Kathryn Campbell's appointment to a lucrative $900,000 advisory role in the Defence Department highlights the "urgent need" for independent and transparent processes for major public service appointments, independent MP Sophie Scamps has said.
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ACM, publisher of this masthead, on Monday revealed Ms Campbell was suspended without pay from her AUKUS advisory role after the robodebt royal commission made adverse findings about her involvement in the illegal debt collection scheme.
The former Department of Human Services secretary was parachuted into the role in 2022 weeks before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced she was being removed from her position as head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Documents provided to a parliamentary committee question on notice reveal Department of Prime Minster and Cabinet secretary Glyn Davis and former Australian Public Service Commissioner Peter Woolcott were discussing Ms Campbell's redeployment days before she was sacked as head of DFAT.
Mr Woolcott wrote to Dr Davis about a plan for Ms Campbell to "immediately placed on a three year non on-going [sic] contract with Defence" following her termination from the DFAT role.
Her salary "could be expected to match her current salary," Mr Woolcott wrote.
Dr Scamps has called for the process by which Ms Campbell was appointed to the Defence role to be investigated.
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The MP said while it was "no surprise" the former department secretary had been suspended from her current position, "what does need to be examined more closely is how she ended up in this $900,000-a-year AUKUS adviser role in the first place".
Dr Scamps said she had previously raised "significant concerns" about the circumstances of Ms Campbell's appointment.
"It had all the hallmarks of political expediency over process, lacking any transparency or competitive selection criteria," she said.
"There is no evidence that there was any proper process followed - no job role advertised, no selection criteria, no interviews. Average Australians go through far tougher processes when applying for jobs."
Dr Scamps said the episode underlined the need for the kind of independent, transparent processes proposed in her Ending Jobs for Mates Private Member's Bill.
She called on the government to support the bill.
Adrian Rollins
Adrian Rollins is economics correspondent for the Canberra Times
Adrian Rollins is economics correspondent for the Canberra Times
