Page 18 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 25 February 2014
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Chief Minister, I have been approached by many of the 42 complainants and they all echo their disappointment and frustration with the process that started with so much promise but ended in abject disappointment. They all want the following questions answered: which are the small areas that the report admitted to and what actions are being taken against the perpetrators? How can this report possibly have been the final report when there are so many more cases still under investigation? Why are the same managers that treated their complaints so lightly and mismanaged the past complaints originally the same managers and delegates responsible for now implementing the recommendations from the Kefford report?
These are all fair questions and a sad reflection on the promised new era of openness and respect. When will somebody either from the CIT or the government face the complainants and offer a personal apology to them for their treatment, not through a so-called letter of apology that was seven months in the making and which the majority have angrily rejected, but a personal, face-to-face response? It is the least that these people deserve.
Chief Minister, I urge you to take action before these problems get worse. There can be only one recourse—the removal of the current minister for education. Chief Minister, I ask you to listen not just to us but to the voices of the 42 complainants and the many other committed staff at CIT who are now more reluctant than ever to come forward.
For our part, the Canberra Liberals will continue to expose the failure to protect people in their workplace environment and will not hesitate to hold to account those found to be responsible. We cannot allow the bullies to win and prosper, and there remain too many victims who believe the bullies have won. In this case the minister is one of the bullies, and she should be removed from office because of it and her many other failings.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Health and Minister for Higher Education) (10.45): I welcome the opportunity to strongly defend the record of Ms Burch this morning in this place. I reflect briefly on the fact that after a three-month break the first item of business is to pick on each other and score political points as opposed to actually concentrating on the things that matter to the people who have elected us to this place, including working on priorities for the city as we face perhaps some of our most difficult years for some time. I wonder whether it plays into the community’s disengagement from the political processes that the number one priority for the Canberra Liberals is what happened at the Fringe Festival.
Having said that, I am very pleased to defend the record of Minister Burch. I work with Minister Burch day in, day out. I see the work she does in her portfolio and how hard she works. I see the connection she has in the community. In relation to some of the comments from the opposition around anonymous criticisms of Ms Burch’s performance, I meet many of the stakeholder groups that Minister Burch works with and not one of them has raised an issue with me around their concerns with Minister Burch in the portfolio or the relationships they have with her. In fact, it is absolutely
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