The secretary of the agriculture department, Dr Paul Grimes, has been sacked because there was “no realistic prospect” he could have a “relationship of strong mutual confidence” with his minister, Barnaby Joyce.
Grimes took unexpected leave last Friday after his request for an extraordinary Senate committee hearing to provide information “highly pertinent” to a long-running saga involving changes to Hansard by Joyce.
In a statement Joyce said Grimes was “standing down as secretary” after a report from the secretary of the department of prime minister and cabinet, Michael Thawley – with which Grimes had agreed – “that a relationship of strong mutual confidence between the secretary and myself was not a realistic prospect”.
A spokesman said the “report” from Thawley referred to procedures required under section 59 of the Public Service Act relating to terminating the appointments of departmental secretaries.
Termination requires that both the secretary of the department of prime minister and cabinet and the public service commissioner report to the prime minister, who then makes a recommendation to the governor general.
Labor agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said Dr Grimes was a “principled public servant who has paid the ultimate price for his principled decision to stand up to his minister”.
“This is a disgrace,” Fitzgibbon said.
Grimes is the second agriculture department head to leave under the Abbott government after the Coalition sacked his predecessor, Andrew Metcalfe, upon taking office.
Guardian Australia revealed this week that the prime minister’s department contacted Grimes “a number of times” after he requested the extraordinary Senate committee hearing to provide information about a controversy involving changes to the Hansard.
At the heart of the controversy is Joyce’s insistence to parliament that corrections to the Hansard record of an incorrect answer he gave regarding drought support loans on 20 October had been made by his staff, without his knowledge, and that he had asked for the changes to be reversed when he became aware that they had been made.
The opposition agriculture spokesman, Joel Fitzgibbon, has been asking whether Joyce did know about, or request, the changes – an allegation which, if proven, would mean Joyce had committed the sackable offence of misleading the House of Representatives.
Grimes was formerly secretary of the Department of Sustainability and Environment and when he was appointed to head the agriculture department, the prime minister, Tony Abbott, said he had had “a distinguished career at the state and commonwealth levels in a number of departments”.
Guardian Australia revealed the full text of a letter sent by Grimes to the committee chair, senator Bill Heffernan, on 2 March in which Grimes said he had “highly pertinent” information about freedom of information requests by Fitzgibbon for information and documents relating to the process of changing the Hansard. He said the information related to documents not provided as a result of those requests.
But when the committee reconvened last Wednesday as a direct result of Grimes’s request – with a much larger turnout of Coalition senators than normal – Grimes did not provide significant new evidence. Some of the committee’s questions were taken on notice, meaning written answers will be provided by mid-April.
Labor’s agriculture spokesman has now accused Heffernan of trying to intimidate him to stop him asking questions about a long-running saga.
Joyce acknowledged Grimes’s longstanding contribution and thanked him for his work in the agriculture department. He said a new secretary would be announced “in due course”.
In an email to all staff sent at 2.32pm on Friday, Grimes said: “I am writing to inform you that my appointment as secretary of the department of agriculture has been terminated.
“While naturally disappointed to be leaving the department, I fully accept this decision. In particular, I have agreed that the minister would be better supported at this time by a new secretary with a different background and set of policy skills.”
In an email to agriculture department staff at the time of his departure in late 2013, Metcalfe said his appointment had been “terminated”. Metcalfe had previously headed the immigration department for almost a decade.
