Paul Brereton

Paul Brereton served as the inaugural Commissioner of Australia’s National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) from 2023 until his early resignation on July 6, 2026. His tenure involved two formal findings of officer misconduct by the NACC Inspector. The first, in October 2024, concerned his failure to adequately manage a conflict of interest regarding a person referred to the NACC in the Robodebt scandal. The inspector ruled he failed to fully recuse himself from the decision-making process. The second, ongoing at the time of his resignation, involved his undisclosed, concurrent work with the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Reports revealed he had been granted an age extension to consult for the Inspector-General of the ADF on the Afghanistan War Crimes Inquiry during his NACC term, performing this work on NACC time without initial government disclosure. Brereton consistently denied impropriety but resigned two years early, citing that his conduct and the resulting scrutiny had become a distraction from the agency’s work.