Exclusive: Kingmaking senator urges PM to turn page on damaging Gleeson and Triggs spats by letting parliament vet and approve appointees

The Senate kingmaker Nick Xenophon has urged the prime minister to turn the page on his government’s fractious record with statutory office holders by making new appointments – such as the solicitor general and the president of the Human Rights Commission – subject to parliamentary approval.

In a letter to the prime minister sent in the wake of the damaging spat between Australia’s first and second law officers that culminated in the resignation of Justin Gleeson, Xenophon says key office holders should in future be ticked or rejected by a joint parliamentary committee on appointments.

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Xenophon, in a letter seen by Guardian Australia, nominates the public service commissioner, the tax commissioner, the solicitor general, the auditor general, the commonwealth ombudsman, the chief statistician, and officers of the Human Rights Commission as appointments that should go through his proposed committee process.

He also wants the heads of Australia’s security and intelligence agencies and the federal police commissioner to be vetted by parliament.

Xenophon makes it clear to the prime minister that he wants the issue given serious consideration by pointing out that he is now being lobbied by a number of different government ministers on a range of proposals, where the votes of the Nick Xenophon Team are being sought.

“I would urge you to give favourable consideration to the merits of this proposal,” the South Australian senator says. “As you are aware ministers in your government are in frequent contact with me and my colleagues seeking our support for a wide range of proposed government legislation.

“I would be very happy to discuss this proposal with you or any of your ministers. I would be grateful for your early response.”

Xenophon’s throwing down the gauntlet comes as former senior bureaucrats have warned that a series of conflicts between ministers in the Abbott and Turnbull governments and senior public servants and statutory office holders will have a chilling effect on the public service.

When Tony Abbott secured government in 2013, several departmental heads were sacked, including the then Treasury boss, Martin Parkinson, who was later rehired by Malcolm Turnbull as the head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

A conflict between the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, and Paul Grimes, a longstanding and respected public servant, culminated in Grimes being sacked. That dispute related to a change in the parliamentary Hansard record.

This week the extraordinary dispute between the attorney general, George Brandis, and the solicitor general over Gleeson’s statutory independence culminated in the solicitor general quitting his post.

Various government players have also been in conflict with the president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs.

Xenophon tells Turnbull in his letter there is no doubt the independence of senior officials would be enhanced by a process of parliamentary consultation and approval of major office holders, rather than the current practice of the executive making the appointments.

He says under his proposal the committee, made up of MPs from both the House of Representatives and the Senate, would be required to either approve or reject the proposed appointment within 14 days.

The vetting process would involve public hearings, unless there was a valid reason the appointment needed to be kept confidential, in which case hearings could proceed in camera.

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The decision to approve or reject would be decided by a simple majority, and in the event a decision went beyond the required timeframe the appointment could be taken as approved. The committee would also report to parliament.

Xenophon says he is happy to bring forward a private member’s bill giving effect to his “long-overdue” proposal, or wait to support legislation giving effect to the idea brought forward by the government.

He also told the prime minister he had copied a letter to the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, for his consideration.