Page 1726 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 1 May 2012
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staff were employees of his own department and he cared not for them. There are processes available, he told them, processes we are now told were not working. But did anyone care, minister, for two long years while these people suffered the hurt and indignity of what had happened to them through the processes that were available to them?
Where were the Greens while this was going on? The Greens are supposed to be the third-party insurance for people like those we are talking about here. The Greens are the third-party insurance in their own terms. But, in reality, these Greens are simply third-party insurance for this government that care so little about the people who work for them.
The current minister has at least shown more concern, although his answers to my questions on the issue last year were hardly more sympathetic. I quote Dr Bourke:
The answer to the member’s question is as follows:
One matter involved an allegation of a staff member, who had been subject to disciplinary action, that two managers had engaged in bullying and harassment through instituting the misconduct investigation. Shared Services found that there was no basis to commence a formal disciplinary process against the managers. The staff member does not have a right of internal appeal in these circumstances. CIT advised the staff member of the outcome of the review and suggested that they consider mediation with one of the managers.
One of the managers they were complaining about, Minister Bourke! This is you just a few months ago:
The staff member has not taken up this suggestion. CIT was under no other obligation to advise the staff member of other avenues of review.
So much for compassion. So much for the processes available to the minister, which you are now telling me are broken and that we should rest assured—as you said, under your direction—will all be fixed. Mr Speaker, even you must agree that that is hardly a note of assurance that the people who have suffered so much will get a lot of comfort.
Thankfully someone did listen, and that was the Work Safety Commissioner, Mark McCabe, who took the matters more seriously. I know from people who have made representations to WorkSafe that they felt they were at last being heard. They have at last been given some confidence that the system will work for them. Mark McCabe needs to be commended for the work that has been done at this stage in his report.
There is no doubt there has been for a long time a very serious and extensive culture of bullying and harassment at the CIT. WorkSafe ACT were initially investigating seven complaints. I note Dr Bourke has advised that since processes have been introduced—so now we have these processes introduced—to address bullying and harassment a further six matters have been reported.
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