Peter Dutton was Minister for Home Affairs when $billions were stolen in numerous dodgy deals and one of those deals was the Paladin $532 million fraud scam.
On Wednesday (9/10/24) the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) started the process of sweeping it under the carpet when they published the Operation Bannister Report.
The investigation behind the Operation Bannister Report was completed by the 22nd of March 2022, when Scott Morrison was still Prime Minister. That alone says the NACC should have done their own investigation instead of publishing a report based on an investigation that was done on Scott Morrison’s watch.
The whole country knows how corrupt the Scott Morrison government was and how his government set up numerous fake corruption investigations designed to cover-up the corruption they were meant to be investigating.
So, how legitimate was the Operation Bannister Report investigation given it was overseen by the Morrison government? And should the report have been countersigned by Peter Dutton as it is almost certain Dutton had some influence over the investigation?
The Paladin scandal has not been totally swept under the carpet by the NACC as some have been saying. But the NACC have certainly flagged that is where they are heading, as you will see below, as the NACC bounces from one cover-up scandal to the next.
The NACC dealt with one key element of the Paladin scandal this week, owner Craig Thrupp’s mother and her partner cashing in on the scam, and the way the NACC dealt with it is unbelievably scandalous.
Paladin, owned by Craig Thrupp, was given a contract to run Manus Island’s immigration detention from the Home Affairs Department without a real tender in 2017.
Firstly, let’s look at the background to the NACC’s Operation Bannister report that was published on Wednesday which cleared Craig Thrupp’s mother of any wrongdoing even though his mother received a total of $1.2 million and she worked at Home Affairs. For some reason the NACC’s Operation Bannister report only investigated $223,000 of payments which clearly suggests there is more to investigate.
Update 15/10/24: I have published a video on this article as per below:
The Paladin scam
The first contract was awarded to Paladin in 2017 and ultimately totalled $532 million.
Nine reported in February 2019:
A $423 million contract awarded to a tiny company registered to a Kangaroo Island beach shack is a distraction by Labor, says Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.
The Home Affairs department is under scrutiny after the lucrative detention centre security contract was awarded to Paladin Solutions through a limited tender process.
But Mr Dutton denied there was anything untoward about the contract. “This is a distraction away from Labor’s law,” he told Sky News this morning.
“There are probity lawyers all over these decisions and processes,” Mr Dutton said. “All of that has been followed.”
Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus described Mr Dutton’s ignorance of the Paladin tender “not believable”. “Last week Mr Dutton claimed he had no sight of a $423m contract,” Mr Dreyfus told ABC radio yesterday. “And if that was so, it would be staggering incompetence.”
“We learned that the Home Affairs Secretary, Mr Pezzullo, used special powers to authorise a closed tender, which means they could go straight to Paladin and Paladin only,” Mr Dreyfus said.
“That’s this tiny company – so tiny that they had to be given advance money to start providing the services.” (Click here to read more)
Even after the scandal hit the media, Paladin continued to get more money from Home Affairs and Peter Dutton, as Minister, has to take full responsibility for that. Why would Peter Dutton allow that to happen? The obvious answer is that he was in on the scam from the start.
And “Home Affairs Secretary, Mr Pezzullo, used special powers to authorise a closed tender, which means they could go straight to Paladin and Paladin only,” which shows that it was a scam from the start at the highest level of Home Affairs and has Peter Dutton’s fingerprints all over it.
In November 2023 Michael Pezzullo was sacked and reportedly referred to the NACC for alleged corruption:
The Guardian reported:
“Michael Pezzullo, the longtime boss of Australia’s home affairs department, has been removed from the top job after an independent inquiry found he had breached the government’s code of conduct at least 14 times, including for using his power for personal benefit.” (Click here to read more)
As you will see below, before Michael Pezzullo was sacked, Home Affairs jointly investigated themselves regarding Craig Thrupp’s mother which is scandalous. And that so-called investigation became the NACC’s Operation Bannister Report they published on Wednesday (9/10/24).
In July 2023 the SMH reported:
The majority owner of the company that ran Manus Island’s immigration detention centre insists he was only trying to help his mother, who works in the Home Affairs Department, when he transferred more than $1.2 million to her in a series of payments.
The forerunner to the new National Anti-Corruption Commission has investigated the payments and is due to report its findings soon. Some payments were made while the $500 million Home Affairs asylum seeker contract was under way, and several were incorrectly invoiced as “consulting services” and charged via PayPal.
Paladin’s majority owner, Craig Thrupp, defended the payments, saying his mother had never provided “confidential or inside information” and that he had appropriately disclosed her employment with the department when Paladin had started negotiations for an offshore processing contract in July 2017.
She worked “in the administrative section [of the department] preparing the annual report”, he said.
The Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity’s inquiry into the payments, code-named Operation Bannister, looked into an alleged “corruption issue regarding a series of financial transactions from Paladin accounts to a Home Affairs employee between 2017 and 2020”, a NACC spokesperson said on Tuesday.
While the probe was completed before the NACC’s formation this month, the spokesperson said the investigation report was still being prepared, and it would be premature to disclose any findings until it was complete. (Click here to read more)
When the NACC started in July 2023 it in effect took over the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI).
The NACC published the Investigation Report for Operation Bannister on Wednesday (9/10/24) which had been under investigation since 2019 and completed in March 2022 before the NACC began operation on the 1st of July 2023.
The NACC never did any investigation for Operation Bannister and only published the report of the previous investigation which was conducted by the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity and the Department of Homes Affairs.
NACC Commissioner Paul Brereton likely did very little for the Bannister Report except cross out someone else’s name, probably Jaala Hinchcliffe as per below, and insert his name as the author.
The 2023 SMH article I quoted from above missed the fact that Home Affairs were part of the investigation team that investigated Home Affairs for Operation Bannister.
And who was the head of the Department of Home Affairs when Operation Bannister was in progress and when they finished their “probe” before NACC started operations in July 2023?
Yes, Michael Pezzullo, and this is worth repeating, “Michael Pezzullo, the longtime boss of Australia’s home affairs department, has been removed from the top job after an independent inquiry found he had breached the government’s code of conduct at least 14 times, including for using his power for personal benefit.” (Click here to read more)
If Michael Pezzullo had his hands all over Operation Bannister you can be sure Peter Dutton also did. Peter Dutton was Minister for Home Affairs from the 20th of December 2017 until the 30th of March 2021 and Michael Pezzullo reported directly to Dutton.
Then-Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo (right) with then-minister Peter Dutton in 2020
At the time the above photo was taken in 2020 the investigation for Operation Bannister would have been started. Does anyone really believe Dutton and Pezzullo would not have used their positions to influence an investigation that their department was jointly controlling?
The NACC Investigation Report for Operation Bannister (Click here to read the report)
On page 4 it says, “ACLEI’s investigation began on 5 March 2020. There followed a thorough investigation, which as deemed by the then Integrity Commissioner to be concluded on 22 March 2022.”
On 6 October 2023, procedural fairness processes commenced.
On 16 January 2024, the final report was provided to the Attorney-General and the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, as required under s 55 of the LEIC Act.
On 18 April 2024, there was further consultation in relation to the public version of the report.
But on page 7 it says, On 29 October 2019, the Integrity Commissioner decided to commence an own initiative investigation.
My comment: So why did it take the ACLEI from the 29th of October 2019, when it decided to investigate, until the 5th of March 2020 to start its investigation?
And it says in relation to Operation Bannister “which as deemed by the then Integrity Commissioner to be concluded on 22 March 2022”. If that is true how come it took until the 6th of October 2023 before the “procedural fairness processes commenced.” by the NACC?
The cover-up was already in progress under the old ACLEI and the former Integrity Commissioner, Ms Jaala Hinchcliffe.
But here’s the dynamite, on page 7 it also says:
The September information
The Integrity Commissioner referred the corruption issue to Home Affairs to investigate, without management or oversight by ACLEI, pursuant to subpar 26(2)(b)(iii) of the LEIC Act. This was communicated to Home Affairs the same day.
The January information
On 30 January 2020, the Secretary of Home Affairs further informed ACLEI that during a Home Affairs investigation into Ms Brown’s undisclosed conflicts of interest, they discovered payments, totalling $223,000, made to Ms Brown through the online payment platform PayPal by Paladin Holdings between May and July 2017. The notification stated that the purpose of the payments was unknown.
(Ms Brown is the fake name that the NACC gave Craig Thrupp’s mother for their report.)
As a result of additional information received from Home Affairs in January 2020, on 5 March 2020, the former Integrity Commissioner, Ms Jaala Hinchcliffe, reconsidered the matter pursuant to s 42 of the LEIC Act. She decided to conduct a joint investigation with Home Affairs into the allegation that Ms Brown may have abused her office as a Home Affairs employee by assisting Paladin Holdings to obtain a contract with Home Affairs, pursuant to para 26(1)(a) and subs 26(2) of the LEIC Act.
The investigation was designated Operation Bannister. (Click here to read the report)
Why did the former Integrity Commissioner, Ms Jaala Hinchcliffe, decide to conduct a joint investigation, with Home Affairs, into a Home Affairs employee? The investigation, Operation Bannister, was totally tainted from the start.
And why did the NACC sign off on the report when they know it was totally tainted?
And then add the fact that the head of Home Affairs, which were part of the joint investigation, Michael Pezzullo, was sacked in November 2023 because of alleged corruption “including for using his power for personal benefit”. And he has almost certainly been referred to the NACC for alleged corruption.
The people at the NACC who signed off the Operation Bannister Report need investigation. Yes, NACC Commissioner Paul Brereton’s signature is on the Operation Bannister report.
Who is Ms Jaala Hinchcliffe?
On the 12th of July 2023 I published an article titled “Peter Dutton’s puppet is National Anti-Corruption Commission Deputy Commissioner Jaala Hinchcliffe. Has the NACC already been corrupted?” which starts off:
Peter Dutton covered up a lot of corruption in the previous government and one of his puppet’s he used to do the dirty work was Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) Commissioner Jaala Hinchcliffe.
After Jaala Hinchcliffe was appointed Commissioner of the ACLEI in 2020 she ended “16 corruption investigations, 13 of which were into Home Affairs”. And who was Minister for Home Affairs? Yep, Peter Dutton.
One of the biggest corruption scandals being investigated by the ACLEI that Jaala Hinchcliffe swept under the carpet was the fraudulent $39 million paid to a company called Austal.
I published an article in October 2020 titled “Federal MP Peter Dutton covers up $39 million fraud and theft at the Australian Border Force” which starts off:
A corrupt payment of $39 million was made by the Australian Border Force to a company called Austal in 2015/2016 when federal MP Peter Dutton was in charge of Border Force. Two barristers who were meant to be investigating the matter on behalf of the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) were sacked by the newly appointed commission chief, Jaala Hinchcliffe this year.
Border Force is Peter Dutton’s responsibility as he was appointed Minister for Home Affairs in December 2017 which also has oversight for Border Force. Prior to that Peter Dutton was Minister for Immigration and Border Protection from 23/12/2014 to 28/8/2018 which covers the period when the $39 million fraud and theft took place.
And as we all know Peter Dutton rules his department with an iron fist so the $39 million would not have been paid without his approval. Yet his name hasn’t, at this point, been mentioned in reports on the scandal so maybe we should start calling him Teflon Pete or Magic Pete.
In the same year Austal received the corrupt $39 million payment they donated $60,000 to the Liberal Party and $1500 to the ALP. (Click here to read more)
You don’t have to search far to know that Jaala Hinchcliffe has huge question marks over her credibility, her performance as ACLEI Commissioner and the fact that Peter Dutton and the previous government were big beneficiaries of her questionable conduct. But more on that in a minute. (Click here to read the full article)
When the NACC started operation on the 1st of July 2023 and took over the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) Jaala Hinchcliffe became a Deputy Commissioner of the NACC. But she did not last long and left in February 2024.
Where did she go? On Wednesday (9/10/24) the Guardian reported:
The head of the Department of Parliamentary Services has announced a sudden “period of leave”, leaving a former anti-corruption commissioner in charge of the department. The secretary, Rob Stefanic, announced to staff in an email on Wednesday morning he had made a decision to “take a period of leave”.
Jaala Hinchcliffe, the department’s deputy secretary who was an interim deputy commissioner for the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) until January, would act as secretary. (Click here to read more)
Jaala Hinchcliffe leaves a long trail of scandal and cover-ups wherever she goes and she should have been backlisted from the public service long ago.
Summary of the cover-up
The NACC has started its public cover-up attempt of the Paladin $532 million fraud and theft scandal and it is designed to protect one person. And that person is Peter Dutton who was the Minister for Home Affairs for the years Paladin was winning their dodgy contracts.
Paladin still has other allegations of corruption, such as the original deal and international bribery allegations, against it which the NACC should be investigating and if they are not they have a lot to answer for. But it is blatantly obvious the NACC is heading towards sweeping the whole Paladin scandal under the carpet.
Peter Dutton has similar problems to Paladin heading his way which I outlined in an article in October 2022 titled “Peter Dutton and his dodgy $1.8 billion deal with Canstruct who had no staff, no revenue and no assets. Will the NACC investigate?” which starts off:
Peter Dutton and the previous federal government awarded a company called Canstruct International a total of $1.8 billion in government contracts in very suspicious circumstances given they had no staff, no assets and no revenue when they won their initial contract. (Click here to read the article)
How is it that $2 shelf companies with no history can win government contracts worth $billions?
More often than not the people that are chosen to investigate government corruption are corrupt themselves and cover-up more corruption than they expose. And that is by design by the politicians who do not want to know about corruption.
Because of the NACC’s secrecy we are forced to guess a lot, but as per above, there are enough known facts that by themselves prove blatant corruption and cover-ups. Imagine if there were public hearings at the NACC and we knew all of the facts.
As I already said, the NACC is bouncing from one cover-up scandal to the next and it will be a major issue at the federal election.
There is a lot more to this story as well as other associated stories and I’ll keep following up.
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Categories: National Anti-Corruption Commission, Peter Dutton
As I’ve said before, the NACC is working exactly as it was designed, jointly by Albo and Dutton. They’re joined at the hip on most things including covering up each other’s corruption.
Yet another example in the long, disgraceful, criminal litany of corruption by the LNP, most recently by the Morrison government. But somehow, the Albanese government is being blamed for not spotlessly cleaning these Augean Stables in its first term. And knowing the fickle nature of the Australian electorate, it would be no surprise to see that if Albanese cleared these Augean Stables, he and his government received the same gratitude as Hercules.
Many thanks Kangaroo Court for exposing all these so called “Honourable” politicians.
Strip them of title & office. Have them face their employers, us.
Place them in front of the Peoples Court of no corruption.
If you want to get rich, get into politics.
Any investigation by the current NACC is a waste of taxpayers money they have consistently proved that they have no intention of convicting the people responsible
The only possible solution to corrupt politicians and corrupt public servants is transparency and accountability.
The only chance of stopping this conduct is to demonstrate publicly what will happen to you if caught and being clear on the measures in place to catch you.
The only way it seems to achieve this is to seek out independent candidates who outline exactly what they will do to tackle this rot if they are elected. Labor campaigned on a platform of integrity and anti-corruption at the last election, they have let us all down badly. I guarantee most voters do not appreciate the significance of the rot that exists because it isn’t directly impacting them and, in truth, the vast majority of us lack courage.
How is it that Whitstleblowers can be subjected to torturous treatment by public servants and politicians and it just goes on and on?
What has happened to Richard Boyle just goes on and on and on – at this stage he, and those close to him, will never recover from how he has been treated for simply reporting wrongdoing. He has been tortured by public paid employees.
This journalist is 100% correct, Labor and ALP operate as one party when it comes to covering for each others corruption in office. What sets Shane, Richard and every other person that calls it out is courage.
The corruption in government is epic
Disband the NACC. ITS POINTLESS
Thank you for your work Shane
Interesting article. Thanks KCA. I wonder if Paladin’s owner, Craig Thrupp, is related to Jake Thrupp. Jake Thrupp is/was the protégé/partner of Alan Jones. Alan Jones is an LNP supporter and Dutton has been on Jones’s show many times.
Another protection racket for Polititions, just disgracefull.
“As I already said, the NACC is bouncing from one cover-up scandal to the next and it will be a major issue at the federal election.”
Really?
Who do you expect will make it a major issue? Not the MSM or LNP or ALP, as they are “joined at the hip” on this.
The minor parties, the independents and voters on social media.
Don’t forget Duttons two French au pairs that he facilitated visas for !
One wishes the Greens could be induced to get off their Woke hobby-horses and form an alliance with such independents as Pocock and Lambie and perhaps even Hansen to force a Senate investigation into the NACC and its totally inadequate Bannister Report, not to mention the NACC’s numerous other shortcomings. Together they could form a sufficiently formidable block of senators to instigate some real “truth-telling” to eventually ensure that at least some heads would role. One can only hope.
Reading this you wonder how Dutton could still be standing. Yet after the Robodebt scandal, the Paladin Scandal , Sports Rorts the ludicrous secret ministries and a host of other corrupt scams, we see the Coalition close to regaining office again. Beggars belief the ALP has failed so spectacularly to take a baseball bat to all the people behind these scams. Why was it too hard to set up a proper anti corruption body?
It wasn’t too hard, the ALP just had no intention of setting up the Nacc to identify and address the corruption of politicians, they set it up to bury it. We will see some public servants dealt with by the Nacc – some visible wins to put out there to justify their existance to the public.
Constantly practicing his masterclass of evasion, EX-federal minister Dutton has become adept at obscuring the truth behind a veil of obfuscation. During recent questions and inquiry, he artfully sidesteps accountability, skilfully redirecting blame while leaving critical questions unanswered.
His press conferences resemble elaborate performances, where statistics are conveniently glossed over, and facts are distorted to fit his narrative. This pattern of deceitful discourse not only undermines public trust but creates a chaotic environment within his party and previous roles showcasing a troubling disregard for transparency and responsibility.
I have a plethora of questions but will only pose these few.
How was ACLEI, under Hinchcliffe, able to end 16 investigations into Home Affairs corruption allegations without any significant consequences or public explanation?
Were any of these decisions reviewed or influenced by Peter Dutton, especially given his role overseeing Home Affairs during this period?
Given that Michael Pezzullo, head of Home Affairs, was later dismissed over corruption allegations, did this dismissal prompt any reassessment of the Operation Bannister report’s conclusions, especially considering his involvement in Home Affairs during the joint investigation?
How does Dutton respond to allegations that his department repeatedly awarded high-value contracts to companies with limited capacity or dubious backgrounds, as in the cases of Paladin and Canstruct?
Does he acknowledge any responsibility for the process that allowed such contracts to be approved?
What role, if any, did Peter Dutton have in the appointment or actions of Jaala Hinchcliffe as Deputy Commissioner of the NACC, especially considering past controversies during her tenure at ACLEI?
It’s astonishing that individuals who exhibit such blatant disregard for their responsibilities are allowed to hold positions of power. Their actions often reveal a complete lack of moral compass, as they prioritise self-interest over public accountability. This troubling trend not only undermines the integrity of governance but also erodes public trust in institutions. The idea that those tasked with safeguarding our interests can operate with impunity and obfuscate their failures is deeply concerning and highlights a systemic issue that demands urgent attention and reform.
How do we do it?