Page 3924 - Week 09 - Thursday, 25 August 2011
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allow people to do what they are hired to do; and, most important of all, they allow staff to be passionate and be brave. The last point, on bravery, is a vital component of cultivating a positive organisational culture. It empowers staff to take ownership and leadership in doing the right thing.
Over the course of the last several months and weeks we have seen how this ACT Labor government suppressed brave members within the ACT public service, and many of these individuals suffered reprisals from within the system. Given the uncomfortable instances where I have been presented with allegations of bullying or lack of impartiality in the ACT public service, including the teaching service, I think this ACT Labor government has done much to devalue what is good in our public service.
Take, for example, the case of Ms Debbie Scattergood, who revealed that TAMS had wasted taxpayers’ money on a $15 million contract for unforeseen expenditures. As a result of this, she suffered discrimination at work for four years—four years. And if that was not bad enough, her department tried to restructure her out of a job and was the subject of a biased report in an attempt to cover up departmental wrongdoings. Because of this, Ms Scattergood suffered reactive depression and financial distress while trying to defend her reputation. For those of you who may not be familiar with this case, she lost her home because of this.
And what about last week’s article regarding former AMC Superintendent Doug Buchanan? He was cleared as a result of lack of evidence. The Hamburger review, issued in March, had found that Mr Buchanan was “mentoring the AMC leadership team and leading by example in his interactions with staff and detainees” and that “feedback from some external stakeholders is that the Superintendent is having a positive impact on AMC operations”.
Here is an individual with 30 years experience in the corrections industry who had significantly improved the morale of the AMC but was denied due process because of a professional disagreement. Simply put, Mr Buchannan did not agree with the government on its needle exchange program. In return, he lost his job for doing what he thought was in the best interest of his organisation.
The Canberra Liberals called for a committee to investigate Mr Buchanan’s departure, but ACT Labor, once again with Greens’ support, outright rejected this. There is that undying or unquestioning support of their coalition from the Greens which is becoming quite common in this Assembly.
In February this year, the Canberra Liberals uncovered that a confidential phone line that was set up at Bimberi so that staff and detainees could give confidential evidence to the human rights audit conducted by the Children and Young People Commissioner, Alisdair Roy, was compromised. In one instance, Mr Roy approached a complainant’s supervisor at Bimberi and informed the supervisor of the complaint that was lodged. In fact, we learnt of the complainant’s name because, in a letter to Mrs Dunne, Mr Roy mentions the complainant’s name not once but three times.
In March, we received revelations of departmental documents suggesting that staff collude with department managers. This was subsequently corroborated by up to three
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