John Roderick McKechnie KC (born 1 November 1950) is the Commissioner of the

Corruption and Crime Commission The Corruption and Crime Commission is an independent anti-corruption agency established on 1 January 2004 to improve the integrity of the Western Australian public sector and investigate allegations of misconduct against public officers. It t ...

of Western Australia. He is a former Justice of the

Supreme Court of Western Australia The Supreme Court of Western Australia is the highest state court in the Australian State of Western Australia. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters (although it usually only hears matters involving sums of A$750,00 ...

, the highest ranking court in the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n State of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, and formerly served as the State's first

Director of Public Prosecutions The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members o ...

. He attended Scotch College from 1963 until 1967, then graduated in law from the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

in 1972. He then took articles with Jackson McDonald & Co, before joining the Crown Law Department. He became a

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...

in 1989, and then in December 1991 was appointed by the

Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government o ...

as the state's first Director of Public Prosecutions. During his eight-year term in this role, the department processed on average 2,500 prosecutions per year. On 2 March 1999, he was sworn in as a justice of the

. He retired from the Supreme Court on 22 April 2015 to take up an appointment as the Commissioner of the

Corruption and Crime Commissioner

On 28 April 2015, McKechnie was first appointed as the Commissioner of the Corruption and Crime Commission for a five-year term. During his tenure, the Corruption and Crime Commission found that a State Parliamentarian had misused an electoral allowance. McKechnie was involved in controversy following the expiration of his term as Commissioner on 25 April 2020, when his reappointment to the position was blocked by a bipartisan Parliamentary joint standing committee. In June 2021, the Western Australian Parliament passed legislation reappointing McKechnie as Commissioner without requiring the agreement of the joint standing committee, to take effect on 28 June 2021.

Corruption and Crime Commissioner

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Further reading

See also