Page 1944 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 5 August 2014
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together the recommendations on bullying, on Mr Fluffy homes and on capital metro in one section. They appear in the report in the directorates where the recommendations came from, but for the ease of anyone reading the report they will find a section now on each of those.
Other areas that were looked at quite strenuously were everything from debt to the arts, the functions of the committee office and the library here in the Assembly, and particularly health and wellbeing—older Canberrans, suicide, youth mental health issues, the funding of youth centres, violence against women, English as a second language particularly for migrant women, how we close the gap for our Indigenous residents, and things like extra dollars for students with a disability. There was a particularly strong focus looking at the wellbeing of the community, and there were a number of recommendations matching that.
With particular regard to the Mr Fluffy homes, it is a very serious issue, as we saw this morning, and particularly given representations by the community. There are a number of recommendations from the various areas. It was discussed with the Chief Minister, with planning and with IR. So it does have reach over a large area, and the leadership shown by both leaders is welcomed by the committee. But the issue will be ongoing for some time, we suspect. So there are a number of recommendations on how the committee feels the issue should be advanced.
The issue of bullying came up in just about every directorate that appeared before the committee. There are a number of recommendations on page 110, some eight in all, that look at how we address bullying. There are some specialist references to the issue of bullying, sexism and misogyny in the ACT Emergency Services. But the committee has made a number of recommendations that focus on the government undertaking analysis of what the underlying causes of bullying are and how you address it.
We certainly feel that the government could build upon the ACT public service code of conduct and the RED framework that we heard about, and which the committee was impressed with. But let us put in place a comprehensive whole-of-government bullying strategy so that it is not tolerated anywhere and it is addressed at the earliest time. We certainly thought that perhaps the way to address this most effectively was by way of recommendation 69, which states:
The Committee recommends that the ACT Government give consideration to establishing an independent Public Service Commissioner, for whom functions should include (i) developing and providing expertise in dealing with bullying matters; and (ii) centrally tracking, monitoring and reporting on the incidence of bullying in the ACTPS.
It should not be tolerated; it cannot be tolerated and it should be stamped out wherever it is encountered. I believe—and the committee agreed—that there needs to be an independent public service commissioner. You cannot have an individual who is also potentially a dep sec in Chief Minister’s. They need to be independent so that people can go to them with confidence. This is not an aspersion on anybody who has had the role or is in the role, but there needs to be somebody who is independent and whose career is not tied up in the ACT public service.
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