Personally, I always wondered why Peter Dutton our one-time Home Affairs/Immigration Minister always bowed to Pezullo when being asked questions about his Ministry. It seemed that Pezzulo was in fact the Minister.
The Home Affairs boss has stood aside while investigators look into whether he flouted the public service code of conduct or shared inside information improperly.
In the latest revelations, a series of text messages show that Pezzullo sought to convince political leaders to introduce a system of “D-Notices” to allow government agencies to pressure media organisations not to publish stories deemed damaging to national security.
Pezzullo pursued the issue after his anger was stoked by a report by then-News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst – who is now state politics editor for The Age – about his secret proposal to allow the nation’s external intelligence agency to spy on Australians.
In other messages, Pezzullo wrote that the government could “criminalise” journalists in certain circumstances for reporting on what they were told by government whistleblowers.
Source: Mike Pezzullo stands aside as Home Affairs secretary
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