Mike Pezzullo not expected to survive as Home Affairs boss

Mike Pezzullo faces calls to resign amid expectations he will not survive an independent inquiry into hundreds of text messages he sent to Liberal Party powerbroker.

Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo. Picture: AAP

Mike Pezzullo is not expected to survive as Home Affairs Secretary after standing aside while he is investigated for potentially breaching the Australian Public Service Code of Conduct in hundreds of text messages sent to Liberal Party powerbroker Scott Briggs.

Anthony Albanese on Monday revealed that Mr Pezzullo had agreed to step aside after being asked to do so by Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil pending an independent review into his conduct to be undertaken by former Australian Public Service Commissioner, Lynelle Briggs.

“He has agreed to stand aside. That action is appropriate. We will await the findings of the investigation which we will expedite,” the Prime Minister said. “Lynelle Briggs is someone who is a very experienced public servant. It is appropriate that Lynelle Briggs look at this ... I think this requires a full and proper disclosure.”

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Ms O’Neil said on Monday that she “became aware that there is an allegation of extensive communications between the Secretary of my department and Mr Scott Briggs.”

“Immediately upon learning of this, I referred this matter to the Public Service Commissioner for his consideration and advice. This morning, I spoke to the Secretary of my department, I asked him to stand aside while that inquiry occurs. I believe that is appropriate.”

Stephanie Foster will step in to act as the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs in the meantime. Appointed to the newly created role of “Associate Secretary Immigration” in October last year – sitting above all Home Affairs deputy secretaries – Ms Foster is understood to have close working relationships with Ms O’Neil and Mr Albanese.

The veteran public servant’s appointment into Home Affairs was viewed by some as an undermining of Mr Pezzullo’s authority as it effectively stripped him of responsibility for immigration agencies, personnel and policies.

The Australian understands that, as of Monday, Mr Pezzullo had no intention of resigning and would likely remain on the payroll at least for the duration of the Briggs inquiry. But public service leaders believed he would not survive and that it was now a matter of “when” he would depart.

Mr Pezzullo – who is on a remuneration package of up to $928,340 – has one-year left to run on his contract after being reappointed to a five-year term by the Morrison government in September 2019.

The Home Affairs Secretary did not respond to a request for comment.

The inaugural secretary of the super department, Mr Pezzullo previously worked as deputy chief-of-staff to former Labor leader Kim Beazley and was a senior adviser to former Labor foreign minister Gareth Evans.

Nine newspapers and 60 minutes have reported that hundreds of encrypted text messages sent over a period of years on WhatsApp and Signal from Mr Pezzullo to Mr Briggs show the senior public servant had allegedly tried to use him as a vehicle to influence political outcomes.

This included Mr Pezzullo telling Mr Briggs that he would “like to see Dutton come back” to the home affairs portfolio if Mr Morrison was elected leader during the leadership crisis of August 2018 which toppled Malcolm Turnbull.

“You need a right winger in there – people smugglers will be watching,” he is alleged to have told Mr Briggs. “Please feed that in.”

Mr Briggs was the chairman of Mr Morrison’s Cook federal electoral council and a factional backer who helped engineer the numbers to deliver his close friend the leadership by five votes in the second leadership spill in August 2018.

Mr Pezzullo, the former Australian Customs and Border Protection Service chief and 2009 Defence white paper author, forged a close relationship with Mr Morrison during the formation of Operation Sovereign Borders.

His text messages to Mr Briggs also showed that he made negative comments about former foreign minister Julie Bishop and former defence minister Marise Payne. Mr Turnbull, Ms Bishop and Ms Payne did not respond to questions from The Australian by deadline.

Peter Dutton said on Monday that, if Mr Albanese lacked confidence in Mr Pezzullo, then he should say so.

“He was my secretary when I was in Home Affairs. I found him to always be professional,” the Opposition Leader said. “I can tell you from my time as minister Mr Pezzullo served the government faithfully as he did the Labor Party when they were in power. And he was able I think in all of his interactions put the country first.”

The sweeping machinery of government shake-up in June last year was an early indication the Albanese government had Mr Pezzullo in their sights. The Australian Federal Police, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and AUSTRAC were stripped-out of Home Affairs and moved into the Attorney-General’s Department under Mark Dreyfus.

The Australian understands the Albanese government is actively considering a further breaking-up of the Home Affairs Department and potentially rebadging it.

Ms O’Neil in coming weeks will release the government’s migration strategy and cyber security strategy, which will likely guide how the super department should operate into the future.

This could include returning immigration to a stand-alone department and returning the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation to AGD.

The Greens called for Mr Pezzullo to resign, with the party’s immigration spokesman Nick McKim saying the allegations of his “brazen attempts to manipulate the political process and his failure to respect the boundaries between politics and the public service mean that his position is untenable.”

Independent teal MP for the Sydney seat of Mackellar, Sophia Scamps, also said Mr Pezzullo’s position was untenable. “Mr Pezzullo’s actions are clearly not aligned with the Australian Public Service Code of Conduct or its Values,” she said. “It is clearly time for new leadership at the Department of Home Affairs.”