Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash
Shadow Attorney-General
Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
Senator for Western Australia
MEDIA RELEASE
12 FEBRUARY 2024
SERIOUS QUESTIONS TO ANSWER OVER ATTEMPT TO STACK THE NACC
Reports that Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus decided to recommend his political ally, Justice Stephen Rothman AM, to one of the most senior anti-corruption positions in Australia, and allegedly tried to sanitise the application raise extremely serious questions.
Shadow Attorney-General Senator Michaelia Cash said: “No-one doubts Justice Rothman’s competence as a judge but this process stinks.”
“There is every appearance that the Attorney has tried to stack the NACC,’’ she said.
“It undermines public confidence in the Commission before it is even a year old,’’ Senator Cash said.
Justice Rothman’s political affiliations are well-known. He twice sought to represent the Australian Labor Party in this Parliament.
And he was Attorney Dreyfus’s hand-picked candidate who was appointed to conduct the Australian Law Reform Commission’s major inquiry into religious schools – a role which was never even advertised.
“It is quite extraordinary that the Attorney-General’s Department was not able to provide crucial information about the Attorney’s candidate to the Parliamentary Committee that oversees NACC appointments,’’ Senator Cash said.
And now we have reports that the NACC was given ““sanitised” documents about the candidate.
“There are many, many questions about this issue that we will pursue this week,’’ Senator Cash said.
ENDS
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