Each generation of politicians, it seems, must re-learn the same lessons. The Howard government learnt, after its humiliation of then-defence secretary Paul Barratt, that it’s best to look after senior public servants who are guilty of “not getting on” with ministers.
Barratt, one of the more distinguished people to hold the secretaryship of a major portfolio, was lured from the private sector back to public service by John Howard in 1996, only for John Moore, the now rightly forgotten Queensland MP who was defence minister at the time, to decide he didn’t like him, opening up a bitter and very public legal stoush in 1999.
In 2002, Barratt’s successor, Allan Hawke, didn’t have his contract renewed in the wake of the children overboard affair — which Hawke had tried to accept some responsibility for despite the lies emanating from politicians, not public servants — and ongoing procurement issues. This time, the ousted secretary was looked after, with the cushiest of diplomatic postings, Wellington, where the only problems Hawke encountered were from Kiwi farmers who wanted to export their infected apples here. No public stoushes. No bitter former secretary. Just a few fireblighted apples chucked at the High Commission.
Peter Dutton and the rest of the geniuses in the Turnbull government had forgotten all that when they not merely subjected Australian Border Force (ABF) head Roman Quaedvlieg to a 10-month inquiry into allegations around the appointment of his partner to a position within the ABF, but then sacked him with a statement about his misbehaviour and lying. That was after responsibility for dumping him was handballed around the government like a game of pass the parcel.
Since then, Quaedvlieg, showing a grasp of social media unusual for a former public servant, has emerged as not exactly a government critic, but a figure with well-informed views across a range of issues, views not always consistent with the line that he would have been required to maintain, and did maintain, in his former role. He published an account of his visit to Nauru in which he discussed homophobic violence toward refugees and “disarming signs of the drudgery of an incarcerated population”; and called for a judicial inquiry into all asylum seeker deaths.
And then, of course, there are his views on the use of Peter Dutton’s discretionary powers as minister, which breathed new life into the issue last week and drew claims of “fabrication” and suggestions of poor mental health from the minister. The extent to which Dutton’s office has ever sought help for people known to the minister — something he has vociferously denied in parliament — will doubtless form part of question time across the week. Either way, it will disrupt Scott Morrison’s effort to send a clear message — although what that message is, isn’t clear, since the only positive thing the new Prime Minister has committed to is religious freedom laws. Doubtless workers facing stagnant wages across the country will be delighted at the government’s priorities.
But at least the Quaedvlieg angle on the au pair issue could have been avoided with some more adept handling of the then-ABF head — and certainly not subjecting him to nearly a year of humiliation before sacking him.
It’s funny… the public view on Quadvlieg’s year of gardening leave was that the government was trying to do him a favour by giving him almost a year getting paid $500,000 for doing no work while they tried to work out if there was a way to quietly keep him. And now hear we have it described as a “humiliation” and both are probably true.
As usual, though, Dutton shows his “class” by making attacks on Quadvlieg’s mental health, rather than genuinely addressing the accusations. If Gestapotato has the paper work that proves his side of events is true, then he needs to provide it to the media & to parliament.
On Insiders yesterday, Gerald Henderson, while attempting to defend Dutton, told of how his wife was approached by the family of a couple in detention, await deportation. Gerald said he rang Dutton, either directly or his office it wasn’t clear, and the whole was cleared up and the family was allowed to stay. So there are now at least three occasions where Dutton intervened after being contacted, all three cases the person requesting his assistance was known to the Minister, and in the case of Gerald Henderson on the same political side as him. The Senate should demand a listing of all the cases where Dutton intervened and a list of who contacted him for his intervention. I seem to remember some thing about Dutton only intervening on 13/14 occasions, so it’s likely that at least a quarter of these intervention were done at the request of someone know to the Minister, while other cases people representing people in detention have waited for months and heard nothing. Is it simply a case of who you know, or rather who knows you?
A classic ‘with friends like that’ moment. Gerald, of course, utterly confused why this wasn’t helping Dutton’s cause. LOL
I just couldn’t believe he was saying that shit. It was hilariously clueless of GH to include that in his apologia for the PM-not-to-be. With friends like that …
I think the 13/14 interventions were said to be for tourist visas. More permanent visas have higher stakes.
A pity about the title for the article but it probably wasn’t chosen by the writer. Yeah .. well… Permanent Heads replaced with … political cronyism and flavour of the month.
For all its faults the existence of Permanent Heads permitted a body of expertise to be built up over decades as opposed to the now contractual status : “I’d better change something” mentality. We get the policy we deserve.
Then, in retaliation – as usual, “someone” (after sitting on it for a while?) has leaked “embarrassing” information about what else Quaedvlieg was up too before he walked that plank.
And, as usual, someone in the (Curry or Maul) gutter press couldn’t help themselves, jumping right in to use their position to prosecute this government’s case.