Six National Anti-Corruption Commission probes involve current or former parliamentarians

Written by: Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Six of the National Anti-Corruption Commission’s current investigations involve the conduct of current or former parliamentarians, according to statistics about its work released on Wednesday.

While the NACC refers to six corruption investigations, it does not specify how many current or former politicians are involved.

The NACC said 26 of its 29 current corruption investigations had begun in the 2023-24 reporting period and are still ongoing.

Three concern the conduct of current or former parliamentary staff.

Seven relate to the conduct of current or former senior executive officials, and eight to law enforcement officials. Four concern the behaviour of consultants or contractors.

Eight relate to procurement, one to recruitment, four to corrupt conduct at the border, three to grants and four to misconduct in law enforcement.

The NACC says these categories do not capture all the corruption investigations, and some investigations fall into multiple categories.

It says it is “important to remember that most corruption investigations do not ultimately result in a finding of corrupt conduct”.

As of Wednesday, the NACC is undertaking 32 preliminary investigations. In the last week, one preliminary investigation was closed, with no issue of corruption.

Its present 29 corruption investigations include eight joint investigations.

It is overseeing or monitoring 17 investigations by other agencies. In the last week, one additional matter was referred to an agency for investigation with oversight.

It has six matters before the court. In the last week, one matter was concluded with a conviction.

The NACC has 494 referrals awaiting assessment.

In a speech last month, the NACC’s head, Paul Brereton, defended it against criticism that it was too secretive.

“Sometimes we hear complaints that people do not know what we are doing, and more especially who and what we are investigating. Such disclosure would not be expected of an intelligence agency and should not be expected of us. Doing so has the potential to compromise the efficacy and fairness of investigations,” Brereton said.

“To provide as much transparency as we can, each week we publish statistics about the number of referrals, assessments and investigations. But we will generally not disclose their subject matter or status, unless they otherwise enter the public domain.”

Recently it was reported ^[1] that police raided Bruce Lehrmann’s property as part of a NACC investigation. The raid was reportedly over the alleged retention of documents linked to the former government’s French submarine deal (the deal was later scrapped).

Lehrmann was accused by Brittany Higgins of raping her in 2019, which he denied. It was found in a civil defamation case that he did rape her, on the balance of probabilities.