December 16, 2023
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil says she is on a mission to end the hierarchical “command-and-control” culture that has dominated the sprawling department she leads following the departure of controversial former secretary Michael Pezzullo.
In an end-of-year interview, O’Neil also spoke about her testy relationship with Peter Dutton, claiming that the opposition leader seems “visibly bothered” by her in private national security meetings.
O’Neil has had a hectic and at times tumultuous year, including the release of a major cybersecurity strategy, announcing the halving of net migration over the next two years and new laws to crack down on human trafficking and visa rorting.
While pursuing a packed policy agenda, she has been forced to respond to unexpected events such as the High Court’s decision to scrap the indefinite detention of foreign nationals and the sacking of Pezzullo after damning revelations by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age about his texts with a Liberal Party powerbroker.
Asked about how to reform the department she oversees, O’Neil said: “The reality is that Home Affairs was a very hierarchical, command-and-control organisation in the way that it was run, and the sort of problems that I believe this department needs to solve won’t be solved with that mindset.
“We actually need creativity, openness and a willingness to challenge ideas that come from above and below.
“The problems the department needs to solve are so complicated and difficult that they’re not going to come from a couple of senior leaders sitting in a room and talking to each other.”
O’Neil said she had identified “a lot of problems” at the department in policy development and structure, including what she described as an alarming lack of focus on immigration compliance and cybersecurity.
The department has responsibilities for national security, emergency management and immigration while overseeing domestic spy agency ASIO and the Australian Border Force.
O’Neil said she supported the formation of the department but that “it was not set up for success in a number of ways” because “[Peter] Dutton created this department in his own image”.
O’Neil and Dutton have repeatedly clashed in question time and media interviews, with Dutton accusing O’Neil of being “completely out of her depth” and labelling her “very angry and very aggressive”.
O’Neil accused Dutton of being a phony “tough guy” on immigration. “He seems visibly bothered by me,” O’Neil said of her off-camera interactions with Dutton in Canberra.
“I think he’s clearly uncomfortable dealing with me on these issues. I don’t think he’s enjoying being accountable for the things that he did while he was home affairs minister.
“I think he got away for a really long time with saying one thing and doing another ... You shouldn’t be able to get away in politics with just such rank hypocrisy.”
Dutton is on leave and did not respond to a request for comment.
O’Neil said Dutton had pursued an “oddly narrow view” of the Home Affairs Department focused on stopping asylum seeker boats and child exploitation.
These were important, she said, but there were many other pressing issues to address – including the national security implications of artificial intelligence.
O’Neil said the government was about to “embark on a big piece of work” on the issue because of the huge potential for damage to be caused by the malevolent use of artificial intelligence.
“We have to make sure that the good guys get access to cutting-edge technology at the same pace as it’s been developed by people who might see to do us harm,” she said.
Pezzullo and Dutton drove the creation of Home Affairs, with Pezzullo serving as secretary from 2017 until November and Dutton as minister until 2021.
Widely known in Canberra for his assertive management style, Pezzullo was dismissed in late November after an investigation by the Australian Public Service Commission recommended he be fired for conflict-of-interest breaches and other failings.
The government announced veteran public servant Stephanie Foster would take over after his removal.
O’Neil said her department was full of “brilliant” and enthusiastic staff, but they had been stymied by a culture that did not sufficiently value their contributions.
“They’re not being told every day that their ideas are valuable, and that they need to think creatively about the problems that they’re confronting,” she said.
“Steph Foster and I have a really big, special opportunity here to fix one of the most important parts of our national security architecture as a country and modernise and energise and focus this organisation on the national security problems of the future.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said that some cultural change was welcome and inevitable after the departure of Pezzullo, whom he described as a “a long-serving and dominant secretary”.
But he added that the Home Affairs Department was not a “touchy-feely social policy agency or a hippie commune”.
“It needs at least some hierarchy and control because it’s a dangerous world and there are very real threats to Australians,” he said.
