This is the Commission’s monthly update for July, providing visibility to the media and the public on our key activities and work underway.
Two years of the Commission
Today – 1 July 2025 – is 2 years since we commenced operations.
When we opened our doors 2 years ago, it marked a major step forward in Australia’s commitment to integrity and accountability in the Commonwealth public sector. In our first 2 years we have been quietly detecting, investigating and preventing corruption. Our largely unseen but critical work – confidential by law and necessity – is also shaping the next phase of integrity reform.
We have secured 9 convictions as a result of investigations we have initiated or continued. We currently have 5 matters before the court.
We have completed assessment of more than 4,500 referrals – about 85% of the more than 5,400 referrals received to date. We have commenced more than 55 preliminary investigations and more than 40 full corruption investigations, and monitored or had oversight of more than 40 internal corruption investigations by other public sector agencies.
Throughout this time, we have also come to identify recurring themes arising from these referrals and investigations.
Read a reflection on our first 2 years, and what’s to come.
Update on Robodebt referrals investigation
Following the Inspector’s report last year, we appointed former High Court Justice Geoffrey Nettle KC to reconsider the decision not to investigate the Robodebt Royal Commission referrals. In February, he decided we would investigate.
That investigation is now underway, led by Deputy Commissioner Kylie Kilgour, with Mr Nettle as Chief Adviser. The Commissioner and other Deputy Commissioners who were involved in the original decision not to investigate the referrals are not participating in the investigation.
Operation Kingscliff report published
On Monday 30 June, we published an investigation report into Operation Kingscliff, a NACC investigation that examined allegations of serious corrupt conduct by a Senior Executive Service staff member at the Department of Home Affairs.
We found the staff member had engaged in corrupt conduct by abusing her office to give her sister and her sister’s fiancé an improper benefit, and by misusing official information.
Read the investigation report, media release and case study, and watch the video explainer, on our website.
Sentence handed down in Operation Carbunup
On Friday 27 June, a former immigration officer at the Department of Home Affairs was sentenced for abuse of public office.
Anne McCann accessed the records of 17 individuals, including friends and associates, on 1,164 occasions between 2016 and 2021, and in December 2019 self-allocated and approved a visa for her brother-in-law.
McCann was sentenced to an aggregate term of 8 months imprisonment, to be released forthwith on the condition she enter into a recognisance of $10,000 to be of good behaviour for 12 months.
The conviction and sentencing stems from Operation Carbunup, a joint investigation commenced by the former Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity and Home Affairs that we continued from 1 July 2023.
This was our ninth conviction in matters we have continued.
Read the media release about the sentencing.
Updated Introduction to the NACC video
We have updated our Introduction to the NACC video, which explains our purpose and functions, including:
- our jurisdiction
- what we can investigate
- who we can investigate.