The chief of the Australian defence force has told a parliamentary committee he was unaware of serious allegations against a Fijian military officer before approving his appointment to an Australian army brigade.
Colonel Penioni (Ben) Naliva, an officer from the Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF), was named last month as a deputy commander of the 7th Brigade based at Gallipoli barracks in Brisbane.
Some allegations against Naliva were read into the parliamentary record during a Senate estimates committee hearing in Canberra on Wednesday.
The Greens senator David Shoebridge told the committee: “In 2011, the UN special rapporteur on the protection of freedom of expression named Colonel Naliva, in a report to the Human Rights Council, citing his [alleged] role in the savage beating of [a] Suva businessman and former politician.”
Shoebridge asked the chief of the ADF, Gen Angus Campbell, whether he was aware of this allegation “when you appointed him to be second in charge of 3,000 Australian soldiers”.
“No, I was not, senator,” Campbell told Senate estimates.
Shoebridge also told the committee that a former prime minister of Fiji had written a book that set out “allegations of the torture that Colonel Naliva inflicted upon one of his then political opponents”.
Guardian Australia has not been able to verify the allegations but has attempted to contact Naliva, through the Australian Department of Defence and the RFMF, to seek his response.
Appearing before the Senate’s foreign affairs, defence and trade committee on Wednesday, Campbell acknowledged shortcomings with the appointment vetting process.
“The process that we undertake to consider those persons being nominated for appointments did not occur as it should have in this case,” Campbell told Senate estimates in response to Shoebridge’s summary of the allegations.
“And I’ve heard what you’ve just read out. It is, of course, very disturbing. It is an allegation and concerningly, unfortunately, I’m advised that no relevant authority has received a complaint from those who are making those allegations.”
Campbell confirmed that he, as chief of the ADF, was responsible for approving the appointment, which was part of a program of “further strengthening the relationship between Pacific military forces and Australia”.
Under questioning from the independent senator Jacqui Lambie, Campbell said Naliva “was recommended by the commander of the Fijian military forces”.
Campbell would “consider next steps” after taking further advice.
“I have directed that the process be completed, as it ought to have been, so as to present me with the full view, including the advice offered from the government of Fiji and the commander of the Fiji military forces as much as the considerations of our own vetting mechanisms,” he said.
Campbell said Naliva had not been stood down but was “working from home at present and supporting his family in a fairly stressful circumstance”.
Campbell said it was important to work through that process carefully, because he had a duty of care to the individual and also to the ADF.
“Progressing beyond one error to make a second error without undertaking what should have been a correct process is simply a perpetuation of the error,” Campbell said. Naliva was entitled to “a presumption of innocence”, Campbell said.
During the Senate estimates exchange, Shoebridge contended that Campbell’s handling of the matter was an “abject failure”.
The Labor senator Jenny McAllister, representing the defence minister at the committee hearing, responded that the government took “all allegations of wrongdoing seriously” and Campbell was taking steps “to remedy those matters”.
The first assistant secretary of Defence’s Pacific division, Susan Bowdell, told the committee that in the case of Naliva, “we got confirmation from the government of Fiji that he had a clear police clearance and national security checks”.
“These are allegations against the individual, so they would not have been picked up in that criminal check from the government,” Bowdell told the committee.
“Yes, it was a gap of information that, unfortunately, was not put to the CDF in the appointment process.”
Fiji’s home affairs minister, Pio Tikoduadua, told the Australian newspaper last week it was “understandable that individuals may have faced challenges or concerns about coming forward with their claims, especially considering the political and social context at the time”.
Tikoduadua stressed the need for due process for Naliva and “a thorough and impartial discussion” of the allegations.
