Page 3337 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 22 September 2015
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report was never made public. The report was never tabled in this place. Indeed, those in senior positions in the ambulance services who were responsible for allowing a climate of bullying, blame, distrust and erratic management are still in charge. So those who have mismanaged the service, those who allowed the toxic culture, as the TWU calls it, to exist are still there. Is it any wonder that levels of fear are growing?
This report purports to detail the change, but since 18 March all this minister has been able to say is that she is pleased to report the government has set up an oversight committee and is now working on specific project working groups and that the ACTAS chief officer has put out a communique. That is reform. That would make me feel better. That would allow me to sleep better at night if I were an ACTAS officer. Not likely!
You need only go to the Canberra Times article of 22 August—so a month ago today—which says that ambulance staff are still waiting for promised reform and that low morale and frustration gets worse. The article states:
Frustrated paramedics say the culture within the ACT ambulance service is deteriorating while the organisation continues to navel gaze.
I will read it again:
Frustrated paramedics say the culture within the ACT ambulance service is deteriorating while the organisation continues to navel gaze.
We know they are naval gazing because we have the oversight committee and we have project committees. We know there is an additional level of bureaucracy. We have the deputy chief officers from various services, including the ambulance service, who perform other functions reporting straight to the ESA commissioner. This is not a reform agenda; this is simply building a bulwark around the management that currently exists to protect itself.
If you call an ambulance you want it to turn up as quickly as it can and you want it with officers on board who are focused on the job. I commend the officers and the paramedics of the ACT Ambulance Service because they are doing a job that is much harder than it should be because this minster fails the leadership test. As a consequence, the management of ESA fails the leadership test. Workers are being put at risk by the party that purports to represent workers.
What else did the Canberra Times article say? It continued:
While a much-touted cultural review of the industry promised reform, months on some union members have reported a slide in the other direction.
That is what happens when you put out a document without the full context. There is the saying that he who controls the present controls the future; he who controls the past controls the present. By controlling the past and refusing to make it public—although it is pretty much public and I am proud to have helped make it public—we have not gone to the heart of what is wrong in ACTAS. This minister by producing this document today acquiesces in her duty.
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