Page 3009 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 15 August 2018
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(e) the evidence given to the Select Committee on Estimates 2018-2019 at hearings and in answers to questions on notice did not address fully the reasons for the accreditation downgrade to Level D and that the Committee recommended, at Recommendation 77, “that relevant officials from the Health Directorate provide the Assembly with all the reasons for the downgrade in the accreditation status for the radiology department”;
(f) a number of public interest disclosures have been submitted, relating to the radiology department; and
(g) the ACT Auditor-General is an officer of the Legislative Assembly; and
(3) calls on the Speaker to request the ACT Auditor-General to undertake a performance audit of the medical imaging department at TCH, and report by 31 January 2019.
Yesterday I received a letter from the Minister for Health and Wellbeing seeking to address my concerns about culture and bullying in the ACT health system. The letter once again told me that the government has zero tolerance for bullying. It noted that “every person has the right to feel safe, supported and respected at work”. I do not think anyone disagrees with the sentiment.
The minister told me about training programs; the so-called safe and respectful pathways available to staff to raise their concerns, such as the health services commissioner, the Ombudsman, the Auditor-General and the Public Sector Standards Commissioner; the rigorous processes for investigating bullying appropriately and independently; and the employee assistance program.
In the letter the minister talked about how the restructure of the health department would be the panacea for all the government’s woes in ACT Health, including its culture. It is a pity that the minister’s statements are little more than that. They are statements—motherhood statements, actually. They do not bear any resemblance to reality. So that all members have the opportunity to see the minister’s letter, I seek leave to table the minister’s letter to me dated yesterday, 14 August.
Leave granted.
MRS DUNNE: I present the following paper:
ACT Health—Workplace culture—Copy of letter to Mrs Dunne from the Minister for Health and Wellbeing, dated 14 August 2018.
The minister, in her letter, gently chastised me for not referring to her officers the complaints that come to me. There are a couple of reasons why I do not do this. People who complain to me do so because they do not trust either the government or the public service to treat them respectfully. They do so because they fear reprisals from their bosses—not just from their immediate bosses but from bosses all the way up the food chain.
There are plenty of examples of this fear becoming a reality. The story I told last fortnight about Charlie was a case in point. People make complaints to me on the express condition that I do not disclose their complaints to the minister. I will quote
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