Page 1310 - Week 04 - Thursday, 7 April 2016
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Not this term but last term we saw the data tampering. Public servants felt pressured. How was that acting in fairness? How was that delivering natural justice to the public service? Where is the respect for the diligence and the independence of the public service when it was so bad this officer felt pressured to make changes to the data? I am sure Mr Hanson might have a few words to say about that.
It is that lack of basic respect for individuals and their jobs. Respect is listed as one of the ethical principles for ministers. But it is about getting the job done; it is about covering the government’s behind rather than allowing the public service to perform in the way that it should.
What about bullying? Ethical principle 5 is:
… respect for the law and the administration of justice
Ministers must respect and uphold the laws of the Territory and the Commonwealth as they relate to the ACT.
What about natural laws on stamping out bullying? I cannot think of a department that in the past couple of years has not had significant instances of bullying announced, exposed or revealed, whether it be the 10-year war in obstetrics or something else. Just this week we hear that in another area a letter is being sent to the health minister saying that the bullying continues. When will it end? When will the public service stamp this out? And what are the ministers’ roles in making sure that the law is upheld.
It is not just there. It was in TAMS; it has been in the Ambulance Service. Misogyny and practices were reported in the fire brigade. There is the ongoing saga at the CIT. Again, just this afternoon, we have had a report from the minister about this, yet another document. There are still people in CIT who feel they have been bullied and it has not been addressed.
It is about getting information. The government talk about openness, fairness, transparency and accountability. Yet if one was trying to get a full picture of what the cost of the capital metro will be, one would be lost, because the government fail to release the critical information, information that I suspect is not genuinely commercial in confidence. They refuse to give people the sort of information that they need so they can make an informed decision about whether or not they are in favour of capital metro.
As we all know, in the end, the ratepayers will always pay. The taxpayers pay. It is important that people make informed decisions and have this information so that they can hold the government to accountability, so that we have transparency and we make the right decisions.
It is the evasiveness that we see so often, particularly in question time. Just yesterday and today, we were asking the Chief Minister about the MOU that has been signed with ClubsACT. Clause 7 says that you should not have greater concentrations of machines. If Aquis is successful and the casino get their 500 machines, that would be
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