Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo sacked

Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo has been fired from his role over covert dealings with lobbyists and secret efforts to gain and exert political influence during the terms of the Turnbull and Morrison governments, the first time a department head has been dismissed for misconduct.

Australian Public Service Commissioner, Dr Gordon de Brouwer, announced on Monday morning that an independent inquiry led by Lynelle Briggs had determined Pezzullo had breached the Australian Public Service code of conduct at least 14 times.

Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo was stood down in September.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Pezzullo was one of the most powerful departmental secretaries in Canberra and served successive Labor and Coalition governments in senior roles for decades, including as former Labor leader Kim Beazley’s deputy chief of staff and as deputy secretary in the Defence Department during the Howard years.

He became secretary of the Immigration Department during the Abbott government and in December 2017, boss of the super-sized Department of Home Affairs where he reported to Peter Dutton.

Pezzullo will not receive a payout from his more than $900,000 a year job, after the Remuneration Tribunal changed the financial payout rules last Friday.

The Briggs report will not be made public because personal information obtained during an investigation of potential breaches of code of conduct is restricted under the Public Service Act.

In a statement released on Monday morning, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the governor-general had terminated Pezzullo’s appointment based on the recommendation of the secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Glyn Davis, and the Australian Public Service Commissioner Gordon de Brouwer.

“Mr Pezzullo fully co-operated with the inquiry. I thank Ms Briggs [former commissioner Lynelle] for conducting the inquiry,” the prime minister’s statement said.

“Stephanie Foster will continue to act as secretary of the department until a permanent appointment is made.”

The investigation found the former secretary breached the public service code of conduct on at least 14 occasions, including in relation to five main allegations:

• that Pezzullo used his duty, power, status or authority to seek to gain a benefit or advantage for himself;
• engaged in gossip and disrespectful critique of ministers and public servants;
• failed to maintain confidentiality of sensitive government information;
• failed to act apolitically in his employment; and
• failed to disclose a conflict of interest.

The commission noted that “given the public nature of the allegations and the importance of upholding confidence in the Australian public service, it is in the public interest that the overarching breach findings and the recommended sanction are made available in this case”.

Pezzullo stood aside in September when Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil commissioned the investigation into whether Pezzullo had breached the public service code of conduct over his dealings with Liberal Party powerbroker Scott Briggs.

Former public service commissioner Lynelle Briggs was commissioned to probe Pezzullo’s dealings with Briggs after The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes revealed a cache of messages between the pair.

Lynelle Briggs and Scott Briggs are not related.

A key issue for investigators was whether Pezzullo had flouted the public service code of conduct and its requirement that he “maintain appropriate confidentiality” and “avoid any conflict of interest” in his work, as well as not sharing any inside information improperly.

The messages revealed how the secretary had utilised Briggs, an influential Coalition lobbyist, as a political back channel to Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison in an attempt to undermine political and public service enemies, promote the careers of conservative politicians he considered allies and lobby to muzzle the press.

Leaked messages and other confidential documents also revealed Pezzullo’s dealings with Labor-aligned lobbyist Chris Fry.

Pezzullo helped arrange for one of Fry’s clients, British American Tobacco, to access a senior departmental official.

But it was Pezzullo’s dealings with Scott Briggs that plunged the public servant into the centre of a major scandal.

Scott Briggs is a lobbyist, businessman, former vice president of the NSW Liberals, and was a close confidant of former prime minister Turnbull and his successor Morrison.

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