Dennis Richardson felt ‘surplus to requirements’ for anti-Semitism Bondi shooting royal commission

Dennis Richardson says he felt “surplus to requirements” and that the work he was doing was out of step with what he was being paid after his examination of intelligence agency failings ahead of the Bondi shooting was rolled into the royal commission.

The former ASIO and Defence boss quit the Royal Commission into Antisemitism late on Wednesday, with commissioner Virginia Bell thanking him for the work done to date and promising a report on intelligence and security agencies would still be released by the end of April.

The Opposition said his departure was “a disaster for the royal commission” and its credibility.

Mr Richardson revealed he was being paid $5500 a day for his work, which was essentially the role of a research officer.

“I was being paid very well, so the question about payment really goes to the fact that, quite frankly, I was being well overpaid for what I was effectively doing,” he told the ABC.

“Different people would have different perspectives on what I’m about to say. I think it would be challenged by others. But in my own view, when you stripped everything down, I was essentially being employed as a research officer and to lead a team of researchers.”

Mr Richardson said on Thursday morning that “a royal commission works in a particular way” and that he would have had more flexibility had his line of inquiry been kept separate from the legal process.

“(As) soon as it became folded into the royal commission, particular legal frameworks were put around it,” he told Radio National.

“So the interim report that will now be done by the royal commission will be a very different document to the one that I would have done when I was doing the review prior to the royal commission being announced.

“That is simply one of those things. It will still be a valuable document. The royal commission will go on to have hearings, and I’m sure the royal commission will, at the end of the day, do a highly professional job.”

He heaped praise on Ms Bell, who he described as one of the finest jurors in the country.

“She has a very fine legal team around her, and she has very fine people helping her elsewhere. I just came to a view that I that, well, quite, quite frankly, what I was being paid wasn’t consistent with the work I was doing,” he said.

Shadow defence minister James Paterson demanded Prime Minister Anthony Albanese immediately get on the phone and ask Mr Richardson to reconsider, and ask Ms Bell to accommodate the former spook.

“This has to be fixed, and fixed today,” Senator Paterson said.

“The prime minister told Australians that Dennis Richardson was the best-qualified person in our country to help the royal commission inquire into the failures around Bondi. Dennis Richardson has now resigned.

“It is a disaster for the royal commission, for its credibility, ultimately for its findings and recommendations.”

Greens Home Affairs spokesman David Shoebridge accused the Coalition of a “political hatchet job … of a royal commission that’s barely had the ink dry on the appointment”.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he was personally sad to see Mr Richardson quit.

“I hope and expect that he has already made an important contribution to the royal commission’s understanding of some of the issues where he’s got particular expertise,” he said.

“Ultimately, it’s a matter for Dennis and for the royal commission, and hopefully we’ve been able to tap some of that considerable knowledge before this development today.”

Mr Albanese originally appointed Mr Richardson with a standalone investigation into intelligence and security agencies, what they knew or didn’t know about the Bondi terror attack and how any gaps in communications or capability could be fixed.

After weeks of pressure on the Prime Minister to call a royal commission with stronger powers to take a broader look at the attack and anti-Semitism in Australia, Mr Albanese relented in early January and Mr Richardson’s work was rolled into the larger inquiry.