A report on potential corruption in Australia's national security community

The Commonwealth Government framework for national security classification and investigation offers a significant amount of discretion to senior executives at agencies like the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP). Amongst other matters, this include investigation of other Australian Public Service (APS) employees for alleged wrongdoing. This investigations are intended to be formalised and professional, including under the 'security assessment' processes contained in Part IV of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979.

In September 2024, I joined Austrade's EMDG Program as a grants assessor. The EMDG Program distributes around $200 million AUD per year to small businesses through grants of around $30,000 to $100,000 per business, with a stated purpose of boosting Australia's exports.

After noticing some matters that I believed to be suspicious in respect of the EMDG grants process and my coworkers, I made a report to a federal Assistant Minister on 12 November 2024.

Shortly after this report, I noticed I began being tailed by vehicles that ostensibly appeared to be associated with trades businesses and my local council. Then on 3 December 2024, a man in an old model sedan slowed down as I was walking my toy poodle "Daisy" to point at me in a threatening manner. I immediately reported a potential threat to my life to my management chain. However, the three managers notified did not appear to take my concerns seriously.

In mid-December 2024, I believe I was indirectly encouraged to resign from my employment by a friend of mine through references to consuming alcohol in the workplace. Due to the stressful nature of the situation, I was occasionally having a beer in the last hour of the days that I would work from home. This friend worked in the national security community for a contractor and I believe he was delivering a message that I was being monitored, and that consuming the alcohol was engaging in wrongdoing. I resigned from Austrade on 13 December 2024, partly due to this perceived 'warning' and partly because I believed I may be facilitating illegal activity and had not heard back from the relevant Assistant Minister.

At the time, I believed that perhaps my circumstances were explained through an illegal intelligence operation in the national interest. For reasons I can't elaborate on, I believed the EMDG Program was potentially designed to fund an illegal foreign bribery operation, or to funding national security technology. Since that time, it has come to my attention that there are legislative mechanism to approve such illegal intelligence operations by ASIO officials under the 'Special Intelligence Operations' provisions of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979. As such, it is unlikely it would be necessary to involve other departments in the funding of any such operations as they could be funded directly from the ASIO budget. Furthermore, the foreign intelligence agency 'ASIS' would likely be the appropriate vehicle if the federal Government decided they would like to engage in foreign bribery (which would be illegal under Australian law).

I have now come to the belief that what was occurring at the EMDG Program in Austrade was ordinary corruption but that some individuals in Austrade may believe they are involved in funding an illegal intelligence operation in the national interest (e.g. foreign bribery).

On 11 July 2025, I made an email submission to the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, but that body did not appear interested in investigating my report.

Then on 17 July 2025, I made a more extensive to the National Anti-Corruption Commission ('the NACC') in respect of my former employment at Austrade.

On 4 August 2025 (around two weeks after my NACC submission), the former Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police Reece Kershaw announced his resignation a year prior to his term finishing up. Mr Kershaw was originally appointed in 2019 by former Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton. I am not inferring any wrongdoing by Mr Kershaw or Mr Dutton in this article.

This NACC submission was kept open for four months, but I was never contacted for an interview or to provide further information. I received a brief update on 1 September 2025 by an officer without a last name in their signature block, or any way of contacting them.

On 21 April 2026, I made another submission to the NACC in respect of potential wrongdoing by ASIO including ongoing harassment of me (which I believe may have been reprisal in respect of the previous corruption reports). This submission specifically referenced the Director-General Mike Burgess, who I note was originally appointed around the same time as Mr Kershaw, also by Peter Dutton. However, I am not inferring that Mr Burgess himself engaged in any criminality or wrongdoing.

On 4 May 2026 (around two weeks after the NACC submission), Deputy Commissioner Nicole Rose announced her resignation from the National Anti-Corruption Commission, which was around two years prior to the end of her term. I am not inferring any wrongdoing by Ms Rose.

On 25 May 2026 (around a month after the NACC submission), Commissioner Paul Brereton also resigned around two year prior to the end of his term. I am not inferring any wrongdoing by Mr Brereton.

On 29 May 2026 and 31 May 2026, I provided some additional information via email to the CEO of the NACC (Mr Philip Reed) that I believed might be useful to assessing my case. However, the next day (1 June 2026) the NACC submission from 21 April 2026 was instead closed off.

I believed closing of the NACC submission from 21 April 2026 was at a minimum highly inappropriate. As a result I made a submission to the 'Inspector of the NACC' (Gail Furness) on 1 June 2026. This submission was also quickly closed off on 10 June 2026. Consequently, I currently hold concerns about the integrity of the offices of the CEO of the NACC and the Inspector of the NACC. I also suspect, but do not know, that there may have been political pressure applied to these individuals, particularly from the offices of the current Minister for Home Affairs and the current Attorney-General.

I have broader concerns about a bipartisan conspiracy to defraud the Commonwealth through the Commonwealth grants system with the assistance of some members of the National Security community who provide 'cover' (including harassment of individuals that try to report the corruption). In respect of Labor, I am most concerned over members of the 'Right' faction of the party, and particularly the New South Wales 'Right' faction.