Former head of ASIO resigns from his role in the Royal Commission into antisemitism

The former boss of Australia’s peak spy agency has resigned from his special role at the Royal Commission into antisemitism.

Transcript

00:01Dennis Richardson has told the ABC this morning that he ended up feeling surplus to requirements

00:07because of the constraints that the Royal Commission setting ended up putting around

00:11what was his original investigation here, which was work into ASIO and the AFP and the

00:18lead up to the Bondi terror attack.

00:21Now, Dennis Richardson is the former head of ASIO, a former Defence Department Secretary.

00:25The government said he was uniquely placed to be able to look into security agencies

00:31and whether there had been any failings in the lead up to those two Bondi terrorists doing

00:37what they did.

00:39Dennis Richardson has spoken to the ABC this morning after it was released last night that

00:45he would be leaving his role at the Royal Commission.

00:48He says that he has full confidence in the Royal Commission, but that there are legal

00:53limitations now around his work under the Royal Commission setting.

00:58He says the document he would be delivering would be very different from what he would

01:02have hoped to deliver under the review process.

01:06He also made this interesting comment about his pay.

01:09Have a listen.

01:23Now, what Mr Richardson was being paid is publicly available information.

01:28It's a maximum of about $5,000 a day.

01:31He's since clarified he means he was being overpaid given he wasn't able to do the job

01:36that he initially had hoped to do.

01:39And how's the government responding to this, Isabel?

01:41Well, the Attorney-General, Michelle Rowland, has put out a very brief statement thanking

01:46Mr Richardson for his work, but saying that the Royal Commission is an independent body and

01:51it will give updates as it sees fit.

01:54There has been some criticism as well this morning from her counterpart, the shadow Attorney-General,

02:00Michaelia Cash, who said this man was someone the government had said was really key to the

02:06setting up of the anti-Semitism Royal Commission, and they say it's an indictment that he now

02:11feels like he's surplus to requirements.