Former Home Affairs Department Secretary Mike Pezzullo—sacked in November after an inquiry found he had exchanged thousands of text messages with Liberal powerbroker and lobbyist Scott Briggs during the previous Morrison government—may lose his Order of Australia (OA) award.
Mr. Pezzullo was awarded the honour in 2020 for distinguished services to public administration through leadership roles in the areas of national security, border control, and immigration.
In more than a thousand messages over five years, he boasted that he intended to make press freedom a “dead duck” and repeatedly lobbied Mr. Briggs—a close friend and confidant of former prime ministers’ Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull and a former deputy state director of the NSW Liberal Party—to convince the prime minister to introduce a media censorship regime.
Additionally, Mr. Brigg’s scorned the Senate estimates committee process—one of Parliament’s primary means of holding senior public servants and their ministers to account.
Mr. Briggs also disparaged Liberal Ministers, including George Brandis, Michael Keenan, Marise Payne, Christopher Pyne, and Julie Bishop, and called for their sacking. The Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet at the time, Martin Parkinson, was “incompetent” and “insecure,” Mr. Pezullo claimed.
No Corruption or Criminality Found
Though there was no corruption or criminality involved, the government is believed to have commenced procedural steps to strip Mr. Pezzullo of his AO.An award can be removed if, in the opinion of the governor-general, a person has behaved or acted in a manner that has brought disrepute to the order.
Since Australia’s honours system was introduced, around 46 people have been stripped of awards, the vast majority for criminal or civil convictions.
Mr. Pezzullo effectively created himself a role as one of the most powerful public servants in the country after he persuaded the Turnbull government to bring together its domestic security and intelligence, public safety, border control, and cyber functions into a single Home Affairs portfolio; Mr. Pezzullo was consequently appointed secretary of the super-department.
But senior Liberal Party figures have lept to the defence of Mr. Pezzullo. For instance, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Sky News Australia that he was an outstanding public servant who worked for both Liberal and Labor governments.
Praise from Liberal Party Figures
Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison also praised Mr. Pezzullo as one of the “most effective, capable, and committed public servants” with whom he had worked.“From stopping the boats to establishing the Australian Border Force and his role advising Cabinet through the National Security Committee, Mike was highly respected for his intellect, insights, and practical ability to just get things done,” he said.
“Above all, Mike was a great Australian patriot who always put the national interest first above all else.
“No one was more deserving of recognition in our honours system as a public servant than Mike,” he said.
“He is a big loss to the Australian Public Service. He was an important internal voice to governments of both political persuasions on protecting Australia’s national security.”
Victorian Liberal MP Georgie Crozier called the removal of the honour “extraordinary political interference by Labor.”
“Yet the likes of Brett Sutton [the state’s former Chief Health Officer] get an AO, whilst Victorians have never got the truth about decisions made during COVID—including curfew. These decisions stripped the rights of Victorians.”
Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson said that “while Mike Pezzullo may not be perfect, he gave decades of professional service to our country and governments of both persuasions. He achieved many things in the national interest. Stripping his AO is incredibly petty. The PM should intervene to stop it.”
An independent tribunal will consider removing the AO, and the final decision rests with Governor-General David Hurley.
Meanwhile, his texting buddy Scott Briggs seems to have also been sidelined. He was a partner in lobbying firm DPG Advisory, but late last year his profile completely disappeared from its website. Before it was removed, his DPG profile described him as a “long-term political operative, lawyer and investment banker ... who has assisted multiple blue-chip domestic and international firms achieve their commercial objectives with government.”
