NACC reset must reverse presumption of secrecy

May 31, 2026

It would be easy to call promoting Army Reserve officers to important positions as evidence of the old ‘Psychology of Military Incompetence’ applying.

A chest full of chocolate medals and undecipherable campaign ribbons is no guarantee of excellence – that has been shown in recent times to be axiomatic, to the point where it may well be more of a red flag than a recommendation.

However, rather more necessary than just a properly rigorous selection exercise is a total re-alignment of the fundamental principle that sustained the formation of a completely useless NACC in the first place: the obfuscation of public scrutiny.

The concept that the NACC should operate on the basis of public scrutiny only when it was determined to be ‘of public importance’ is a gate through which you could drive a stampede of elephants – much less a camel.

The reset in the legislation for the NACC must be changed to make it incumbent on the NACC to restrict public access to proceedings in only matters of national security or redaction of data invoking genuine privacy concerns.

Without this change, the NACC will continue to operate as a fiefdom rather than a public service.