“The[NACC],which we all want to succeed and which must be above politics and must be seen to be irreproachable in its appointments and processes,had its reputation put at risk in this process,” Shoebridge said while noting the nominee was a highly capable figure.

“There is an absolute obligation on the department and on[Dreyfus] to ensure the committee has all the information it needs to make a fully informed decision about something as critical as the appointment of a deputy commissioner.”

Shoebridge said the committee was provided with “sanitised” documents about the candidate rather than the original version provided by the candidate.

It sought further information and a detailed briefing with officials,which Shoebridge said culminated in the committee not wishing “to forward and endorse the nomination from[Dreyfus]”.

There is no suggestion the judge would not have been independent of any influence.

Neither Shoebridge nor the committee named Rothman as the nominee,and multiple MPs on the committee refused to confirm his name when approached by this masthead. One explanation could be that the misuse of sensitive information by public officials could be considered corrupt conduct under the rules of the commission,whose establishment was a core Labor pledge at the last election.

Rothman’s identity was confirmed to this masthead by a senior legal source and subsequently by two sources familiar with the matter who also could not be identified because of its sensitivity.

Rothman’s chambers and the NSW Supreme Court did not respond to questions about this story.

After Rothman withdrew his candidacy,Dreyfus proposed Kylie Kilgour as deputy commissioner. The committee approved the nomination of Kilgour,a deputy commissioner on Victoria’s Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission.

A spokesman for Dreyfus said candidates for appointment were initially put to the attorney-general by a selection panel following public advertisements before Dreyfus put his choice to the committee for approval.

“The government established a merit-based selection process for all NACC appointments,” he said.

“Ms Kylie Kilgour’s appointment as the third substantive deputy commissioner to the[NACC] was unanimously endorsed by the committee.”

Rothman was appointed by Dreyfus in 2022 toconsider highly anticipated religious freedom reforms through the Australian Law Reform Commission.

In a Senate estimates hearing in February last year,Liberal senator Paul Scarr grilled public servants on whether they knew of Rothman’s “long-term interest” in politics and his Labor links before he was appointed to lead the religious freedom inquiry.

Scarr noted Dreyfus had previously disparaged members of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal – which wasabolished due to Coalition government stacking – as “failed Liberal candidates”.

AReuters article from 2010 stated Rothman was a founding member of the International Centre on Trade Union Rights and advised the Soviet Union on attempts to establish free trade unions,working with Mikhail Gorbachev in the process.

“There is a common thread to all the judge’s activities – his work after university with trade unions,his diverse practice at the Bar and now at the bench as well as his active community engagement,” the article said.

In aFebruary 2023 article in theAustralian Jewish News,Rothman countered the arguments from both the right and left against the Indigenous Voice to parliament,describing the proposed advisory body as a “moral imperative”.

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