A government contractor found to have falsified data on Indigenous communities during the referendum quietly hired an independent investigator to examine the integrity of its work for the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) in the last two federal elections, according to reports from internal documents.
Guardian Australia revealed earlier this year that McNair YellowSquares, a market research firm and regular government contractor, had fabricated data purporting to reflect the views of Indigenous communities in regional areas and suburbs of Adelaide.
This was done on behalf of the AEC on a project to gauge public awareness of the Aboriginal Voice referendum process and to measure the effectiveness of AEC advertising.
The behavior came to light when a whistleblower – a personal research interviewer at McNair – claimed he was repeatedly asked to provide false location information to interviews he conducted in Redfern, central Sydney.
The interviewer also alleged that McNair had falsified data on a project to evaluate an Australian Defense Force (ADF) recruitment campaign.
An independent investigation by forensic accounting firm Warfield & Associates has since confirmed the whistleblower's claims relating to both the AEC and ADF projects.
However, internal documents obtained by the Guardian through freedom of information laws show that McNair asked Warfield to go much further in his investigation.
Two weeks after initially hiring Warfield to investigate the allegations, McNair's lawyers sent a letter requesting that the scope of the investigation be expanded to examine McNair's work for the AEC during the 2019 and 2022 campaigns.
McNair was hired by the AEC during the campaigns to evaluate and track the effectiveness of the AEC's advertising.
In an Aug. 26 letter to Warfield, McNair's law firm requested that “the scope of your investigation be expanded” to include projects related to the “2022 federal election” and “2019 AEC election jobs.”
“McNair officials will provide you with relevant source documents relating to these jobs,” McNair’s attorneys wrote.
It is not clear whether McNair was just being overly cautious in expanding the scope of the investigation or whether it had reason to be suspicious of the earlier work. McNair did not answer questions about the results of the investigation into the 2019 and 2022 campaign work.
The AEC says it was unaware of McNair's decision to expand the investigation.
Until Guardian Australia contacted the AEC, it had not been told that McNair's election work in 2019 and 2022 was being investigated.
An AEC spokesman said it remained “incredibly disappointed by McNair's alleged conduct.”
“I can confirm that the AEC was unaware that the private investigator hired by McNair was investigating specific AEC research projects beyond the 2023 referendum campaign effectiveness research,” the spokesman said. “It obviously follows that the AEC has not yet received any reports on the results of investigations outside of research into the 2023 referendum campaign.”
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The FoI documents revealed that after the allegations were made public, government officials sought to determine the extent to which McNair was involved in endorsement deals.
Documents released by the Treasury Department showed that McNair had blinded the government to the allegations, despite receiving a formal disclosure from the whistleblower and his lawyers at the Human Rights Law Center in November last year.
The Finance Department redacted some material from the FoI which referred to legal advice it had obtained from an external organisation.
It is not clear what advice the department sought. A spokesman for the Treasury Department said it had not attempted to take legal action against McNair.
The spokesman said McNair remains suspended from the Management Advisory Services Board, through which it procures a wide range of consulting engagements.
The spokesman confirmed that the Warfield inquiry had substantiated the allegations about the ADF project, but that the “conduct had had a negligible impact on the assessment of the ADF careers campaign”.
A spokesman for McNair said it had completed its investigation and was now “working with stakeholders to share insights and insights.”
“It takes time to complete a full and thorough internal and external investigation, particularly when confidentiality of the complainant is required,” the company said.
“We are focused on moving the organization forward with trust, confidence and transparency and we are confident the improvements we are implementing will make this possible.”