Page 2505 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 1 August 2018

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and a former colleague because he too had experienced what he calls “the same vile treatment”. He says, “Let me begin by saying it is extremely disappointing that in the year 2018 I should have to write such a letter expressing my deep concern for the health and wellbeing of one of your employees.”—yours, Mr Rattenbury and Ms Fitzharris.

He goes on to say, “The core values of health are very distant from this organisation within ACT Health.” He talks about the way that this particular person is being treated, and he says that this person has been subject to “relentless bullying, harassment and gaslighting by senior officials in ACT Health within this area”. He speaks at length about this person’s experience, his professional experience before he came to work in ACT Health, and the sort of person he is. He also goes on to say, “Ministers, you are ultimately responsible for the health and wellbeing of ACT Health staff. It is widely known that this department has a horrendous reputation of bullying and harassment, yet nothing is done.” He says that his own experience was exactly the same, and that the two named officials in this email “finish up destroying one person and they move on to the next”.

This was described to me exactly this morning by two former Health officials who took time to come to meet with me because they thought what I was doing here today was important. After Minister Fitzharris had spent time on the radio dissing me, my senior staff and I came into the office to receive a four-minute message on our office voicemail with yet another story, and another encouragement for us not to give up.

My motion today is going to fail, but I am putting on the record now that I am not going to give up. Mr Rattenbury and Ms Fitzharris may give up on ACT Health staff, but I am not. My phones will be available, and my staff and I will talk to the people that these ministers will not talk to. I will find a way to bring into the open as many of these cases as possible, while protecting the identity and the integrity of the people who work in ACT Health.

Question put:

That the amendment be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Amendment agreed to.

Original question, as amended, resolved in the affirmative.

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