Page 3153 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 22 August 2012
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The former education minister just flat out denied any criticisms of failings in his department. Years of systemic bullying were swept under the carpet. People lost their jobs, their careers and in some cases their self-esteem, as well as suffering serious ongoing health issues.
Another minister in this place had a way of screening out issues that were truthful but, to her, unpleasant things to hear. She reputedly put her fingers in her ears and sang. The Chief Minister may well have also done so, because she did not do anything else of value. The Chief Minister suggested this was an isolated case. She said as much in answer to a question on notice in May of this year. Some 11,700 isolated cases, Chief Minister. The evidence is clear; it was not an isolated case. The auditor concluded:
Hospital records at the Canberra Hospital have been deliberately manipulated to improve overall performance information and reporting of the Canberra Hospital’s Emergency Department … Audit considers that it is probable that improper changes to records have been made by other persons.
By other persons, Mr Corbell—by other persons. As the auditor said:
The executive’s admission of manipulating records does not account for all of the changes that were made to hospital records …
Indeed, records were tampered with from 2009 and 2012, while the executive only admits to starting in 2010.
So there is at least one other person, if not a whole army of people, involved in data tampering. It is not 10, 20, 30, 1,000, 5,000 or 7,000. There are 11,700 records, Ms Bresnan, that are completely disregarded in this whole debate. There is not one mention that 11,700 records were altered, some on days that the person that has been made the scapegoat for this by this government was not even at the hospital. Why didn’t the Chief Minister initiate a thorough investigation to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it involved just one member of staff? There was a rush to judgement on one person—one person to blame for all of this, one person to make the scapegoat. And this lie has been supported fully by the Greens.
The Auditor-General only had to look at when the data was altered to work out the times that did not match the accused staff member’s hours in the office. So why didn’t the Chief Minister or her directorate make that same simple discovery? It is very funny, Mr Corbell. I can see you are very amused by this whole process. Your amusement sums up the amusement that you have had all day on this serious topic. Why didn’t this Chief Minister choose to investigate this issue further? And why haven’t the Greens had the courage to ask the questions that we are asking? Was it wilful blindness, obstruction of justice or both?
We have here not simply a rogue departmental officer, but something much wider than that. And still the Chief Minister, as health minister, did nothing and continues to do nothing. We have records that have been tampered with—that should have been known about, and the issue addressed well before it required intervention by the opposition and by the Auditor-General. We have had the admission and resignation of
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