Page 3365 - Week 08 - Thursday, 23 August 2012
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work culture that they had to work in. The health minister’s response on ABC radio was: “Well what issues, Ross? This is the frustration I have.” What issues? We had further bullying of these individuals for daring to speak out, we had bullying from the former Chief Minister, egged on by the health minister, that he would dredge up every old Medical Board file for anyone who dared speak out against the government.
This is the culture of Labor. This is the culture we have seen for 11 years. Does anyone really think that by changing the legislation that culture is going to change? Of course not. The only way to change this culture is to change the government. We had Ms Gallagher’s denial at the time in relation to the obstetricians.
Ms Gallagher: That would be “Gallaher”, Mr Seselja.
MR SESELJA: Thank you, Ms Gallagher. It is interesting, is it not, and extraordinarily sensitive? Ms Gallagher denied at the time that nine obstetricians had resigned in the past 15 months, citing bad workplace culture. It is interesting that when we are talking about her bullying and her department’s bullying she focuses on the pronunciation of her name. Isn’t that interesting? Isn’t that an interesting insight into her responsibilities as a minister and what she takes seriously, what is important to her, what is important to this minister? Extraordinary, isn’t it? You do not like hearing about the bullying in your department, do you?
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mr Hargreaves): Come to the subject, please, Mr Seselja.
MR SESELJA: We are talking about it. We are talking about public interest disclosure. We are talking about whistleblowers. We are talking about people in our hospital system who have had the courage to speak out and have been condemned by this minister and this government. This is not going to be fixed by changing the legislation. You can improve the legislation. We will support improving the legislation. But you have to have the guts to change the culture, and you have not. For 11 years you have not bothered. For the last six years as health minister, you have not bothered. Extraordinary!
Ms Gallagher sits there and smiles. She thinks that bullying at Canberra Hospital is all a little bit of a joke, and that was how she treated it when it was raised with her. That was exactly what she did on the radio when she dismissed it as doctor politics. She dismissed it as doctor politics when investigations found that that indeed was not the case. Extraordinary! It is extraordinary what we see from this minister.
They have not bothered. They have not bothered to protect these individuals. They did not bother to protect Debbie Scattergood. They did not bother to protect Doug Buchanan. They did not bother to protect Neil Savery. They did not bother to protect the doctors who spoke out.
This has been their record. It has been a damning indictment, one case after another after another. In some cases senior public servants have been hung out to dry by this government, have been bullied out of their jobs for daring to have a different view, for
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