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TRANSCRIPT
The Australian Federal Police have appeared before a Senate Committee hearing, backtracking on previous answers they had provided to the Parliament about what Opposition Leader Peter Dutton knew about a man charged with foreign bribery.
Mozammil Bhojani, who owns the company Radiance International, received a $9.3 million offshore processing contract from the Department of Home Affairs in August 2018.
He was charged by the AFP with paying more than $100,000 in bribes to two Nauruan politicians to gain preferential access a month later and convicted of bribery in 2020.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who was the Home Affairs Minister at the time, had been accused of being briefed by the A-F-P in July of 2018 that Mr Bhojani was the subject of a bribery investigation and still allowing the Department to award him government money.
Mr Dutton denied such a briefing had occurred and said he would be happy to refer the matter to the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
"I've checked my records and I don't have any record in my office of having received a briefing on that matter. I note the response from the Australian Federal Police, on to the question on notice, they don't have any detail or information that was alleged to have been provided to me. Obviously as Home Affairs Minister you receive briefings in relation to all sorts of matters."
Deputy Commissioner of the AFP Neil Gaughan has now told a Senate Committee hearing they should have been clearer about their evidence, testifying that he had briefed Mr Dutton on the issue of foreign bribery but not on the investigation into Mr Bhojani.
"I confirm that a briefing on foreign bribery matter was undertaken with the then Minister for Home Affairs on the 12th of July 2018. However, I note that after a recent release of a question on notice from the AFP, which you've alluded to, there has been some misreporting and commentary that Mr Dutton was informed by the AFP that a then Person of Interest Mr Bhojani or company Radiance International was under investigation, to be clear that is not correct."
Current Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil has now asked retired senior public servant Dennis Richardson to lead an inquiry into offshore processing contracts.
The AFP was also questioned about the investigation into the Pricewaterhouse Coopers tax scandal, after the Treasury officially referred a former partner of the accountancy firm for leaking government information.
Former PwC partner Peter John Collins is accused of leaking confidential Commonwealth tax information to help multinational companies avoid taxation as far back as 2014.
AFP Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney told the Committee they had received a requested by the Australian Taxation Office in 2018 asking for advice on the matter.
He says the AFP asked the ATO for more information but never received any and had insufficient evidence for a referral to officially investigate the allegations.
"So again, the initial engagement in 2018 through to 2019 was a request for advice whether there was sufficient information for the AFP to conduct an investigation and we formed a view there wasn't. The referral or the report of crime this year was was a full report of crime, for the AFP to investigate. And in terms of context, in terms of material that AFP provide were provided with that report of crime, it's a lot more extensive, then the material we will provide in 2019."
AFP officials also confirmed they had ended all nine contracts they had with P-w-C, including for internal audits, as it would be a perceived conflict of interest.
But AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw was again grilled over his friendship with former New South Wales Police Commissioner turned PwC partner Mick Fuller.
Greens Senator David Shoebridge accused Mr Kershaw of failing to disclose a possible conflict of interest after it was revealed the pair had met several times in relation to a contract awarded to P-w-C without public tender.
Shoebridge: "There's a record the meeting happened but no record of what occurred in the meeting. Do you understand the problem when you're talking about procurement for a $794,000 contract?"
Kershaw: "Don't have a problem with that."
Shoebridge: "You don't"
Kershaw: "No"
Shoebridge: "Alright"
Mr Kershaw denied having a conflict of interest, saying they are not close friends and have a professional relationship.
"Mr Fuller and I have a collegial professional relationship. I describe him as a friend and like I said in May I consider all current and former commissioners friends. My familiarity with Mr Fuller is from years of working together including through the COVID pandemic it is not from socializing together. Mr Fuller and I do not have dinner at each other's homes. We do not play golf together."
