CPSU and George Brandis say Michael Pezzullo’s position is ‘untenable’

The public sector union and the former attorney general George Brandis say Michael Pezzullo’s conduct has left his position untenable.

Meanwhile, the media union has demanded action on “disturbing” reports that the former home affairs boss sought to censor journalists and criminalise some forms of national security reporting.

Pezzullo’s decision to stand aside on Monday, pending an urgent investigation, did little to quell the uproar about the leaked WhatsApp messages, which appeared to show the top public servant making political interventions, disparaging a fellow departmental secretary, and advocating for a right winger to be installed in his portfolio.

The messages between Pezzullo and Liberal powerbroker and Scott Morrison ally Scott Briggs, first revealed by the Nine newspapers and 60 minutes, prompted an immediate referral to the Australian Public Sector Commission and widespread calls for Pezzullo to be sacked.

Further messages published on Monday showed he also lobbied to censor journalists and advocated for the introduction of “D-Notices”, a system used abroad to attempt to control the reporting of sensitive national security matters.

He also suggested journalists’ reporting of whistleblower leaks could be criminalised as a form of secondary disclosure and criticised journalists including senior reporter Annika Smethurst, whose home was raided by the Australian federal police in 2019.

Pezzullo also congratulated Malcolm Turnbull for putting journalist Waleed Aly “in his place” and described well-respected ABC journalist Barrie Cassidy as “a sneering, cynical hack”, according to the Nine newspapers.

The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance on Monday criticised the “disturbing” attempt to censor and criminalise journalism, saying it was “symptomatic of a political and bureaucratic culture towards the public’s right to know that has pervaded Canberra for the past two decades”. MEAA president, Karen Percy, said she was “particularly alarmed at reports that Pezzullo advocated to reintroduce a form of D-notice regime”.

“This is a dangerous and unnecessary attack on press freedom,” she said.

“D-notices have been used during wartime on rare occasions for the protection of national security. But Australia is not at war and there is no justification for their use now.

“This is just one example of a very disturbing problem that goes beyond one man. The issues are deep and wide. Successive governments have done little to improve press freedom and as a consequence we have seen Australia’s slip in world rankings.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said on Monday the former Australian public service commissioner, Lynelle Briggs, who is not related to Scott Briggs, would conduct an independent review. The APSC can investigate potential breaches of the public service code of conduct. That code of conduct requires public servants to act independently and apolitically.

The main public sector union, meanwhile, said Pezzullo’s position was now untenable.

Community and Public Sector Union national secretary, Melissa Donnelly, said public servants in the department were facing disciplinary action for simply sharing political content on social media.

“Mike Pezzullo’s position as secretary of the department of home affairs is clearly untenable,” she said.

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Brandis, who Pezzullo attacked in the text exchanges, also warned the departmental secretary’s position is “plainly untenable, since no minister, Labor or Liberal, will ever be able to trust him again”.

Writing for the Nine papers, Brandis said Pezzullo appeared unable to understand the distinction and boundary between the executive government and parliament.

“How could someone who does understand the way the Westminster system works possibly say, as Pezzullo said in another encrypted message: ‘Estimates is actually a concern for our democracy’?” Brandis wrote. “It could only be a concern for someone who refuses to accept Parliamentary scrutiny – of which the Estimates committee system is by far the most effective vehicle.”

AJ Brown, an integrity expert at Griffith University and Transparency International Australia board member, said the messages represented a breach of trust on multiple levels.

He said Pezzullo had appeared to breach the public’s faith that public servants remain apolitical and independent, the trust of his minister, and the trust of his departmental secretary colleagues, who he tried to undermine.

“It all comes back to trust,” he told Guardian Australia. “The public needs to be able to trust that a government agency is being run by people who are above and beyond party politics in their professionalism, even though they have to respond to and try to serve the government party of the day.”

“If they become party animals, then effectively they cannot maintain that level of public trust.”

Pezzullo was approached for comment but declined to comment due to the ongoing inquiry.

Pezzullo also reportedly says in the messages that he is apolitical and a “neutral servant of the government of the day”.