‘No vetting’ before ADF role for alleged Fiji torturer Penioni Naliva

Defence failed to conduct any independent checks on a Fijian Colonel before appointing the alleged torturer as deputy commander of the Australian Army’s 7th Brigade.

Colonel Penioni (Ben) Naliva is welcomed as deputy commander to the Australian Army's 7th Brigade in January. Picture: Defence

Defence failed to conduct any independent checks on Fijian Col­onel Penioni (Ben) Naliva before appointing the alleged torturer as deputy commander of the Australian Army’s 7th Brigade.

Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell told a Senate estimates hearing he was ultimately responsible for the decision to appoint Colonel Naliva as a commander of 3500 Australian soldiers, and revealed the Fijian officer continued to work from home on full pay.

“I’m the accountable officer for all senior appointments, both Australian and embedded officers,” General Campbell said.

“Unfortunately … the process that we undertook was not as comprehensive as perhaps we all might have preferred.”

Defence was reviewing Col­onel Naliva’s appointment, he told senators, and also the wider process to embed Pacific island commanders in ADF roles “to ensure this doesn’t happen in the future”.

The Australian revealed Col­onel Naliva’s appointment exclusively in January, amid claims that the Albanese government had turned a blind eye to his alleged human rights abuses as it sought to counter Chinese influence in the Pacific.

Under questioning by Greens senator David Shoebridge, General Campbell said Colonel Naliva had not been stood aside and was working remotely in “fairly stressful circumstances”.

Senator Shoebridge said: “It’s no doubt stressful when there’s active discussion about your past history as a torturer.”

Senators were told that Australian taxpayers were supporting Colonel Naliva with housing and allowances to lift his Fijian officer’s pay to an equivalent ADF level.

General Angus Campbell appears at the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Senate Estimates at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

A one-time right-hand man to former Fiji coup leader and prime minister Frank Bainimarama, Colonel Naliva is alleged to have been involved in the violent beating of two Fijian politicians, with one victim claiming the soldier tried to force an M16 rifle barrel into his anus in interrogation.

A UN special rapporteur also named then-major Naliva in a report to the Human Rights Council as being involved in the savage beating of a Suva businessman that left him unable to walk.

In a third case, a prominent youth activist said the soldier had been present when he was detained and tortured in 2006, and did nothing to stop it.

Defence official Susan Bodell said the department’s checks on Colonel Naliva consisted of an inquiry to the Fijian government, which recommended his appointment in the first place. “We got a letter from the government of Fiji indicating that the individual concerned had complied with ­Fijian police checks and national security checks,” she said.

Ex-Fijian politician Sam Speight says he was a victim of Colonel Naliva. Picture: Brett Phibbs

General Campbell said he had not been aware of any allegations against the Fijian officer, and the Fijian commander deserved the presumption of innocence.

“It remains an allegation that needs to be investigated by a relevant authority,” he said.

Colonel Naliva was the first appointment under the program to embed Fijian, Tongan and Papua New Guinean commanders in senior ADF roles.

A senior government source told The Australian that Defence Minister Richard Marles had a strong personal interest in the program and wanted “a Fijian colonel in that position forever”.

Australia committed to expand its defence and security cooperation with Fiji under the nations’ Vuvale Partnership agreement signed last October, with increasing co-deployments between the ADF and the Republic of Fiji Military Forces.

Sources in Fiji have speculated to The Australian that Colonel Naliva’s appointment was approved by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka because of concerns the commander – still reputedly a Bainimarama loyalist – was the military officer most able to stage a coup against his already unstable government.

Announcing the appointment on Facebook in late January, the 7th Brigade welcomed Colonel Naliva, posting pictures of its new deputy commander sitting with dozens of Australian soldiers as he “got to meet his new ­colleagues”.