Trail of blood’: inside Michael Pezzullo’s behind-the-scenes world
Neighbours call his home “Southfork”, and just as J.R. schemed his way through Dallas, the top security mandarin put back channels to good use.
In one of Canberra’s dress circle suburbs, neighbours have dubbed Michael Pezzullo’s home “Southfork”, its imposing facade – even down to the white columns – evoking the Ewing ranch from hit TV series Dallas.
And just as J.R. schemed his way through the show, this week the curtain has been lifted on how Pezzullo, the benched secretary of the Home Affairs Department, was exposed for his behind-the-scenes manipulation of political events.
Michael Pezzullo may not return as the nation’s home affairs chief. Alex Ellinghausen
A cache of hundreds of text messages between Pezzullo and Liberal Party powerbroker Scott Briggs, obtained by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers, has revealed Pezzullo’s back-channel efforts to increase his influence and please his political masters, shape the bureaucracy, disparage fellow public servants and government ministers and muzzle the media.
Southfork may still be standing, but the revelations have seen the abrasive Pezzullo removed as the head of the mega department he created, unlikely to return, and put the future of the home affairs construct under a cloud.
A former colleague from the national security community describes Pezzullo as a patriot with the right instincts on security matters and a rare creative thinker in the bureaucracy but with a fatal personality flaw.
“He has created a persona of enormous drive and focus but that comes at a tremendous price of being destructive of everyone around him,” the ex-colleague said.
“I always felt he flew close to the sun. The miracle is he survived for as long as he did but I always thought he would get caught by his capacity to make enemies.
“He has left a trail of blood in home affairs which I think will see the organisation broken up now.”
Pezzullo, who has maintained his silence this week, agreed to stand aside as secretary on Monday after the government referred the matter to the Australian Public Service Commissioner to investigate whether he breached the Public Service Code of Conduct. Former commissioner Lynelle Briggs is leading the inquiry, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants finalised as a matter of urgency.
There is no suggestion that Pezzullo sought personal financial gain through his interactions with Briggs; rather the issue is whether he overstepped the mark for an apolitical public servant. As one long-time political operative noted, for Pezzullo his focus has been the “accumulation of power”.
One of Canberra’s great survivors
A common refrain of those who have known and worked with Pezzullo when AFR Weekend spoke to them about the imbroglio is that they are not surprised that Pezzullo has come unstuck; rather it is the lack of tradecraft – that the messages hadn’t been set to automatically delete.
Former foreign minister and Pezzullo’s former boss, Gareth Evans. Daniel Munoz
Pezzullo has been one of Canberra’s great survivors. He started out as a graduate for the Defence Department in 1987 and in 1993 crossed the lake to become a staffer for then foreign minister Gareth Evans. An urban legend that Pezzullo was struck in the head and left bleeding by a stapler thrown by a furious Evans remains just that.
After Labor lost office in 1996, Pezzullo became a staffer for opposition leader Kim Beazley.
“He got on well with Kim because they could talk about wars and tanks and the battle of Stalingrad,” a Labor staffer from those days recalls. The staffer describes Pezzullo as “ambitious, highly intelligent and ruthless”, who was a neat freak and “a bit OCD in regards to a tidy desk”.
But in a recurring theme for his career, Pezzullo would clash heads with colleagues, shadow ministers and their staff. “There was no contest of ideas because he was always right. That was apparent from early on,” the staffer says.
While in Beazley’s office, Pezzullo sketched out plans to establish a home affairs department, most notably the creation of a coast guard to intercept asylum-seeker boats. The policy predated the Tampa crisis but failed to shift the perception that Labor was soft on boats and security.
After Beazley’s loss in 2001, Pezzullo went back to the Defence Department, where he authored the 2009 white paper and its key recommendation of doubling the submarine fleet to 12.
However, a power play with the then Defence secretary, Nick Warner, ended with both of them out of the department. Warner was shifted to become head of ASIS, while Pezzullo was shifted to customs as chief operating officer.
Pezzullo later became head of customs, and in a sign of his ability to adapt and survive to a change in government, played a key role in helping a rookie immigration minister named Scott Morrison “stop the boats” through Operation Sovereign Borders. He was rewarded with elevation to immigration department secretary in 2014.
Then-immigration minister Scott Morrison in January 2014. Andrew Meares
Amid the threat of Islamic-inspired terrorism and Chinese interference in domestic politics, the home affairs concept was revived. Despite opposition from moderates such as Julie Bishop and George Brandis, the new department consolidated ASIO, the Federal Police, Border Force and other law enforcement agencies under the home affairs banner in late 2017 and put Peter Dutton in charge as the responsible minister.
Pezzullo’s texts with Briggs – a confidant of both Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull – demonstrate Pezzullo’s eagerness to become the head of the new department, as well as need for conservative ministers to stay in charge.
On the way out
But the reality is Pezzullo has been on the way out for some time, and his influence has been waning. His tenure as secretary was due to end next year, and it was unlikely it would be renewed.
A shift to the job he cherished most in government, Defence Department secretary, had been snuffed out when the incumbent, Greg Moriarty, was given another five-year contract last year.
Sources said Pezzullo had tried to ingratiate himself with both Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese to protect his job. While Albanese retained Pezzullo after the 2022 election, the department was nevertheless stripped back with the Federal Police, AUSTRAC and Criminal Intelligence Commission returned to the Attorney-General’s Department.
The current Home Affairs Minister, Clare O’Neil, is said to have gone cold on Pezzullo. It is noteworthy she has spent much of her time being critical of the department’s performance, whether it be immigration or cybersecurity. She commissioned former mandarin Dennis Richardson to review home affairs’ handling of offshore processing amid claims of bribery over contracts.
While Pezzullo has a high level of security clearance, it doesn’t automatically follow that he received access to all of the nation’s secrets.
The perception he was an omnipotent security tsar was a “gross exaggeration”, according to one intelligence insider. “He was not in charge as much as you think. But I think as you see from the text messages he wanted to be playing in a broader space.”
Former home affairs minister Karen Andrews is critical of Pezzullo. Alex Ellinghausen
A former senior public servant adds Pezzullo’s wings began to be clipped under the Liberals’ last home affairs minister, Karen Andrews.
“Pezzullo has not been a powerful public servant since Andrews. She wasn’t impressed with him,” the former public servant said, adding that Pezzullo’s texts “show a mindset completely unsuited to a leadership position”.
A senior government source said they expected there would be a conversation about the department’s structure in the wake of the text scandal. Coincidentally, a week earlier, the government announced a fresh review into the intelligence community.
“There is still debate about whether it is ticking all the boxes ... whether security is swamping the immigration side,” they said.
Says the intelligence insider: “Pez would have a restructure regularly and that would leave people in the rest of the government scratching their heads. He tends to promote people who are loyalists.
“He does have a reputation of getting things done, namely Operation Sovereign Borders. But there have also been a lot of failures on his watch.
“He is not greatly loved. Sometimes respected but not greatly loved.”
