The turmoil within: Should we be worried about Team Marles?

Last week, a public spotlight was shone directly over Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles’ office, and it wasn’t a pretty sight.

Chief of staff Jo Tarnawsky bravely made public allegations of bullying and an orchestrated attempt at a drawn-out termination of her job, after she allegedly raised a complaint against colleagues in the office.

Tarnawsky has further claimed that she has not been able to enter her office without notice since June and hasn’t seen or heard from the minister for five months.

“I continue to be employed officially as the deputy prime minister’s chief of staff, but I have been prevented from doing my job ... I know it won’t be long now before I am bullied out of this place completely,” she said during a media conference in Canberra on 10 October.

Tarnawsky originally allegedly told Deputy Prime Minister Marles about bullying behaviour in the office, during a hastily organised official trip to Ukraine in April.

During that visit, the Deputy Prime Minister met with Ukrainian leadership, including Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Deputy Minister of Defence Lieutenant General Ivan Havryliuk, as well as the Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz in Poland.

He also viewed training conducted by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and toured local defence industry locations integral to Ukraine’s defence against Russia before announcing a package of military assistance from Australia to Ukraine.

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On returning to Australia, Minister Marles allegedly suggested his chief of staff “start looking for alternative employment”, take leave and be restricted from returning to her role and office for the following period of five months, according to Tarnawsky.

She was then reportedly transferred to other duties, such as completing interim work with the Prime Minister’s Office.

The Deputy Prime Minister, speaking in the House of Representatives on 10 October, said he was sad that “events have got to where they have”.

“This is obviously very difficult. Let me say that in the way in which I have tried to manage this, I have done so with Jo’s welfare in mind at every moment as I would try to manage things on that basis for all of my staff,” he said.

Office bullying and silent job termination aside (which can obviously never be condoned in any workplace), office in-fighting like this could have a wider effect on the success of our nation’s defence industry revival.

The Minister for Defence plays an integral role in shaping policy, meeting with industry and providing direction for the nation’s military future. Staff and the minister meet with foreign delegates across the globe and on home soil, they meet with the defence industry and personnel from the Australian Defence Force.

Are we expected to believe that internal trouble within that office has had no immediate or lasting impacts on meetings with international allies, domestic and international defence industry, or even the Australian public?

Are we being told that a chief of staff had admittedly fractured interactions (at best) with their office and incredibly didn’t meet with their minister for months, and yet there was a perfectly smooth transition? Nothing was missed or overlooked?

These are the kind of internal conflicts within Defence departments and offices that Australia can barely afford to have. In-fighting like this costs money in the form of projects becoming overlooked, reprioritised or poorly overseen.

It costs industry engagement as the united office front is lost when engaging effectively with businesses.

It costs public trust when apparently mismanagement turmoil within a closed office is put on public display. After all, how can the public trust that the correct decisions are being made with billions of their taxpayer dollars on defence projects, if they then see unwelcome ministerial office politics being aired on the 7pm news?

Perhaps, most importantly, time is lost. Time is already not on Australia’s side in revitalising our defence industrial base and setting ourselves up with greater influential military impact in the Indo-Pacific.

Minister for Defence Industry and Capability Delivery Pat Conroy put it best when addressing the Defence Connect Defence Industry Development Strategy Summit 2024 in August.

“We can’t rely on a 10-year warning, which means we have to act with urgency,” he said.

“We have to concentrate on accelerating delivery of capability as well as the long-term investments that we need.

“I work very closely with Richard Marles as the senior cabinet minister in Defence and I think we’ve got a great team.”

Final thoughts

We may never fully know how much damage has been done by the recent controversy in the Deputy Prime Minister’s office over the last months, possibly years.

We can only hope for a fair and better-managed resolution that provides the unity sorely needed from our government on defence.