Australia’s anti-corruption staff are ‘terrified’ of making mistakes, says outgoing chief

Australia’s federal anti-corruption body is filled with staff “terrified of making any mistake of fact or law”, the outgoing commissioner claims. Paul Brereton, the National Anti-Corruption Commissioner, also defended his actions and decisions as the watchdog’s first head explaining his resignation was due to “distractions”, including two ongoing investigations into his conduct. In a tense Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday night, Brereton said he decided to leave his post three years into a five-year term because the continued “distraction” of investigations was not in his or the institution’s best interests. “So the fact of having been under investigation and being distracted from doing the job that I wanted to do as commissioner by the need to defend myself and by the NACC needing to defend myself, that’s why I decided to resign,” he said. “We now have a commission in which staff are terrified of making any mistake of fact or law, because they fear they will be visited with a finding of officer misconduct.” Gail Furness, the Nacc inspector who oversees complaints about the Nacc’s conduct, revealed on Tuesday night that she is undertaking a second investigation into the commissioner but did not reveal the nature of the complaint. The first of the ongoing investigations is related to Brereton’s consulting work for his previous employer – the inspector general of the Australian defence force (IGADF) – while serving as the Nacc’s commissioner. …