Kathryn Campbell, one of the senior public servants being questioned at the robodebt royal commission, has been appointed head of the Aukus joint project office at the Department of Defence.
Labor put its stamp on the public service when it won the election, moving Campbell out of the role of head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, promised not to sack public servants and said at the time that Campbell would be given a senior role in the defence portfolio.
The government was not explicit about the precise role, and reports in the Australian newspaper in July said Labor was set to announce Campbell as head of a new Advanced Strategic Research Agency (ASRA).
But a departmental spokesperson confirmed this week: “No decision has been made on the appointment of ASRA leadership.”
Guardian Australia understands Campbell is lead of the Aukus joint program office within the Department of Defence.
This role is separate from the nuclear-powered submarine taskforce headed by V-Adm Jonathan Mead.
While most of the public attention has been on Australia’s intention to acquire at least eight nuclear-powered submarines, the Aukus security partnership with the US and the UK is far broader.
The three countries are also collaborating on advanced technologies, including hypersonic weapons, artificial intelligence, and undersea intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities.
Campbell, a former head of the Department of Social Services and, before that, Department of Human Services, is one of the senior public servants who have come under extensive questioning at the royal commission into the robodebt scheme.
Campbell told the commission she accepted the scheme was a “significant” failure of public administration.
She also said she had assumed the scheme was lawful despite earlier advice, and conceded external legal advice should have been sought: “In hindsight it was a big assumption to make.”
Guardian Australia reported last week that an internal whistleblower wrote to Campbell on 7 February 2017 raising concerns about the robodebt scheme.
The whisteblower said in the email she was “a loyal employee of many years standing who has only ever raised concerns in-house” and wanted to “respond to you directly as your statement tells me that you are being misled and I want to ensure my words reach you”.
Campbell repeatedly defended the scheme at parliamentary committee hearings. The royal commission has yet to make any findings against anyone. Its final report is due by April.
Guardian Australia attempted to offer Campbell a right of reply via lawyers representing the commonwealth at the robodebt royal commission.
However, the query was referred to the attorney general’s department, which said it would not facilitate requests for comment from royal commission witnesses.
Aukus was a key topic in meetings senior ministers held in the US this week.
The defence minister, Richard Marles, joined the defence secretaries of the US, Lloyd Austin, and the UK, Ben Wallace, for talks at the Pentagon on Thursday.
They said the three countries wanted to “accelerate near-term delivery” of advanced technologies and would step up their work with defence industry and academia next year.
