Just nowTue 7 Oct 2025 at 8:20pm
NACC inspector received complaints following ABC report
While you were sleeping (or enjoying your evenings), a number of public officials were being grilled by federal senators about how their respective departments or bodies are running.
Last night integrity was a big issue in the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee.
The Inspector of the National Anti Corruption Commission aka the watchdog’s watchdog revealed she’s received 55 complaints sparked by the ABC’s revelations NACC chief Paul Brereton has an ongoing “informal” consulting role with the Australian Defence Force.
The NACC had earlier told the same hearing that NACC Inspector Gail Furness had specifically raised the story with them.
NACC CEO Philip Reed was asked by Independent senator David Pocock to provide more information about that request, to which he said he’d consider it.
Asked last night whether she had substantiated any complaints about the Commission beyond its handling of robodebt, Furness confirmed the merit of some referrals were under review.
“As at the end of last financial year, the answer is no, but as of this year, and up to date, there are matters under active consideration and I can’t really say anything more than that.”
5m agoTue 7 Oct 2025 at 8:16pm
NACC chief executive didn’t know about commissioner’s ongoing consulting work
ICYMI: The National Anti Corruption Commission’s chief, Philip Reed, was quizzed by crossbench senators last night about a range of stories, including this one from last week.
The ABC first reported that NACC commissioner Paul Brereton was continuing to consult for the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force on an “infrequent” and “honorary” basis despite not declaring that to parliament.
Reed was questioned about whether he had knowingly misled parliament when he told the Senate he was not aware of any ongoing defence duties being undertaken by Brereton.
He told the hearing Brereton hadn’t told him.
Greens senator David Shoebridge: “I’m assuming he didn’t tell you because it’s not included in your advice — about his ongoing role with the IGADF.”
Reed: “That’s correct.”
20m agoTue 7 Oct 2025 at 8:00pm
Coalition pushes to extend oversight of former politicians’ overseas activities
Amid the flurry of Senate estimates yesterday, you may have missed an interesting update on former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ trip to Beijing.
Yes, the one where he featured in a class photo alongside autocrats and dictators (totally cool and normal!).
Daniel Andrews (top right) attended a Chinese military parade in Beijing. (AP Photo: Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
After that excursion, the Coalition has been pushing to expand the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme (FITS), which requires all former federal cabinet ministers to register any activity they undertake on behalf of a foreign government or organisation.
Liberal Senator Claire Chandler told Senate hearings yesterday she believes that rule should also extend to state premiers.
“While there is nothing wrong with acting for a foreign principal … it’s in the public interest that [former state premiers] … are making that very clear and are being up front about that fact,” she said.
Last month, shadow cabinet ministers Julian Leeser and Angus Taylor wrote a letter to Attorney-General Michelle Rowland outlining similar concerns.
“Despite being a former state premier, Mr Andrews is not explicitly subject to the transparency obligations of the FITS Scheme given its express focus on current and former Commonwealth public officials,” they wrote.
Department officials told Senate estimates they had received that letter, and already had plans to review the scheme’s scope following a major report.
30m agoTue 7 Oct 2025 at 7:51pm
👋 Good morning
Welcome to our federal politics live blog! I’m Courtney Gould and I’ll be guiding you through the morning.
We return for another day of parliament and Senate estimates. Officials from the Department of Communications, Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) are due to appear later today where there are no prizes for guessing what they’ll be questioned about (the Optus triple-0 outage).
It’s gearing up to be an interesting day so grab a coffee (or five) and let’s get blogging.
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