Australian Border Force head Roman Quaedvlieg will on Friday clock up seven months of paid leave – funded by taxpayers – while under investigation for possible abuse of power.
Frustrations are mounting within the newly formed Home Affairs Department, as well as the corruption watchdog, about the length of time the investigation is taking.
Mr Quaedvlieg is one of the country’s most senior public servants and is paid $618,000 a year. If receiving his full salary, he has pocketed more than $360,000 while on leave to date.
A spokesman for Home Affairs, formerly the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, confirmed Mr Quaedvlieg remained on paid leave this week.
The secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, Michael Pezzullo, has put Mr Quaedvlieg on indefinite paid leave.
He has been out of the office since May 29, when he stepped aside pending an investigation by the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity into possible abuse of power.
The commission is investigating whether Mr Quaedvlieg acted improperly by allegedly helping his girlfriend – a younger woman in the ABF – secure a job at Sydney Airport. Mr Quaedvlieg denies any wrongdoing.
At a Senate estimates hearing in October, Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo confirmed Mr Quaedvlieg was on leave, was still being paid and was subject to the ongoing integrity commission investigation. The department confirmed on Wednesday that none of those facts had changed.
Mr Pezzullo revealed he had personally approved paid “event leave” for Mr Quaedvlieg, which was similar to “miscellaneous leave”. According to the relevant enterprise agreements, paid “event leave” can be granted “where it is considered to be in the interest” of the department. Miscellaneous leave, by contrast, is usually unpaid except in certain emergencies.
Can someone enlighten me on what ‘Event Leave’ and 'Miscellaneous Leave" are?
Public Service don’t make policy, they just work with whatever sh ite the Government of the day puts out. Labor, as far as I know, have no issue with the work of Public Servants, the issue it the lack of clear policy and direction that this current shittee Government sets.
And JBom, we may have another 18 months of these useless turds screwing up the place. Thank God, our public service do keep hospitals, schools, transport, police, army etc working.
Just to clarify, are you saying you have not been offered pay rises for nearly 4 years? I know people who work in a variety of departments & all either have received rises or at the very least what I would consider reasonable offers beyond what most in the private sector can expect. If your dept is an exception I might suggest you have the worst union representation in the PS.
‘Event leave’ is AFAIK (my knowledge is out of date, I haven’t been in the public service for over ten years now) a variety of leave only available to very high management which allows them to be put aside on paid leave when they’re likely to be embarrassing to the govt.
Quaedvlieg was investigated a long, long time ago for sexual misconduct in his professional life. I don’t know any more details than that, though I’d have expected any investigation would have realistically been finished a long time ago. Inconveniently enough for the govt, he was the face of ‘Border Force’ and a close ally of Dutton and they’d talked him up to the skies as this heroic paragon of refugee-bashing toughness (remember when he tried to have immigration officers doing random papers checks on frigging Flinders St station? There goes a man who’d be reeeeal comfy in jackboots), so rather than sack him in disgrace they’ve kept him safely on paid leave.
If you think this’d be available to the average Joe (or Josephine) in the public service you’re deluded. They don’t even HAVE event leave, to the best of my knowledge. This is a special treatment, at the discretion of the minister, for a Lib party mate.
It is standard practice for a Department to stand down a public servant facing charges. Normally, the public servant has to fight to get paid ( no such thing as innocent until proven guilty) . Special conditions apply to the more senior public servants, who are few in number.
To clarify, have had a few “offers”. I won’t go into particulars here but I would be worst off. The overwhelming majority thought so too.
Talking to colleagues the consensus was no one is seeking major pay rises in this fiscal environment. Even consensus that some previous allowances aren’t needed and should be thrown to front line officers. Huge pay rises are not called for and not being sought. However, I would expect to be slightly better off and no go backwards if I accept a workplace offer. Everyone would.
Now my husband is private sector and received a 3% pay rise this year. And some other perks. Our offer was less. Obviously this represents one example in one sector.
ABC is subject to the ABC Act, public servants are employed under the Public Service Act. Now, about all those publicly funded private sector contracts , the taxpayer costs of gambling.