Mark McGowan has vowed to press on with the reappointment of John McKechnie to the state’s top anti-corruption body, after the committee overseeing the CCC again declined to provide support to the nomination.
Mark McGowan has vowed to press on with the reappointment of John McKechnie to the state’s top anti-corruption body, after the committee overseeing the nomination again declined to provide support to the nomination.
The government and opposition have found themselves in an increasingly acrimonious battle over the appointment in recent weeks, with Mr McGowan declaring earlier this month he would bypass the relevant committee and reappoint Mr McKechnie by an act of parliament if necessary.
While opposition leader Liza Harvey has said she personally supports Mr McKechnie’s nomination, she has said she would not lend her support to an act bypassing the committee to force the nomination.
The government is now likely to take that path, as the standing committee that oversees the CCC today rejected Mr McKechnie’s nomination for a second time.
Mr McGowan again criticised the Liberal Party WA for its refusal to support his nomination, having previously claimed there was a political bias in the decision.
In a statement, Margaret Quirk, who chairs the committee that has overseen the nomination, said the committee rejected claims that Mr McKechnie was not supported because of ongoing investigations into members of the opposition.
It said a range of reasons had been discussed in regard to the nomination, and that those deliberations were delivered in good faith; however, it also said those deliberations could not be publicly detailed.
“As has been the previous practice, the committee interviewed all persons on the list considered by the nominating committee,” Ms Quirk wrote.
“We note in the report of the nominating committee that, although the incumbent is described as outstanding, the observation is also made that each of the nominees is qualified for appointment to the position of commissioner.
“Given support for the incumbent by both the opposition leader and the premier, discussion on what did, or did not, occur in the committee, and imputing motives to individuals, does not progress a constructive way forward.”
Mrs Harvey today welcomed those comments, accusing Mr McGowan of having made false statements.
"The premier claimed the JSC decided not to support his recommendation because the CCC had been investigating parliamentary electoral allowances," she said.
"Now Ms Quirk, one of Labor’s most senior MPs, has decided to very publicly “unequivocally reject” his claims.
"She said the committee’s decision had nothing to do with the parliamentary electoral allowances issue.
"Whilst I unequivocally supported the reappointment of Mr McKechnie, I don’t get a vote on the committee."
In comments to reporters today, Mr McGowan did not directly acknowledge Ms Quirk's comments, instead repeating his vow to force Mr McKechnie’s nomination through the lower house.
“Mr McKechnie should be reappointed; he must be reappointed,” Mr McGowan said.
“How can you have someone who has been so successful at uncovering corruption blocked by people who are self-interested in blocking his reappointment?
“It’s wrong, it’s outrageous, it’s improper, it’s clearly a flaw in the act.
“The only solution we have is to bring forward legislation to the parliament to remove this impediment, and that’s what we will do.”
The increasingly partisan fight over Mr McKechnie’s nomination began earlier this month after Jim Chown, a Liberal member of the legislative council and the deputy chair of the committee that oversees the CCC, declined to support Mr McKechnie’s reappointment.
That led Attorney General John Quigley to accuse Mr Chown of opposing the renomination on instruction from the ‘black hand gang’, referring to a group of legislative council members named in a CCC report released in December of last year detailing rampant misuse of parliamentarian allowances.
Mr Chown has never been directly named as a member of the group.
In turn, Mrs Harvey has questioned the urgency of the nomination during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Friday, she called on Matthew Hughes, an Australian Labor Party WA member who is also on the committee, to resign his post, after he published several Facebook posts criticising the opposition for blocking Mr McKechnie’s renomination.
In the posts, Mr Hughes said he was bothered that Mr Chown did not need to justify his dissent, and that his unwillingness to support the nomination required an explanation.
“This unjustified dissent, and the resulting failure to achieve majority and bipartisan support, has left the reappointment in limbo, leaving [p]arliament and the community to speculate why this position was arrived at,” Mr Hughes wrote.
“This outcome surely cannot rest simply on the solitary whim of the dissenting member.
“The appointment of a commissioner of the CCC is an important affair of state.”
