Another senior public servant from the Agriculture Department has been shown the door in the wake of the sacking of the department's boss, Paul Grimes.
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One of the department's deputy secretaries, the highly regarded Rona Mellor, has been told by new secretary Daryl Quinlivan that she has no future in her job.
The move against Ms Mellor comes despite the senior bureaucrat being awarded the Public Service Medal just two years ago, partly as recognition of her work for the department on Australia's border biosecurity.
She was said to be in the running in 2012 for the job of Commissioner of Taxation after rocketing up the ranks of the Australian Taxation Office during her 20 years working there.
Unlike Mr Grimes, who was summarily sacked by Prime Minister Tony Abbott after the breakdown in the relationship between the well-respected bureaucrat and Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce, Ms Mellor has not been sacked.
Rather, she will move on from her role after five years in charge of the nation's biosecurity and veterinary medicine, with Mr Quinlivan wanting to bring an executive of his own choosing to take over Ms Mellor's key responsibilities.
Ms Mellor was also responsible for the department's human resources, service delivery, regulatory reform and compliance approach.
The forcing out of Ms Mellor, a highly regarded leader, means more instability at the top of a department still reeling from the sacking of its popular boss, Mr Grimes, three months ago.
Mr Grimes left the job after a controversial Senate estimates hearing in March that examined changes to Hansard requested by Mr Joyce's office last year.
No-one at the Agriculture Department would be interviewed for this story and the department's publicity unit refused to answer questions.
So the terms and the timing of Ms Mellor's departure from her high-powered job are unclear, even to her own staff.
The deputy secretary has had a high-flying career in the public service, with 20 years at the ATO and a period as Deputy Chief Executive of Medicare, during which she was involved in the introduction of electronic claims for Medicare benefits.
She was awarded the Public Service Medal in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for 2013 for "outstanding public service in the development and implementation of biosecurity, taxation and health-system policies and projects."
Ms Mellor is also a fellow of the Institute of Public Policy at the Australian National University and an executive fellow of the Australian and New Zealand School of Government.
