Home Affairs officials shocked by 'unprecedented' election day stunt

Fresh documents show a conversation over an encrypted messaging app between Home Affairs Department assistant secretary Sara Vrh and an unnamed middle-level manager. In it they discuss their shock on the Monday following the controversial election day incident.

The chain of messages, as revealed in a freedom of information request by The Canberra Times released on Wednesday afternoon, cast new light on the department's interaction with ministerial staffers as former prime minister Scott Morrison delivered the election day bombshell.

Former home affairs minister Karen Andrews has previously denied her office pressured department staff to push out the usually secret details of maritime arrivals.

In a conversation with an unnamed EL2 public servant two days later, Ms Vrh asked if there was precedent for the release of public statements about maritime interceptions.

"Never. It was astonishing in form and timing," the EL2 responded.

"It was unprecedented. Normally the Minister announces it after the IMAs [illegal maritime arrivals] have touched down / been returned. Strict operational secrecy until then [redacted] ... That advice was provided - by me haha."

The documents also show frantic exchanges as department officials raced to publish a statement ahead of Mr Morrison's press conference.

A report by Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo, released last month, showed the former Coalition government pressured staff to release, and amplify, a public statement on election day regarding a vessel interception.

It included tense exchanges between a staffer of the former home affairs minister and a departmental staff member, who can now be revealed to be Ms Vrh.

A Coalition staffer sent a text message asking Ms Vrh "What on earth is the issue?" after they could not find the statement online shortly after 1pm.

"It always takes a few mins to go live - I have no idea how it works but we can't influence it. We are calling IT," Ms Vrh said.

"A lot of people are furious," the ministerial staffer responded.

In a separate Skype conversation with a senior Australian Border Force media employee at the same time, Ms Vrh said she could not "stress how quickly this needs to go up" 19 minutes before it was eventually published on the site.

At 1.07pm, Ms Vrh wrote a message to the Border Force media official warning Mr Morrison had just "said we have issued a statement".

"hes [sic] just confirmed it pm just comfor,ed [sic] ot [sic]," she said.

The drafted statement went live on the Australian Border Force's media page at 1.09pm, according to the documents and the report's timeline.

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Ms Andrews's office directed the department to issue a statement about the incident minutes before Saturday midday - while Australians were going to the polls.

The unusual action was in stark contrast to Mr Morrison's time as immigration minister between 2013 and 2014, when he often refused to comment on maritime interceptions, terming them "on-water matters".

Ms Andrews' office, which said it was acting on instructions from the former prime minister's office, said it required the statement be completed and published within 15 minutes, according to Mr Pezzullo's report.

The secretary informed department officials that a statement couldn't be published until the then-opposition had been briefed.

Ms Andrews denied claims her office had pressured departmental staff last month following the report's release.

"It just needed to be put out there so that it was clear that there had been a vessel that had been intercepted," she told Nine Network.