Page 3349 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 17 August 2011
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We see the double standard in the way they treat the Public Interest Disclosure Act. When there are widespread concerns of bullying that merit an inquiry, the government uses the Public Interest Disclosure Act to shut down an open inquiry—to shut down scrutiny, to hide documents. When there is a legitimate whistleblower, the government says that the Public Interest Disclosure Act does not apply and that retribution towards her cannot be punished because it is not under the act. What a disgraceful contradiction. What a disgraceful misuse of a piece of legislation.
Ms Gallagher has used it to hide bullying at Canberra Hospital; she has hidden behind the act when it was completely inappropriate to use that legislation. Yet when it was appropriate to use that legislation, when we have the case of a whistleblower, they claim it does not apply. There is retribution towards her and no punishment for the people who meted out the retribution. What a disgrace. What an absolute disgrace.
We see the issue of Doug Buchanan. Doug Buchanan was cleared of the claim against him as a result of a lack of evidence. He has been cleared of the claims against him, but he was sacked. The Hamburger review, issued in March, found that Mr Buchanan was “mentoring the AMC leadership team and leading by example in his interactions with staff and detainees”. It said:
Feedback from some external stakeholders is that the Superintendent is having a positive impact on AMC operations ...
The review also noted that staff morale improved significantly after Mr Buchanan took over. Yet he was sacked. We have got an independent review saying that he has done a great job—he has done a sterling job; he has helped morale; the prison is running better. We should be thanking Doug Buchanan. The government should be welcoming him back with open arms. They should have kept him there to do the job that he was doing, and apparently doing very well.
Mr Buchanan did not agree with their needle exchange. Like most people who work in the prison, Mr Buchanan did not agree with the needle exchange—and rightly so. He was sacked as a result. This is how the government treat those who speak out against them. This is how the government treat those who disagree with them. They are rotten to the core.
Here is an individual, Doug Buchanan, with 30 years experience in corrections, who was denied due process, sacked on the basis of allegations which were found to have no foundation. The Canberra Liberals have called for a committee to investigate Mr Buchanan’s departure, but Mr Corbell and the Greens, the Labor Party and the Greens in this place, rejected it.
I will come to the Bimberi issues, though I am sure Mrs Dunne will touch on those in some detail. But I did want to talk about another person who is not formally a whistleblower but who has blown the whistle on the government’s interference in statutory planning processes. That is the former chief planner, Neil Savery. His treatment, again, has been a disgrace.
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