Page 880 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 18 March 2015
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MS BURCH: Thank you. Would Mr Smyth be in a position or would he, indeed, release something with the advice that it would be professionally damaging to someone?
When I met with the TWU representative last Thursday, I made it very clear to him that the advice I had was that I could not release that report. But I made a commitment that we would have a blueprint for change, and that that work was in progress. I also offered to the representative that, should he want to make a statement to be included behind that of the commissioner, I was prepared to include such a statement. The TWU could say, “This isn’t exactly what we wanted, but the recommendations are the same and we’re happy with the action plan.” They chose not to do that. I remain personally very affronted and disappointed that the TWU rep put out that letter that indicated that I would doctor the O2C report. I have not. I have simply parked it to the side. It is in the same form in which I received it. I have not doctored it. I have just not released it, Mr Smyth. You must get that through—and I will use your word—your pathetic head that this sits to the side. It informed the government’s response to the call for action, to the call for change. That is what this blueprint is. Mr Smyth is Mr Negativity. He is almost shameful—
MADAM SPEAKER: Minister Burch, withdraw. Refer to Mr Smyth by his title and in no other way.
MS BURCH: Thank you, Madam Speaker. Mr Smyth has cherry-picked from this report. He is saying that some of this is sanitised. He referred to “me first”. I will go to this in the findings. He said that those who were complaining were almost being bullied for speaking up. Let me go to page 24 of the blueprint for change, where O2C advise that—and this is from the report that I have read:
… individuals at all levels of ACTAS were quick to blame … ‘they’ for their individual troubles. When pressed, ‘they’ quickly transformed into anyone and everyone above ‘me’ in the organisation.
That is confronting. It is from the O2C report. We have not tried to hide it. It is here in the public domain. The organisation has had the courage to put comments like that in a public report. We have not shied away from the need to change. The commissioner has not. That is why this report stands.
If you look at this report, Mr Smyth, and if you look at the literature review that is also in the public domain, a literature review indicates that the ACT Ambulance Service is not unique in having cultural difficulties. ACTAS has grown at a rapid rate. Its technical capabilities and service response lead the nation. The next task for it now is to improve its internal culture—a commitment we have not stepped away from, a commitment that we will embrace and a commitment that I will ensure is delivered.
We are all occasionally guilty of listening to each other’s media performances. There was a level of interest that apparently Mr Smyth sees the oversight group as something I am setting up to succeed. Well, thank you, Mr Smyth—through you, Madam Speaker—I am glad you recognise that there is a clear blueprint for change, a
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