Former Labor attorney-general to be new head of the National Anti-Corruption Commission

A former Labor attorney-general in the Rudd and Gillard governments, Robert McClelland, has been chosen as the new head of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC).

The position has been vacant since the resignation of the body’s inaugural chief Paul Brereton, who quit earlier this year two years short of finishing his five year term, following a controversial period involving conflicts of interest.

McClelland, 68, who takes up his position on January 11, is currently Deputy Chief Justice of the Federal Circuit and Family Court. He was first appointed judge of the then Family Court by then Liberal attorney-general George Brandis and later made deputy chief justice by another Liberal attorney-general, Christian Porter.

McClelland served in federal parliament from 1996 to 2013 for the Sydney seat of Barton. He was attorney-general from 2007 to 2011. But he was demoted to the posts of housing and emergency management, before being dropped from the ministry altogether after supporting Kevin Rudd in the 2012 leadership vote between prime minister Julia Gillard and Rudd.

Years earlier McClelland, from the right faction, made headlines when in the 2003 leadership contest between Kim Beazley and Mark Latham, he decided to switch his support from Beazley to Latham during his shower on the morning of the vote. Latham subsequently won 47 to 45, to become opposition leader.

McClelland, who had been in the Beazley camp, reportedly did not want to see a tied vote, the expected outcome if he had voted for Beazley.

McClelland’s appointment to the NACC was announced on Monday by Attorney-General Michelle Rowland, who said it had been approved by the parliamentary committee that oversees the NACC, as required by legislation.

Rowland said this followed candidates being assessed by a panel that included the Secretary of the Attorney-General’s Department Katherine Jones, a retired judge of the Federal Court Raymond Finkelstein and Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Gina Cass-Gottlieb.

McClelland’s father, Doug McClelland, was a minister in the Whitlam government, president of the Senate, and High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Rowland also announced that Christopher Savundra has been appointed as NACC deputy commissioner.

He is currently the Deputy Director of Enforcement and Compliance at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.