Threats and opportunities: Home Affairs enters its post-Pezzullo era

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The fact Michael Pezzullo would be removed from his post as head of the Department of Home Affairs was one of Canberra’s worst-kept secrets, but his departure leaves a major void at the mega-agency he helped establish.

Pezzullo’s six-year tenure as department secretary was clearly doomed when The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age published damning text messages that showed him pushing for a Liberal Party right-wing minister to be appointed to his portfolio, as well as denigrating senior public service colleagues and journalists.

Michael Pezzullo has been removed as head of the Department of Home Affairs.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Now the sprawling and troubled department that was created in Pezzullo’s image is entering a new era and may need to be overhauled to focus on new priorities.

Cultural change – which is much-needed, according to department insiders – will inevitably follow his sacking. Pezzullo had his admirers but many fellow public servants, and some politicians, will be happy to see him gone.

Pezzullo was an empire builder who lobbied relentlessly for the department to be created in 2017, a move that resulted in a loss of power and prestige for the Attorney-General’s Department.

To say that Pezzullo knew where the bodies were buried in Home Affairs would be a massive understatement. More like he dug the burial plots, carved the tombstones and managed the cemetery’s day-to-day operations.

Far more outspoken than most public servants, Pezzullo drew criticism from leading Labor figures including Penny Wong and Mark McGowan in 2021 when he said the “drums of war” were beating in the Asia-Pacific.

Labor could have removed Pezzullo immediately when it came to office last year, but instead left him in place. Although he became closely identified with Peter Dutton’s hawkish political style, Pezzullo previously served as deputy chief-of-staff to Labor leader Kim Beazley.

More importantly, the government viewed him as the head-kicker you want working for you rather than against you. His corporate memory was especially important given Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil did not serve in the portfolio in opposition and was having to learn on the job.

While the government did not dismantle the department, it pared back Pezzullo’s dominion by stripping responsibility for the Australian Federal Police (AFP) from Home Affairs and handing it back to the Attorney-General.

And O’Neil made clear early on that she believed the department’s focus on punitive policies such as stopping asylum seeker boats had come at the expense of repairing what she called the nation’s “broken” immigration system.

“All the rules that we use to decide who comes in and who doesn’t aren’t working,” O’Neil told this masthead last year, describing migration policy as “the forgotten child” of Home Affairs.

Dutton was the target of her criticism, but her comments raised questions about Pezzullo as well, given he had run the department since its inception.

The energetic O’Neil has handed Home Affairs a complex and ambitious reform agenda by asking the department to respond to major reviews into the migration system and visa exploitation.

At the same time, Home Affairs is implementing a landmark cybersecurity strategy without the leadership of national cybersecurity co-ordinator Darren Goldie, who had been recalled to the Defence Department to deal with an unidentified “workplace matter”.

O’Neil is also considering a report by ex-spy chief Dennis Richardson that has offered a scathing assessment of how Home Affairs managed contracts relating to the offshore asylum seeker processing system.

Adding to the already intense workload: the High Court’s surprise decision to force the government to release over 130 foreign citizens, some with serious criminal records, from immigration detention into the community.

The department is clearly groaning under the weight of its responsibilities, as seen by the government’s decision this week to pour money into Home Affairs to hire extra staff to track foreign detainees released from immigration detention following the High Court’s decision.

Responding to this array of issues would be difficult at the best of times, let alone with a leadership vacuum.

Veteran public servant Stephanie Foster had been widely expected to replace Pezzullo, but the government has so far only said she will continue running the department “until a permanent appointment is made”.

Pezzullo’s demise has opened up the possibility of welcome renewal at Home Affairs, but what this new era looks like remains cloaked in uncertainty.

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