Home Affairs Secretary Michael Pezzullo should be the next to go. Photo: Screenshot.
The former head of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Phil Gaetjens, went quickly, but he shouldn’t be the last secretary to go after almost a decade of Coalition government bent the public service to its will beyond the normal realms of administration.
The highlights reel includes the sports and car park rorts, Robodebt, political propaganda parading as government advertising, the subversion of national security protocols and the strategic media leaks on issues from foreign influence to asylum seeker boats.
In all these things, the various Coalition governments were aided and abetted by senior public servants.
The rorting of grants to sandbag electorates and help the winning of others was so much on the nose that the Auditor-General Grant Hehir was moved to remind public servants of their responsibilities to act ethically.
Labor has already announced that those grants schemes will be scrapped, but the fallout within the APS remains.
How did the egregious spending of taxpayer dollars on advertising for the Australian Government’s Economic Plan, a main plank of which was the contested notion of keeping taxes low, ever occur?
The Robodebt scandal, in which an automated system generated debts for welfare recipients, persisted because legal advice insisted it did not break the law, a position eventually discredited in the courts.
That cost a lot of vulnerable people their health and well-being, and the taxpayer millions of dollars as the government doggedly defended its actions through the courts, eventually agreeing to a $112 million settlement to about 400,000 individuals, as well as legal costs.
Labor is promising a Royal Commission to get to the bottom of the illegal program. That should provide an interesting insight into the inner workings of government and the public service.
If there is one mandarin who should be given his marching orders, it would have to be Home Affairs boss Michael Pezzullo, who has presided over the militarisation of border protection in line with the Coalition government’s strident policy of keeping asylum seekers from our shores.
Mr Pezullo was often seen frustrating Senate committee members and his dark Anzac Day message on national security posted on the department website raised plenty of eyebrows.
The department’s election day media release about a Sri Lankan boat being intercepted near Christmas Island should be the final nail in his coffin.
Labor will need to redefine the government relationship with Defence, the security agencies and Home Affairs after the Coalition’s willingness to co-opt them in its political strategising.
It will have to assert its authority and redraw their lines of engagement.
Labor has already put the APS on notice that it has higher expectations but cleaning up the rorts, short cuts, waste and politicisation will be a challenge.
But that is one lesson that should be taken out of the election result. Many voters have just had enough and are demanding that our politicians and public servants act ethically, legally and responsibly.
That’s why an anti-corruption body with teeth will be legislated, and far from being the kangaroo court the former PM foamed about, it should be a strong incentive for better public administration and for Labor not to fall into the dubious practices of the previous government.
Labor should also limit the number of reviews it embarks on, recalling how they paralysed the Rudd Government.
If it doesn’t know by now what needs to be done then the new government is already in strife.
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