Page 3010 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 15 August 2018
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from an email that I received in my office this morning: “I cannot reveal my identity as ACT PS would make my life unpleasant. I must be anonymous.” This person provided me with some information. The person concludes, “Kind regards, but, PS, please protect my identity.”
That is why most of what I hear I do not refer directly to the ministers. However, when there are things that are more publicly available, I do refer them to the ministers. I will be doing that in response to the minister’s letter later this week.
Why is it, Madam Speaker, that people want their complaints to be dealt with confidentially? It is because they fear that they will find their way back into the department, up the line and back to their immediate bosses, and that that will be the end of them. They fear reprisals. This is often further exacerbated by a top level management culture that seeks to protect their own at all costs. The bottom line is that the culture is such that workers are afraid. They are afraid for their jobs, their health, their wellbeing, their families and their friends.
Quite contrary to the minister’s assurances, staff in the ACT health system do not feel safe, supported and respected at work. The psychological impact can be horrendous. I again refer to Charlie’s case. The culture of bullying and harassment is entrenched. The culture is what drives the ACT health system. This culture is institutionalised in the ACT health system.
The bullying culture that we have seen is exemplified in the medical imaging department in the Canberra Hospital system, which is the main thrust of the motion today. Many of the issues that have arisen in the medical imaging department have been, as far as I can tell, the subject of public interest disclosures. But there are real concerns about the way that public interest disclosures have been dealt with. I raised these issues in general terms in estimates hearings in June.
Some of the disclosers in the ACT health system and some in the medical imaging department want to disclose to me, as is their right, under the Public Interest Disclosure Act, subject, of course, to certain criteria. In those cases, the question as to whether the criteria have been activated is murky. It is murky because of the way the government and the officials have handled it. It is murky because the government has made it difficult to see whether these public interest disclosures have been processed in accordance with the act.
There have been interminable delays. It has been uncertain as to whether they have even been accepted as public interest disclosures at all. There has been little, if any, feedback to the disclosers. They have not been consulted about who might investigate their concerns or whether they would be investigated. It is very murky, Madam Speaker. The disclosers do not know what their legal status is, nor do they know what their rights are. This is because government officials have closed ranks. There are some issues in medical imaging raised in these PIDs that cannot be raised in this place today because their status is simply unclear. So today I simply draw the Assembly’s attention to the fact that there are public interest disclosures that relate to medical imaging and that they need to be investigated properly and promptly.
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