August 5, 2023
Peter Dutton was never informed by the AFP in a July 2018 briefing that Mozammil Bhojani — whose company would receive a lucrative $9.3m contract from Home Affairs just one month later — was under investigation for foreign bribery.
The Australian Federal Police was forced to correct the record on Friday after previously reporting (in an answer to a question on notice) that the former Home Affairs minister was briefed on its investigation into Mr Bhojani and his company, Radiance International.
Mr Dutton said on Monday he could not remember the July 2018 briefing and had no record of it taking place. But chief police officer for the ACT, Neil Gaughan, told the Senate on Friday that he was at the briefing and recalled that Mr Dutton was present.
However, he conceded that Mr Dutton was never informed about the investigation into Mr Bhojani who was later arrested and convicted.
“I confirmed that a briefing on a foreign bribery matter was undertaken with the then minister for Home Affairs on July 12 2018,” he said. “However, I note that after the recent release of a question on notice from the AFP … that there’s been some misreporting and commentary that Mr Dutton was informed by the AFP that a then person of interest Mozammil Bhojani or company Radiant International was under investigation.
“To be clear, that is not correct.”
Mr Gaughan said the AFP had ascertained at some point within the last month that the answer it provided to the question on notice was wrong. He conceded that, unless he was probed on the issue by Liberal Senator James Paterson, the AFP may not have provided the update for a few more days.
Senator Paterson suggested the AFP should have addressed the matter in an opening statement before the committee and accused the security agency of failing to meet its obligations to the Senate.
AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said the organisation “had to go wider than our own agency on this” to double check what happened in the briefing.
“That’s how we discovered some additional material,” he said.
Senator Paterson asked Mr Kershaw: “So the public speculation which we’ve had for about two weeks now that the minister for Home Affairs was briefed specifically about an individual who was under investigation, was not true?”
Mr Kershaw, who has since met with Mr Dutton, replied: “That’s correct.” He also rejected the suggestion that the AFP had failed to meet its obligations to the Senate.
He said the agency could not have updated the Senate earlier because it was making investigations to ensure any update was “100 per cent correct.”
“We’ve been checking everything. All of our records,” he said. “I wasn’t there. This was five years ago and we made the decision to make sure that we made this 100 per cent correct.”
The Department of Home Affairs’ handling of offshore processing and awarding of suspect contracts is set to scrutinised by an independent review to be headed by former senior public servant Dennis Richardson.
The probe will prioritise recent concerns about contracting arrangements but have the scope to examine contracts awarded since offshore processing began under Labor in 2012. The Australian understands the Albanese government is considering a further breaking up of the Home Affairs department and potentially rebadging it.
Mr Dutton said on Monday that he was happy to join Mr Albanese in referring potentially dodgy Home Affairs procurement contracts to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, declaring he had no involvement as the responsible minister in contract negotiations.
Reports in Nine newspapers stated last month that the AFP informed Mr Dutton in July 2018 that Sydney-based Mozammil Bhojani was under investigation over suspected bribes to Nauruan politicians for preferential access to millions of dollars in phosphate for his company, Radiance International.
