Page 3933 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 29 October 2013
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reason for not replacing staff that leave. You have one person doing three jobs. Staff are taking personal leave for stress. They are stressed. This work environment is hell.
Our latest Executive Director has lasted less than a year in the job. We farewelled her this week. There is nothing more disheartening than seeing your boss cry because she can’t cope. Everything is being done under the radar. We were told not to tell carers that Joy Burch MLA was coming to our forum regarding the respite closures. It’s all secrets and lies. Protect the Minister is the mantra. But who is protecting the clients, the vulnerable?
Our Director General and Deputy keep sending staff emails telling them not to talk to people. There’s a joke now that it’s like working in North Korea, only it isn’t funny. People’s emails are being monitored.
We five are resigned to the fact that we will lose our jobs in the next two years because of the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. What infuriates us is the fact that mismanagement of funds (and we are speaking of millions here) and bullying of staff will be swept away as Disability ACT is disbanded. Joy Burch will never be held accountable …
So much suffering. So much stress. We wait for the suicides, because that is what will happen. Carers unable to cope. Do you know what it’s like Mr Welsh to have an adult autistic child who is so violent you fear being throttled in your sleep? That is what one parent said to me personally.
We can’t see a way out, but we want those responsible to say sorry. There is no empathy, only self serving preservation of office.
Thank you for fighting the fight. People are listening.
Yours sincerely
That was dated 27 October 2013. That is a very disturbing letter, Mr Assistant Speaker. And what I would say is that now we have had this matter alerted to us, now we have had constituents contact us, now we have received a letter like that, it is in the minister’s interests to take some heed of that.
I cannot vouch for the veracity of that letter and I cannot, until I have spoken to people, vouch for their claims. But, as I said, constituents have started to contact the opposition—people who are, it would seem, based on this letter and the constituents who have contacted us, increasingly concerned about what is happening within Disability ACT.
It does not bode well. What I would say is that the opposition, having had these concerns raised with us, will act responsibly. But we will make sure that, in relation to the people who are working in the ACT government who are obviously under pressure, who feel that they are not being listened to, who feel that there is this culture of cover-up and who have the concerns raised in this letter, we will monitor this. We will see how the government responds. We will deal fairly with people that come. We will not be doing things to raise concerns if they are not considered legitimate by the opposition, because I do understand that sometimes there is an argument, there are two sides to the story.
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