A former immigration department lawyer has accused the public service of not renewing his employment in retribution for an interview in which he criticised Peter Dutton’s handling of the au pair visa cases.
The veterans’ affairs department told lawyer Greg Phillipson on Wednesday that it would not extend his contract – just a day after an interview in which he noted the home affairs minister was not subject to the same impartiality guidelines as other departmental decision-makers.
Phillipson told Guardian Australia he was “extremely disappointed” at what he labelled “an attempt to silence people, to punish people who dare to speak to the media”.
On Tuesday, Phillipson – a former senior lawyer in the immigration department, where he worked for nearly 40 years – told the ABC’s 7.30 program that if Dutton were a departmental official he would not have been able to decide the au pair cases because of a perceived conflict of interest.
“The usual situation is you declare the interest and you say it’s not appropriate for me to make this decision because I know these people,” he said.
Phillipson was employed at the veterans’ affairs department on a three-month contract in July, which was due to expire in October.
Emails, seen by Guardian Australia, indicate the department was on track to extend his contract until the end of April 2019.
In one dated 28 August, the executive officer to Liz Cosson, the secretary of the department, said that another public servant “will arrange the extension until [the] end of April 2019”.
In another dated Tuesday 4 September – just hours before the story aired – a senior human resources adviser said a colleague “is working on the contract extension documents now”.
The adviser said she could not progress the matter without further “advice/approval”, including details of whether Phillipson’s individual flexibility arrangement was also due to be extended.
Phillipson told Guardian Australia he had alerted Cosson and the department’s chief operating officer of the story “as a courtesy” on Tuesday morning, suggesting it had “no implications for the veterans’ affairs department” because he would be identified only as a former immigration officer.
But on Wednesday morning, Phillipson’s manager told him his contract would not be extended. Neither he nor the manager were provided a reason, he said.
Phillipson was working on an ongoing Productivity Commission review of veterans benefits and says his manager had requested his contract be extended.
A spokeswoman for the veterans’ affairs minister, Darren Chester, said that Phillipson appeared to be “conflating the two issues” of his contract extension and the au pair interview.
“The minister for veterans’ affairs office does not make decisions regarding the employment of departmental staff,” she said. “Any suggestion the minister’s office was involved in not extending Mr Phillipson’s contract is completely false.”
Guardian Australia contacted the veterans’ affairs department for comment.
