association with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) as a Defence Reservist for over 45 years, and his work as an Assistant Inspector‑General of the Australian Defence Force on the Afghanistan Inquiry, was a matter of public record and well-known before his appointment as Commissioner,” the statement says.
“This meant that there would always be the potential for conflicts to arise from past relationships, which would need to be managed.
“Upon appointment and since commencing as Commissioner, he has declared and appropriately managed any perceived or actual conflicts of interest relating to Defence referrals.”
As recently as last week, the Federal Government expressed its full confidence in Mr Brereton.
But Ms Furness also let the NACC know last week that she was launching an investigation into the matter.
“I write to advise you that I have decided to investigate the complaints I have received about the NACC Commissioner’s involvement in defence-related referrals and the Commissioner’s ongoing role with the IGADF as complaints of agency maladministration or officer misconduct under s184(1)(e) of the National Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2022,” the Inspector wrote on Friday.
“To date, I have been making inquiries about these two matters. Now having sought and received material from the NACC, I have decided that that information warrants an agency maladministration or officer misconduct investigation.”
Appearing in Senate Estimates on Tuesday (10 February), Ms Furness said her investigation could take months.
She also confirmed that she had not been initially provided with any letters between Mr Brereton and the Attorney-General over the matter, despite having asked for all correspondence relating to it.
Instead, she said, she was first alerted to the existence of the letters through a tip-off before it became publicly known.
“Since then, I’ve contacted the NACC and expressed disappointment that they hadn’t provided them to me, and they subsequently provided them to me,” Ms Furness said.
The Greens have called for Mr Brereton to be removed from the NACC.
It is the second time the NACC Inspector has launched an investigation into the NACC Commissioner.
In October 2024, Ms Furness found Mr Brereton to have acted inappropriately in the Commission’s decision not to investigate anyone referred to it over the illegal Robodebt Scheme.
She concluded the Commissioner failed to act properly after declaring a conflict of interest in relation to one of the referred persons, whom he apparently knows well.
