The head of Australia's border security operations has earned around $500,000 in the nine months he has been on paid leave while being investigated over an alleged ethical violation.
It has been alleged Border Force commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg was in a relationship with a woman who subsequently gained a job as a passport scanner within Border Force.
Quaedvlieg has denied any wrongdoing, but he was put on paid leave in May last year while an investigation was undertaken by the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI).
Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo admitted in Senate Estimates on Monday that Quaedvlieg had accrued around $500,000 in pay since he went on leave. He also said that the department had received a report from the commission in the third quarter of 2017, but refused to say when the paid leave would end, or if Quaedvlieg would return to work or be reprimanded.
Pezzullo revealed that the investigation had now been handed to Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Martin Parkinson, and he then subsequently refused to discuss in detail the status of the investigation.
Quaedvlieg had expressed his frustrations in media reports about the length of time the investigation had taken and Pezzullo said he understood that, but said "natural justice" needed to occur.
"I could certainly understand why he is frustrated. It's frustrating to a lot of people, but there's also people who have to discharge their duties with professionalism and conscientiously," Pezzullo said.
Justice Party senator Derryn Hinch said that it made no sense that Quaedvlieg was still on leave three months after the department had received a report, and Pezzullo said that it was important proper processes were followed.
"It might well be the case that it doesn't make sense, but all I can say is that processes have been applied very diligently," he said. "The processes that saw the report or investigation undertaken.. that has to be concluded before any certainty can be reached in this matter."
When the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet was asked about the investigation, officials revealed that Parkinson had been asked by Pezzullo to investigate whether there were grounds to sack Quaedvlieg. Pezzullo couldn't do it himself, they said, because he and Quaedvlieg had a close working relationship.
PM&C revealed that Parkinson had finished his report in December last year, and Quaedvlieg had responded in mid-January before a final report was given to the new attorney-general Christian Porter on February 5.
Labor leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, noted that it was taking a lot of time to sort out.
"I tell you what, cleaners in parliament house don't get this kind of treatment do they?
Pezzullo revealed that after moving from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection to the new Home Affairs super portfolio, his own pay has now increased from $745,000 per annum to $788,000 per annum, including superannuation.