If sacked secretary of Home Affairs Mike Pezzullo had planned to appeal or seek judicial review of his sacking, he has probably now run out of time.

That deprives the government of about the only arguable reason for refusing to publicly issue the report and findings about his conduct prepared by former public service commissioner Lynelle Briggs. That was a report that ultimately went to the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.

Pezzullo's sins were legion, and there is little doubt, from the time it became clear that he had been maintaining a secret correspondence with a Liberal Party functionary and lobbyist that he had to go. Briggs found him to have abused his power, status and authority to seek personal advantage for himself and to have failed to disclose conflicts of interest. He failed to act apolitically and offered frankly political (and interested) advice. He was - surprise surprise - treacherous to and lobbied against his public service colleagues.

He could have lawfully been sacked for other failures not forming a part of Ms Brigg's inquiry. The management of his department was anarchic, and billions of dollars were wasted in poorly supervised and controlled external contracts.

The government withheld the report, pretending to be concerned for Pezzullo's privacy. That was a concern that Pezzullo rarely expressed for victims of his........

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