Page 650 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
There has been a secret inquiry into bullying in obstetrics. There has been the appalling instance of bullying in TAMS. I have on my desk at the moment complaints about bullying in the Community Services Directorate, complaints of the residents of Flynn. The list goes on.
Every time we in the Canberra Liberals try to draw attention to these things, the Greens and the Labor Party fall into lockstep in an attempt to thwart it. The only occasion when that has not happened was in the case of Bimberi, because in the case of Bimberi it became so bad and there were so many systemic problems that not even the Greens and the Labor Party could refuse any longer to look at those issues.
Changing the legislation will not change the culture of bullying. Changing the legislation is important to some extent to highlight the issue, and I do believe that we should be highlighting and sending a message to the community that we will not tolerate bullying. But having the processes that are outlined by this legislation will not do a thing to address bullying.
There is a lot that needs to be done and most of what needs to be done is cultural change. The culture in this government needs to be addressed—the culture whereby one official can bully another, where officials can bully members of the community. We saw it again with the accusations that senior officials and possibly ministerial staff bullied people in relation to their submissions to the Standing Committee on Education and Youth Affairs inquiry into the Fitters Workshop. It is an instance of that bullying.
I think that we should lead by example and put an end to bullying in this place and by officials in the government, no matter which stripe of government it is. We have seen a litany of failures in this area from this government. Changing the legislation will not be enough and Ms Bresnan and the Greens’ 11th hour interest in bullying does not placate the fact that they did nothing to address the serious issues of bullying in obstetrics, that they have done little to address the documented issues of bullying in TAMS and that they seem to be uninterested in the issue of bullying in relation to the Fitters Workshop, just to name a few.
This is not good legislation. It is overly onerous. It is overly regulated. The officials advised the Greens, me and my staff that much of what this bill seeks to do is already being done in the ACT. What this bill seeks to do in a highly prescriptive way and in an inflexible way is not appropriate. There should be more administrative flexibility than is allowed in this legislation as it currently stands.
I was concerned that, for instance, the bill contemplates the establishment of an advisory committee and it sets out the makeup of the committee. That did not include an employer representative, while it did include employee representatives on the committee.
There is bullying both ways. There is bullying down the line and bullying up the line, neither of which should be tolerated. I think it says something about the mindset of the Greens that in an area of workplace health and safety they did not think it was appropriate to include employers in their advisory committee, which we will not be supporting.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video