Former home affairs boss Mike Pezzullo says being officially stripped of his Order of Australia honour is of little consequence at a time when wars are being fought and people are struggling to make ends meet.
Mr Pezzullo’s appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia was officially terminated by the governor-general in late September, with the decision published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette this week.
The notice did not give reasons for the termination.
The former secretary — who was one of Australia’s most powerful public servants — was sacked in November last year after hundreds of private text messages between him and Liberal Party powerbroker Scott Briggs were leaked.
The matter was referred to the Australian Public Service Commission, which found Mr Pezzullo breached the public service code of conduct on at least 14 occasions relating to five allegations.
Those included that he used his “duty, power, status or authority to seek to gain a benefit or advantage for himself” and “failed to maintain confidentiality of sensitive government information”.
Mr Pezzullo declined to comment on the decision to strip his medal when asked during an on-camera interview and instead provided the ABC with a written statement that said losing his honour paled in comparison to what was happening elsewhere in the world.
“With wars underway around the world, and more likely to break out, possibly in the Pacific, with rising intolerance and anger in public debate, with many people struggling to make ends meet, and many other problems besides, being stripped of my official honour does not amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world,” he said.
“Those who recommend and make these decisions believe presumably that it is a just and fair one.
“As a nation, we need to focus urgently on far more pressing and serious matters.”
Mr Pezzullo was awarded the Officer of the Order of Australia in 2020, for “distinguished service to public administration through leadership roles in the areas of national security, border control and immigration”.
He began his career with the public service in 1987 as a graduate in the defence department, rising through the ranks to eventually become the deputy secretary of the department.
He later worked in senior roles at the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service and Immigration and Border Protection Department, before taking charge of the newly created Department of Home Affairs in 2017.
In the statement, Mr Pezzullo said he was “blessed over 37 years to be able to work with, and eventually lead, so many patriotic, talented, and largely unknown Australians who work day and night to keep us safe”.
“That was honour enough for me.”
Pezzullo says Israel needs to communicate end goal of war
In the sit-down interview with ABC’s Afternoon Briefing on Friday, Mr Pezzullo offered his views on the conflict in the Middle East, after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, and the AUKUS submarine deal.
He said it was too early to tell whether the death of the Hamas leader would be an inflection point in the year-long war in Gaza.
“There is simply no point in rushing to peace if all that just simply happens is the next cadre comes through, who are as well trained and have thought about how they want to continue the campaign,” he said.
He added that it was now the responsibility of the Israeli government to think through and communicate what they see as the end goal of the war.
“At what point are the conditions achieved such as would give [Israeli prime minister] Mr Netanyahu and his fellow cabinet ministers … confidence that they could take a pause or some kind of break,” Mr Pezzullo said.
“War can’t be prosecuted on the basis of slogans, you’ve got to have thought through your war aims and at some point express those.”
It was also unclear the extent to which Hamas had been degraded, he said, even after the deaths of senior leaders.
“Close combat requires very close intelligence and we just really don’t know the extent to which that degradation mission … Is it 50 per cent complete? Is it 70 per cent complete? Is it 90 per cent complete?” he said.
Asked about AUKUS, after a new congressional report argued Australia could abandon its plan to buy nuclear-powered submarines, Mr Pezzullo said there was a very real prospect that the US could change or pause the program if it found itself with a shortage of submarines.
“We shouldn’t get emotional about this if the hard strategic reality is the United States’ own national security would impaired or imperilled by not having 60 to 70 boats to put at sea,” he said.
“There is a very real prospect that at some point there may be a significant modification to the program.”
