Acting Department of Home Affairs secretary Stephanie Foster has been tapped to replace ousted Mike Pezzullo.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese moved quickly to backfill the role amid growing controversy over the High Court’s decision to render indefinite immigration detention unlawful.
Pezzullo was sacked first thing on Monday morning after an investigation by former Australian Public Service Commissioner Lynelle Briggs found he had breached the Australian Public Service Code of Conduct 14 times following the revelation of a slew of WhatsApp messages playing political hardball.
Foster’s appointment is for five years, with the clock starting today. It will set in train another lot of shuffling and promotions beneath her.
“I am pleased to announce the governor‑general has accepted my recommendation to appoint Stephanie Foster as secretary of the Department of Home Affairs,” Albanese said.
Foster was appointed an associate secretary at Immigration in October 2022, having previously run Prime Minister and Cabinet’s executive government branch and managed cabinet and cabinet committees.
A renowned fixer and agency cleaner, Foster also led the investigation and review of assorted parliamentary workplace scandals and incidents, establishing and implementing the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service as well as implanting the recommendations of the Report on the Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces, dubbed ‘Set the Standard’.
A former SIGINT spook, Foster started out in the Defence Signals Directorate, where she spent 16 years before ascending to Defence’s International Policy Division as first assistant secretary.
Foster’s SIGINT background is especially useful given Home Affairs now carries the public-facing cyber security function that was a key deliverable on Labor’s election platform, with the agency’s Cyber Security Strategy launched last week.
However, the agency’s national cybersecurity coordinator, Air Marshal Darren Goldie, has been recalled to Defence, leaving Hamish Hansford to fill in the role until matters are finalised.
As associate secretary at Home Affairs, Foster led immigration operations, immigration policy, refugee policy and programs, citizenship and multicultural affairs, legal and service design and delivery programs.
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