In short:
The leaking of plans to arrest former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith to the media has been referred to the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
News crews were at Sydney Airport as a plane carrying Roberts-Smith landed, and captured images of his arrest from inside the terminal.
What's next:
The Office of the Special Investigator and the Australian Federal Police have referred the matter to the NACC.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-27/ben-roberts-smith-media-leaks-investigated-corruption-commission/106725918?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=other
4 Comments
It’s externally normally for cops to do this for high profile cases. I’m not saying it’s right but it’s no more wrong in this instance. If they were arresting some big gangster, no doubt that the press would have been tipped off.
Sounds good if they haven’t done anything wrong by giving the details to the journalists then they have nothing to worry about
Unpopular opinion: Law enforcement agencies have an impossible task.
Public – and media particularly – rightly demand transparency. But the legal system that demands things aren’t necessarily open and public, and that the public specifically can’t make its own judgments.
Easiest solution for cops is to subvert the expectations of the legal system by this sort of grey area drop. Give the journalists access, don’t provide them with any actual information or say anything.
This is a particularly notable case, but it’s a strategy as old as mass media…
Love how they waited for Brereton to resign first.