The mandarin who got caught. Mike Pezzullo inquiry details revealed

The undercover investigation into Mike Pezzullo’s behavior is no longer a secret. After an 18-month FOI battle, Rex Patrick It may reveal how serious his misconduct was and that his dismissal was inevitable.

This is the first in a series of articles.

The report’s author, former Australian Public Service (APS) Commissioner Lynelle Briggs, was not harsh in her report to the Government on 22 November 2023.

“In the circumstances, I conclude that he has not acted impartially and that it will be very difficult for any Government to retain confidence in Mr Pezzullo and be seen as apolitical in their future dealings with him.”

In his closing remarks of the report he concluded:

“In this particular case, while Mr. Pezzullo had breached many elements of the Code and the APS Values,

“I can’t think of any reason why he should avoid the consequences or continue in his current position.”

He was gone five days later.

Mike Pezzullo. Death of Canberra’s ‘most powerful, divisive but still indestructible bureaucrat’

A Walkley award-winning story

Two months ago journalists Nick McKenzie, Michael Bachelard and Amelia Ballanger broke the story that Home Affairs Minister Mike Pezzullo, one of Australia’s most powerful public servants, had embarked on a five-year WhatsApp ‘affair’ with Liberal Power Broker Scott Briggs (no relation to Lynelle) in a bid to support conservatives, oust enemies and revamp the national security regime.

The story won the 2024 Walkley All Media: Scoop of the Year award.

Scott Briggs

Among other roles, Mr Briggs was Finance Director of the NSW Liberal Party (2016-18), Chief Operating Officer of the NSW Liberal Party (2005-07), Adviser to Turnbull & Partners (2003-05) and confidant to Prime Ministers Mr Turnbull and Mr Morrison.

His business career has covered areas of government interest in one way or another, including government consulting, foreign investment, visa processing, security and risk assessments and response, the execution of large-scale government transactions and public-private partnerships, including a company called DPG Advisory, which received a sole source contract from Home Affairs in 2021.

Regarding the sensitivity of the information Mr Pezzullo shared with Mr Briggs, Mr Briggs had never been an employee or contractor of APS, had never been employed or seconded to any Ministerial or Parliamentary office and did not hold an appropriate security clearance.

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WhatsApp chats

It is well understood that in the Westminster System there is a clear distinction between the activities of government and politicians more generally and the activities of the civil service. Public officials cannot act in a way that seeks to influence political events or impose their political views on their work or business, and they must manage their conduct to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest or political expediency.

It is far beyond the political dividing line for a public servant at any level to add his or her views and interfere with Ministerial appointments, which are the purview of the Prime Minister and other elected representatives.

Pezzullo broke the boundaries very seriously. Between March 2017 and April 2023, 1,400 text messages were exchanged between Mr Pezzullo and Mr Briggs, 755 of which were from Mr Pezzullo. Messages were sent at all hours of the day, including normal business hours.

Lynelle Brigs wrote:

“The messages exchanged between Mr Pezzullo and Mr Briggs were reportedly regular and frequent and spanned an extended period of time. [redacted]. The messages reported cover a wide range of topics related to Ministers, Secretaries, the structure of the Home Office, government policy and the presentation of Mr Pezzullo’s work. Mr Pezzullo acknowledged that the commitments “are about the implementation of the government’s policies and priorities”. “I am therefore satisfied that there is a reasonable connection between Mr Pezzullo’s employment and bringing them within the scope of the Inquiry.”

The fight for transparency

On November 27, the APS Commissioner issued a statement. media statement It’s about the Pezzullo investigation. It cited five allegations made against Mr Pezzullo (There were in fact many more, some of them unfounded, as we shall see), advised that the report recommended his termination as Secretary, and advised that “Further information regarding the content of the investigation will not be made available by the Australian Public Service Commission.”

They did not trust this media outlet to follow up on the report.

Department secretaries have considerable power, influence and responsibilities. A department secretary like Caesar’s wife should be beyond reproach.

For the public (and indeed the authorities) to restore their trust and confidence in a departmental secretary, they need to ensure that mechanisms are in place to appropriately deal with any prima facie allegations against that secretary.

Trust can only come from transparency; The public (and the authorities) must see the nature of the allegations, the way they were investigated and dealt with (including finding unfounded allegations), and see that an official can fearlessly assist in an investigation and be proud (and congratulated) for doing so.

The Administrative Review Tribunal battle by the city’s top law firm, Clayton Utz, is far from over, but much of the report was released under pressure from the proceedings. MWM He will argue in court that the rest of the report is of great public interest.

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Prime Minister’s executive summary

Later in this description, MWW It will present details of the seven allegations made against Mr Pezzullo, analysis of the evidence, findings of fact and final determination of the allegation.

We are now publishing for the first time the somewhat shocking full summary of the findings that Lynelle Brigg wrote to Prime Minister Albanese on 22 November 2023:

“Although Mr Pezzullo denied most of the allegations, I found that he breached various provisions of the Code (as set out in Article 13 of the PS Act) in various respects, as set out below:

• • … that he failed to act carefully and diligently in connection with his employment with APS unless he sought to gain an advantage for himself in his relationship with Mr. Briggs and did not declare a conflict of interest in his DPG Consulting direct contract;
  • … that he has failed to treat everyone with respect and courtesy to the extent that he has disparaged and otherwise passed judgment on Ministers, Secretaries and Ministries, and has otherwise failed to demonstrate the level of professionalism, courtesy and integrity expected of senior public servants;
  • He failed to maintain appropriate confidentiality in his dealings with any Minister or Minister’s staff, insofar as he regularly communicated with Mr. Briggs, who was not a government official and did not have a security clearance, on sensitive government matters and breached Ministerial confidentiality on several occasions;
  • failed to disclose that interest to the extent that he did not take reasonable steps to avoid any conflict of interest or to avoid disclosing details of his personal relationship with Mr Briggs and to disclose details of that relationship and enter into a contract with Mr Briggs’ company, DPG Advisory, in 2021;
  • He improperly used inside information or his duties, status, power or authority and sought to harm certain Ministers, officials and their ministries in order to obtain a benefit or advantage in terms of ministerial appointments or the mechanism of changes of government;
    He failed to act in a way that at all times protected the APS Values ​​and the integrity and good reputation of the Agency and the APS, as evidenced by his failure to comply with all APS Values ​​at various times during his relationship with Mr Briggs; And
  • failed to comply with other conduct requirements set forth in the regulations, namely, the disclosure of confidential information that would undermine the effective functioning of government.”

Lynelle Briggs concluded that Mr Pezzullo had also failed in his duty to protect and promote the APS Values ​​in his role as Head of Agency under section 12 of the PS Act.

“While I accept Mr. Pezzullo’s perspective that his discussions with Mr. Briggs were focused on public policy goals as distinct from seeking personal gain, financial or otherwise, I found the opposite.”

More to follow…

Rex Patrick is a former Senator for South Australia and formerly a submariner in the armed forces. Known as an advocate of anti-corruption and transparency, Rex is also known as “Transparency Warrior“