A senior naval officer facing prosecution over the handling of lucrative defence contracts in Western Australia has attended a pre-trial hearing in Canberra, but the highly sensitive and complicated case is now expected to be delayed until next year.
The Nightly can also reveal that Australia’s Defence Chief, Admiral Mark Hammond, could be asked to give evidence at the court martial which was originally scheduled to begin this month and last for up to six weeks.
At an initial five-day pre-trial hearing at Perth’s HMAS Stirling naval base in June, the ADF’s Chief Judge Advocate, Maj-Gen Michael Cowen KC, issued a non-publication order preventing the identity of the accused being made public.
“I order … there be no publication of the name or rank of [redacted] or anything tending to identify the accused, other than by referring to the accused as ‘A Star Ranked Officer in the Royal Australian Navy’.”
The suppression order protecting the identity of the accused, given the pseudonym “Officer Brown”, will “remain in force until the commencement of the trial unless otherwise ordered to continue”.
In July, The West Australian newspaper revealed the corruption watchdog had also been asked to examine the allegations, but the matter was ultimately handed back to the Defence Department for investigation.
“As it is now in the public domain, we confirm that the Department of Defence did refer this matter to the Commission in compliance with their mandatory reporting obligations under the National Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2022,” a NACC spokesperson said.
On Thursday, “Officer Brown” attended a second day of pre-trial proceedings along with several uniformed defence lawyers to discuss the eight charges that are expected to be prosecuted during the court martial.
The highly publicised matter has been complicated by the seniority of the accused, because there are a limited number of similarly ranked officers in the ADF to act as a “jury of peers”, who also do not have a conflict of interest in the matter.
Military officials are now working to have the postponed court martial finally be heard in the first half of 2027, but finding star-ranked officers who can be committed to a trial lasting up to six weeks is proving difficult.
Sources have confirmed to The Nightly that former Defence Department secretary Greg Moriarty, who is now Australia’s Ambassador to Washington, is likely to give evidence from the United States via video link.
Figures familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have told The Nightly that former Chief of Navy and now Chief of Defence, Admiral Mark Hammond, could also be added to the witness list.
Defence Minister Richard Marles has previously insisted a military court martial is the “appropriate” way to prosecute the case which has shaken his department, despite former officials raising concerns about a lack of transparency.
“The court martial is a legal process, and so it’s important that play out. I think that should play out without commentary,” Mr Marles said in July when asked about the case which has rocked the Australian military for months.
Multiple industry sources have also told The Nightly that since the case was made public earlier this year it has prompted widespread discussion inside senior levels of defence companies across Australia and even internationally.
The Nightly has learnt of crisis meetings at the top levels of one European-based global defence giant over concerns the company’s Australian arm could be implicated in the allegations that will be soon by examined by a court martial.
Former senior Defence official Michael Shoebridge has also argued that the entire process should now be handled by a regular civilian court, rather than kept inside the military justice system.
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