Mike Pezzullo’s spectacular fall from grace – Part 3
Mike Pezzullo was arguably the most powerful public servant in Australia. His fall from power and grace was rapid. Rex Patrick About the report condemning him, part 3.
MWM Obtained the ‘Pezzullo report’ after a lengthy FOI battle. In the first and second parts, we touched upon its content and the first of the seven allegations against it; we report two more here.
As well as finding that Pezzullo “fell well below the standards of care and diligence expected of APS employees” and “failed to treat Ministers and Secretaries with respect and courtesy”, the report’s author, Lynelle Briggs, also found that Pezzullo had failed to keep sensitive information confidential.
Privacy violations
It is not in dispute that Mr. Pezzullo communicated with Mr. Briggs on sensitive or confidential government matters, disclosed to Mr. Briggs aspects of his dealings with various Ministers and Ministerial offices, and discussed the formulation or implementation of government policies and/or programs with Mr. Briggs.
Caught tangerine. Details of Mike Pezzullo investigation released
By sending relevant messages to Mr. Briggs, Mr. Pezzullo not only communicated regularly with Mr. Briggs on sensitive government matters, but also violated Department confidentiality on multiple occasions. Lynelle Briggs said:
“Mr. Pezzullo’s behavior was exacerbated by the fact that Mr. Briggs did not have security clearances that would normally provide protection.”
The basis for this allegation is that Mr Pezzullo communicated with Mr Briggs on matters for which he was under a duty of confidentiality and that his messages with Mr Briggs touched on confidential and sensitive matters.
Lynelle Briggs stated that Mr Briggs was not subject to the Australian Civil Service Act and did not have a security clearance.
The report did not go into detail about the sensitive material, but on the balance of probabilities the report concluded that this allegation was substantiated.
The report also makes clear that one of the defenses put forward by Mr. Pezzullo in the investigation was that the information was not confidential. Lynnelle Briggs did not accept that Mr Pezzullo’s confidentiality obligations under the Act were limited to confidential information.
A public official’s duties should extend to any sensitive information to which the person is exposed in the course of his or her duties that is not publicly disclosed.
“This includes information that has been the subject of limited consultation with external stakeholders who are expected to exercise discretion in discussing and disclosing this information.”
He continued to find
“…Any dealings with Ministers or Ministerial offices must be treated with appropriate confidentiality to protect ‘sensitive information’ to which they may be confidential. This duty is expressed in extremely broad terms and, in my view, was breached by Mr Pezzullo’s statements to Mr Briggs.”
not to act apolitical
The fourth of the allegations was that Mr. Pezzullo allegedly acted in a way that sought to influence political events or impose his political views on his businesses.
In particular, he was accused of interfering and inserting his own views into Ministerial appointments, which were the remit of the Prime Minister and elected politicians more generally.
Much of the report’s analysis of this claim has been redacted (and remains subject to challenge). MWM), but it did involve addressing the suggestion that Mr Pezzullo had sought to influence political events and impose his own political views on outcomes during his time in office, and that he had used his contact with Mr Briggs as a tool to advance his views on a variety of issues with the two Prime Ministers.
Here too, the claims were confirmed. Lynelle Briggs found that the messages shared between Mr. Pezzullo and Mr. Briggs contained various statements attributed to Mr. Pezzullo that were not objectively apolitical.
“It is also relevant to note that messages of this tenor obtained throughout the investigation were not temporary or sporadic. Instead, they were shared extensively and consistently with Mr Briggs, a known confidant of Prime Ministers Mr Turnbull and Mr Morrison, as well as a Liberal Party power broker working outside the APS.”
Lynelle Briggs found that Pezzullo had straddled the distinction between ordinary public sector discourse and participation in the political sphere.
“Under these circumstances, I have no doubt that some Ministers in both major political parties will not trust Mr Pezzullo to operate apolitically and will fear that he may undermine their positions by using backdoor political channels.”
“Based on this evidence, I believe that a reasonable person could not conclude that Mr. Pezzullo could have served impartially to any Government of the day under the circumstances in which he was in intense and continuous discussions with Mr. Briggs.”
We will cover the rest of the claims in section 4.
Rex Patrick is a former South Australian Senator and formerly a submariner in the armed forces. Known as an anti-corruption and transparency warrior, Rex is also known as “Transparency Warrior“
