Mike Pezzullo declares he doesn’t need AO honour

Responding to the announcement that he had been officially stripped of his Order of Australia, former Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo said the matter paled in comparison to the serious issues currently facing the world.

Former chief of the Department of Home Affairs Mike Pezzullo says he is focused on more important issues than being stripped of his Order of Australia. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire

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Former Department of Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo says serving in the public service for more than three decades has been “honour enough” for him, in light of revelations the Governor-­General has officially stripped him of his Order of Australia.

The decision, made public on Friday afternoon, followed Mr Pezzullo being sacked as Home Affairs secretary last November following hundreds of text messages between the powerful public servant and Liberal Party powerbroker Scott Briggs. 

Responding to the announcement that he had been officially stripped of his Order of Australia, Mr Pezzullo said the matter paled in comparison to serious issues currently facing the world.

“Those who recommend and make these decisions believe presumably that it is a just and fair one,” he said in a statement.

“With wars under way around the world, and more likely to break out, possibly in the Pacific, with rising intolerance and anger in public debate, with many people struggling to make ends meet, and many other problems besides, being stripped of my official honour does not amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.”

Mr Pezzullo urged people to focus on “far more pressing and serious matters” than his loss of the Order of Australia.

“In any event, I was blessed over 37 years to be able to work with, and eventually lead, so many patriotic, talented, and largely unknown Australians who work day and night to keep us safe,” he said. “That was honour enough for me.”

Mr Pezzullo landed his first job in the public service in 1987 in the defence department, where he rose to become deputy secretary.

He was then chosen for a number of leadership positions in immigration and border protection, before being given carriage of the newly created mega-department of Home Affairs in 2017.

Mr Pezzullo was awarded the Order of Australia in 2020 for “distinguished service to public administration through leadership roles in the areas of national security, border control and ­immigration”.

However, the leaking of text message between Mr Pezzullo and Mr Briggs last year prompted an investigation by the Australian Public Service Commission, which ultimately found he had breached the public service code of conduct on multiple occasions.

Those breaches included a failure to “maintain confidentiality of sensitive government information” and using his “duty, power, status or authority to seek to gain a benefit or advantage for himself”.

According to reports in the Nine papers, Mr Pezzullo told Mr Briggs in 2018 the Coalition needed a “right winger” to fill the job of home affairs minister because “people smugglers will be watching”.

Following the release of the Australian Public Service Commission findings, the former ­governor-general terminated Mr Pezzullo as Home Affairs secretary. Anthony Albanese said at the time that the move was based on “a recommendation to me by the secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Australian Public Service Commission”.

Mr Pezzullo later conceded that the texts with Mr Briggs “crossed the line” and that he had “paid the price” for them.

Former South Australian senator and frequent critic of Mr ­Pezzullo, Rex Patrick, said the stripping of Mr Pezzullo’s AO “should have happened 10 months ago”.

“Better late than never,” he said in a statement on X.

Former PMC deputy secretary Stephanie Foster was appointed as Mr Pezzullo’s replacement as Home Affairs departmental secretary in November.