
This is the Department Peter Dutton controlled I meant didn’t wasn’t it? He had is finger on the pulse of Home Affairs and Immigration didn’t he? Or wishing it was on the pulse of two opers a major decision saying Yes rather than Nope for spud. All forensic examinations by experts reported that these departments were dead and should have been buried. The cause MURDERED by the LNP due to lack of care and policy.
What a fabulous trove The Pezzullo Papers are. The hundreds of recently disclosed text messages sent by the Home Affairs Secretary Mr Michael Pezzullo to a person described as a “Liberal Party powerbroker” are morbidly fascinating. Poor Pezzullo – in a few days he attracted as much public commentary, most of it unflattering, as platoons of traditionally reticent departmental Secretaries would cop in their lifetimes and afterwards.
there is more than enough evidence that the regulation of official behaviour by values and principles, including “stewardship” for Secretaries, and a code of conduct, has been insufficient. Thus, the relevant provisions in the Public Service Act should be thoroughly re-thought with a view to making the rules less ambiguous, possibly more prescriptive and better able to support a non-American kind of public service. ( The Steve Bannon Principle a Partisan Public Service)
Mr Pezzullo’s present prominence is a reminder of the credit he’s been given for his hand in the creation of the Home Affairs portfolio. This may be his gravest mistake as the portfolio contradicts just about every sensible principle of organisation design that can be imagined. It’s as if it had been set up to be the tragic failure it has been. And it’s not as if it is too big – there are many bigger agencies. Nor is too powerful – there are many more powerful, such misplaced concerns likely being agitated by Pezzullo’s pushfulness and willingness to attract attention and create enemies. The real problem is that the portfolio is organisationally nonsensical. Therefore, the Government should take the chance to:
