Bad Apple Bullies

Tips For Queensland teachers: How to deal with workplace bullies.

News about the working conditions of Australian classroom teachers and about Public Service workplace bullying, mobbing, discrimination and victimisation or "payback".

Responsibility for any election comment is taken by Robina Cosser, 105 Collins Avenue, Edge Hill, QLD 4870.

Whistleblowers Australia - Brisbane conference.

25-28 November 2010

National Conference : Whistleblowers Action Group and Whistleblowers Australia.

Emmanuel College, University of Queensland.

More information : See page 12 of the April 2010 edition of The Whistle.

Is placating - rather than acting - a systemic problem in the Queensland public service?

30 July 2010

Secret health tribunal documents have revealed that Dr Darren Keating, Dr Jayant Patel's boss, has been banned from ever working as a senior medical administrator in public or private hospitals.

The documents reveal that Dr Keating was found to have -

  • failed to pursue multiple complaints about Dr Patel from health professionals and patients
  • misled his superiors and the Medical Board of Queensland.

Dr Keating gave glowing performance reports on Patel.

In the most damning evidence filed in the disciplinary proceeding, Dr Andre Nel, a New Zealand medical expert said Dr Keating should have probed complaints by medical staff and patients, and that had the concerns raised been investigated appropriately, "it is likely that Dr Patel's practice would have been restricted''.



Health tribunal hearings and actions normally are open under state law.

But Judge Julie M. Dick shut the case to public scrutiny to avoid prejudicing the Patel trial.

Relatives of Patel's victims say Judge Julie M. Dick's decision to shut the case to public scrutiny has limited the exposure of Dr Keating and Queensland Health to criticism.

 

Dr Keating also provided his own eight-page statement in his defence, where he blamed bad systems, a toxic workplace and lack of support.

"I was operating within a dysfunctional health service," Dr Keating argued.

The tribunal evidence paints a picture of a deeply flawed health system that put lives of patients at risk.

 

The tribunal findings largely confirm the criticism of Dr Keating by the 2005 Davies Inquiry into the deaths of Dr Patel's patients.

Commissioner Geoff Davies recommended Dr Keating be referred to police.

But the Queensland police took no action.

And the previous administration of Queensland's Crime and Misconduct commission took no action.

Member for Burnett Rob Messenger wrote to current CMC chairman Martin Moynihan seeking a new probe of criminality.

Mr Moynihan is reviewing whether authorities were wrong in not pursuing charges against Dr Keating.

This article interests me because -

  •  If Dr Darren Keating has been banned fron ever working as an administrator again, then surely senior officers of Education Queensland who fail to conduct investigations properly should also be banned from ever working as administrators again?

 

  • If all Queensland MP's were independent, like Rob Messenger, would more corruption be exposed? Would the Queensland public service work better for ordinary Queenslanders?

 

  • Dr Andre Nel found that "Dr Keating apparently tried to placate the complainants without appropriate investigation."

This was exactly my own experience of Education Queensland practices. 

When I complained about the systemic abuse of the Diminished Workplace performance process and the Grievance process to bully Queensland classroom teachers, I was placated and given assurances that the bullying was under control.

Months later I realised that the bully had actually been promoted in response to my complaint.

Is 'placating rather than acting' a systemic problem in the Queensland public service?

Queensland children are at risk of violent abuse in school toilets.

25 July 2010

In Queensland, "five-year-olds just starting school are at risk of violent abuse by older children in school toilets," says University of South Australia Child development expert Professor Freda Briggs.

"When we talk about child s-x offenders, most people assume we are referring to deviant adults.

Few realise that children of all ages are at risk of rape and s-xual assault by other children, even in junior schools."

 

Professor Briggs said she knew of at least 10 cases of s-x assaults by children against other children in Queensland schools in 2008-09.

Professor Briggs claims that many of the cases were not taken seriously by authorities.

 

Prof Briggs reveals claims that three five-year-old boys were s-xually assaulted by six-year-olds at a Cairns school.

"Two Prep boys allegedly accosted others going to the toilet," Prof Briggs said.

"Victims were forced to remove their pants and the boys urinated on them.

The school principal was criticised for failing to take action and not informing victims' parents.

"The cases ... have been swept under the carpet and victims have to leave the schools while the perpetrators remain."

 

Australian Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research figures show that five years ago there were 13 s-xual assaults committed by children but last year there were 68.

"Schools continue to push these problems under the carpet," Professor Briggs said.

"Boys are abused in school toilets, in classrooms when teachers are absent, ... at camps, ... and sports changing rooms.

Three boys from Years 1 and 2 were also alleged to have s-xually assaulted classmates in separate incidents at a Brisbane school in 2009.

An Education Queensland spokesman confirmed one of two year 1 boys, who performed s-x acts on two of their female classmates in the school's junior toilets in June, had been involved in similar episodes in March and April.

But the March and April incidents, which also took place in the toilets and were reported to the Department of Child Safety and Queensland Police Service, did not involve girls, only boys.

There have been five incidents in total at the school.

Parents of two of the three girls have since removed their daughters from the school.

This article interests me because I was attacked for discouraging a student from using the public toilets in Cairns City Place during a short excursion.

I had concerns about the risk of the child being abused because there were two entrances to the public toilet so it was very difficult to supervise.

And there are always an odd assortment of  people 'hanging about' City Place.

I was verbally abused in public by the boys' mother for trying to protect her child.

I was later told by the acting principal that I was 'humiliating' the boy and that this 'was a disciplinary offence'.

I was forced to agree over and over again that I had done the 'wrong thing'.

Bruce Flegg questions Julie Grantham about the Asbestolux that has been found in Queensland schools.

Shadow education minister Bruce Flegg has wrung from the Queensland Education Department an admission that Asbestolux has been found in many Queensland schools.

Asbestolux boards are soft and crumble to the touch.

Fibres can be released with only minimal disturbance.

The Queensland Government was warned of the Asbestolux problem in December 2007.

Queensland parents have been denied the right to know about this threat to their children's safety.

Parents seem to have been denied this right either through political deviousness or through departmental arrogance.

 

Bruce Flegg was able to question Education Department director-general Julie Grantham about Asbestoslux during the parliamentary Estimates hearings.

The Estimates hearings have demonstrated that the Queensland government parliamentary committee system is in dire need of reform.

There is limited opportunity for Opposition MPs to question ministers.

The Clerk of the Parliament, Neil Laurie, says the parliamentary committee system is defective in terms of its ability to scrutinise government.

There is no right to regularly question key public service chiefs such as Julie Grantham, the director-general of education, without prior ministerial approval.

These public servants run departments spending billions of taxpayer dollars.

Their performance has enormous impact on the daily lives of Queenslanders, yet they are protected from proper parliamentary scrutiny.

 

Labor MP Judy Spence is chairing a special review of the parliamentary committee syatem.

  • System fails to scrutinise government, Editorial, p.40, The Courier-Mail  : 23 July 2010
  • Kids' lives put at risk, Editorial, p. 52, The Sunday Mail, 25 July 2010
  • Asbestos 'cover-up' : New threat hits schools, David Murray, p.17, The Sunday Mail : 25 July 2010.

When you 'set up' the Queensland public service to fail the Queensland public, what do you expect to happen?

21 July 2010

A Queensland public servant who worked for the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation was subjected to a "torrent of abuse, threats and intimidation" from a 65-year-old man.

His phone abuse also included suggestions that "the Premier and everyone involved was somehow corrupt," Crown prosecutor Glen Cash said.

The man had made several phonecalls to the female public servant.

Between April 14 and July 2 last year, his phone manner became abusive and threatening.

He referred to the female public servant as "a f---ing bitch" and referred to someone else he had dealt with in the department as "a f---ing liar", Mr Cash said.

Defence barrister April Freeman argued her client may have been "terse" on the phone to the female public servant but said the female public servant was probably exaggerating about words her client had used towards her.

Ms Freeman said her client had been exercising his democratic right to complain about his electricity bill and he had not intended to speak to the same female public servant each time he phoned.

But Crown prosecutor Glen Cash told the jury the 65-year-old man's behaviour was "unnecessary and inexcusable abuse by a man who could not let go."

It amazes me that this does not happen more often.

If you 'set up' the Queensland public service to lose complaints, 'misunderstand' complaints, 'find no evidence of', to drive people mad with frustration and force them to 'let go', well then, of course they will become angry and irrational.

And then ... problem solved!

The problem then becomes the applicant's behaviour rather than the applicant's problem.

So much easier.

Peter Dutton says that people in Dixon are angry about the way in which the ALP union heavies deposed Kevin Rudd.

21 July 2010

"Many people raise with me a reluctance to vote for my opponent because she is a trade union representative," says Peter Dutton, Shadow Health Minister and Local member for Dickson.

His Labor opponent, for the second time running, is Fiona McNamara, former Albany Creek High School teacher, Queensland Teachers Union assistant secretary, and now QTU organiser.

Ms McNamara, 40, bristles at suggestions she is a "union hack".

Mr Dutton says the way the ALP union heavies removed Kevin Rudd remains a talking point with voters.

"I have been very surprised about how much feeling and sentiment there is on the ground and it it is reflected in polling I have seen, both published and unpublished," he said.

"People, whether they were Kevin Rudd supporters or not, are angry about Julia Gillard's role and the way in which Kevin Rudd was deposed."

And "the thing that is palpable in this election campaign is that in the last couple of months ... this government has squandered their opportunity.

"The people are angry with the waste, people feel insecure in their jobs and ... nobody that I can talk to on the ground believes they are better off today than they were three years ago."

His ALP opponent disagrees.

"I'm not getting a lot of it," Ms McNamara said.

AJ Brown thinks he sees change but all I can see in Queensland are shiny new brochures. We need total cultural change in the Queensland public service. Only then will it be safe for Queensland teachers to engage in professional discussion.

16 July 2010

There is a need to recognise that public employers are under a duty of care to support and protect their employees, as a condition of providing them with a safe and healthy workplace, and recognising employees' duty to report wrongdoing.

Studies led by AJ Brown of Griffith University have revealed that hundreds of agencies are not recognising and supporting their whistleblowers.

In many cases, this is despite being under statutory obligations for years to develop effective procedures and systems.

Now Queensland and most Australian governments are developing new public integrity systems to guard against official wrongdoing and ensure it is flushed out.

Sadly, I see no evidence to support this statement.

New shiny Queensland public service brochures may have been produced, but nothing seems to have changed.

And the Bad Apples do not read the brochures or follow the official polices.

The Bad Apples have their own informal 'kill the messenger' policies.

The need is not for shiny brochures to encourage Queensland whistleblowers to speak out - the need is for a 100% change in the Queensland public service 'kill the messenger' culture.

Only then will it be safe for whistleblowers to speak out - and safe for Queensland classroom teachers to engage in simple professional discussion.

Only then will change be possible - only then will anything improve.

We know from experience that a whistleblower's reasonable concerns sometimes still have to end up in the public domain before effective action is taken.

The whistleblower should also able to claim legal protection against penalisation or damage to their career, if forced to go beyond official channels.

The position announced in March by federal cabinet and Special Minister of State Joe Ludwig means that federal public servants who blow the whistle on a serious matter of wrongdoing, which is not dealt with in a timely and adequate way within the public sector, will still be protected.

Legal protection will extend to a whistleblower who goes outside official channels only if they reveal "no more information than is reasonably necessary" to ensure the matter is acted on.

And the court or tribunal deciding their claim must be satisfied that the public interest in disclosure outweighs countervailing public interest factors.

Make what sense you can of that.

To me the emphasis seems to be on frightening whistleblowers with these incomprehensible rules.

The federal government has now done the heavy lifting in finding a practical new blueprint for this element of whistleblower protection.

Australians can look forward to state governments following suit, and reshaping their whistleblowing laws to make them actually work.

Did you find any evidence that any government really wants the whistleblowing laws to work, AJ?

Because nothing seems to be working in Queensland.

If you have a problem or a concern, tell Mount Isa Labor MP Betty Kiernan.

Former Xstrata employee Wendy Christie sent two emails to Mount Isa Labor MP Betty Kiernan.

Mrs Kiernan contacted Xstrata chief Steve de Kruijff twice to tell him that Wendy Christie was contacting her from an Xstrata account.

Wendy Christie was sacked.

 - I presume that Wendy Christie must have contacted Ms Kiernan to explain what had happened and to ask for her help -

"I certainly feel your sadness," Mrs Kiernan, an Australian Workers' Union faction member, replied to Wendy Christie.

"If you believe that you have been unfairly treated by your employer then you most certainly should take this matter to your union or Fair Work Australia."

 

The CMC say that they cannot investigate an elected official unless the matter could possibly involve a criminal offence.

  • MP's advice : tell your union, Patrick Lion, p.30, The Sunday Mail, 18 July 2010

Have we normalised child abuse in Australia?

A report on violence in sport by the United Nations' Children's Fund (UNICEF) released last week said that 'sexual violence against children in sport in Australia could be as high as 8 per cent'.

But the real level of sexual abuse may actually be higher.

Dr Trisha Leahy has surveyed 370 elite and club athletes in Australia.

Dr Leahy found that 31 per cent of female and 21 per cent of male athletes reported sexual abuse under the age of 18.

Of these, 41 per cent of females and 29 per cent of males said the abuse occurred in a sporting context.

 

Dr Leahy's research also suggests that Australia is unique in the world for having a coaching culture that encourages "extreme psychological abuse".

"What we found was the complete normalisation of psychologically abusive behaviour by coaches ... I mean coaches screaming at kids," she said.

 

It seems strange that classroom behaviour in Australia is so poor because so many Australian students are out of control and their teachers are too afraid to assert discipline, but parents willingly send their children off after school to be abused at sport.

 

And is there any wonder that Australians are so fearful when so many of them seem to be abused as children?

Have we normalised child abuse in Australia?

Have we normalised dysfunction?

Is that why our pollies are so eager to tell us all about their own childhood experiences of alcoholism, homelessness, poverty, etc?

  • 'World beaters' in abuse, Simon Kearney, p. 40, The Sunday Mail, 18 July 2010.

Gary Barnes confirms that the Northern Territory - and all other states - compile secret 'dirt files' on blacklisted teachers.

16 July 2010

The Northern Territory Education Department has dirt files on a blacklist of teachers it has banned.

Dr Robert Bartholomew claims that he and his wife simply asked - on behalf of the aboriginal school community - if their NT school was safe.

They had found a health inspector's report calling for immediate testing of the school grounds for apparent asbestos.

Dr Bartholomew claims that the NT government refused to tell them if the school was safe.

And that he and his wife were blacklisted.

The Northern Territory News has obtained the Department's recently created policy on how bureaucrats should officially manage the NT teachers' blacklist.

Called Teachers Unsuitable for Further Employment, the policy explains how the "database" contains "relevant details about the person", including information on why they have been marked as unsuitable.

"A person listed on the database will not be offered employment with the department as a teacher on either a temporary or permanent basis," it states.

The policy is not on the department's website, unlike the other policies.

 

Gary Barnes used to be a senior executive in Education Queensland.

Now he is chief executive of the Northern Territory Education Department Department.

Gary Barnes said in a statement that all other jurisdictions - and I can only presume that he includes the Queensland Department of Education - had similar practices in relation to hiring former employees.

The readers' comments on this article are interesting.

Bruce Flegg says that the Queensland government asbestos management plans are not working.

14 July 2010

Queensland opposition education spokesman Bruce Flegg says the latest incidents of asbestos at two schools in north Queensland show the State Government's management plans are not working.

An investigation is underway into asbestos concerns at the schools in Townsville and Mackay.

"This is a pattern right across the state, particularly bad in central and north Queensland, with many different schools for example, in the Mackay area, having been affected now over the course of many months," he said.

"The Government keeps reassuring us that they've got it right and clearly they haven't."

"It is just not good enough to keep getting excuses for something we've now known about for many, many years.

15 July 2010

An inquiry, conducted by Roger Gyles, QC, has heard that HMAS Success allegedly had a predatory culture among some sections of the male crew, particularly in the engineering department, which led to  female crew members being bullied or sexually harassed.

Petty Officer Smith, a whistleblower who raised concerns about the sexual harassment, had complained to the chaplain that Chief Petty Officer Jason Thomas in the ship's engine room had told him he would be transferred from the ship and that he would be thrown through a wall or a bulkhead.

"Petty Officer Smith told me ... he feared for his life," Chaplain Senini said.

Chaplain Senini said that in her role as pastor she had gone with Petty Officer Smith to report his fears to senior officers but they had been dismissive and not taken him seriously.

John-Paul Langbroek calls for a CMC investigation into the culture of the Bligh government - 'poor standards filter down to all Queensland public servants'.

13 July 2010

Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek last month wrote to Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) chairman Martin Moynihan seeking a CMC investigation into the culture of the Bligh government

He asked Mr Moynihan to look into "how the culture of government and the standards and expectation set by the premier and government ministers impacts on the decisions of all public servants".

Mr Langbroek last month told reporters poor standards at the top filtered down to all public servants.

But on June 30, in a letter to Mr Langbroek, Mr Moynihan said such an inquiry was outside the CMC's scope.

Lawrence Springborg urges former Queensland Cabinet Minister Gordon Nuttall to 'blow the whistle' when he speaks to parliament.

9 July 2010

Former Queensland Cabinet Minister Gordon Nuttall is poised to face the Queensland Parliament in his prison browns.

Deputy Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg wants Mr Nuttall to take this opportunity to "blow the whistle" on Labor figures involved in corruption.

Now this really could be interesting.

The Queensland Director of Public Prosecutions has struck a deal for at least $454,000 from the sale of Gordon Nuttall's properties for restitution and court costs.

The Crime and Misconduct Commission is seeking the proceeds of crime.

This entails the sale of Mr Nuttall's property at Woodgate, near Childers, which is valued at $800,000.

Mr Nuttall's daughter Kim - a single mother - and four of his grandchildren will be evicted from the home he provided for them.

His daughter said the additional $72,000 fine recommended by the Queensland Parliament's integrity, ethics and parliamentary privileges committee amounted to a "vendetta" against Mr Nuttall as he was already paying his debt to society.

Mr Nuttall has also agreed that a further $241,500 be set aside, should he be convicted on a second round of corruption-related charges, set to go to trial in Brisbane in September.

Ms Nuttall said yesterday: "Dad is just being used as a scapegoat and they are going to enormous lengths to break him financially and in spirit.

Mr Nuttall's son, Andrew, 31, said his father had been "degraded, humiliated and worn down to nothing and made to look like a criminal".

"The DPP and CMC have taken away his freedom and ... they have persecuted him and us as a family . . . We are struggling to see where the justice lies in any of this."

Another daughter, Lisa Adams, said Nuttall had been at a disadvantage in defending himself because his assets had been frozen and he could not access funds to pay for his legal representation.

You have to wonder - in the sea of corruption in Queensland, why Gordon Nuttall in particular has been 'turned on' by his old Labor mates in this way.

And has Mr Nuttall really had justice when he has not been allowed proper legal representation?

I hope Gordon Nuttall does turn up in parliament in his prison clothes and handcuffs.

And that he really spills the beans.

New mandatory reporting laws will force Queensland Health professionals to 'dob in' incompetent doctors.

9 July 2010

Slater and Gordon solicitor Margaret Brain, who specialises in medical negligence, said she would support publication of decisions regarding professional misconduct.

But in the meantime she said she hoped new mandatory reporting laws forcing health professionals to dob in an employee who was unwell, or practising incompetently or unethically, would "prevent a repeat of what happened at Bundaberg Hospital".

"Serial offenders ... should not be allowed to practise, or at the very least the public should be warned," she said.

But ...

"The effect this may have is to increase rapidly the number of investigations they need to do, and that can actually – apart from causing fear and panic for both patients and doctors – also cost money, and we don't want money taken from areas of clinical need to fund this," Australian Medical Association Queensland president Gino Pecoraro said.

But Mr Pecoraro, your patients have a clinical need to be treated by competent doctors.

NAPLAN has forced the Queensland government to take action on the 'dreadful' literacy and numeracy in Queensland schools.

8 July 2010

A federal inquiry is examining the administration and reporting of the NAPLAN tests.

Teachers at Moggill State School have found that preparing children for NAPLAN has caused the most disastrous impact on teaching time in the classroom.

"The extra time spent on NAPLAN has to come from somewhere and other important areas have had to take a back seat.

"The pressure to continue to improve, even when the marks are high, is unreasonable on students and staff."

The Queensland Council of Parents and Citizens' Associations said parents reported their children were "physically sick leading up to testing".

But James Cook University Professor Peter Ridd said the exams had sparked action on the "dreadful" literacy and numeracy standards in Queensland schools.

7 July 2010

Teachers working in England will be granted anonymity if complaints are made about them - in a bid to prevent their careers being ruined by "malicious" claims.

English Teachers will also get tougher powers - and clearer guidance on using physical force - to deal with unruly pupils.

Courts will be told to heed new guidlines on force being used to remove youngsters from classrooms or restrain troublemakers.

Anyone handling complaints about teachers will be "made aware that teachers can apply discipline in the classroom for the safety of all the pupils... and in the interests of maintaining order".

The Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission is now 'a farce and a shambles'.

6 July 2010

The Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission is now "a farce and a shambles".

That is the view of the Queensland Council of Civil Liberties president Michael Cope and Opposition police spokesman Vaughan Johnson, who said the CMC's structure had failed and needed a complete revamp.

"People have lost complete confidence in the process and they have reason to," Mr Cope told The Courier-Mail.

Ombudsman Don Brown urges the Queensland government to give employees the right to request compulsory mediation with bully bosses.

6 July 2010

In just the first three months of this year, more than 360 people complained about workplace bullying to Queensland ombudsman Don Brown.

Some of the bullying was so severe complainants said they had considered self-harm or suicide, Mr Brown said.

Mr Brown said even more concerning was the reluctance of management to intervene.

Some workers claimed they had been fired or given fewer hours after reporting the alleged bullying.

Mr Brown has urged the Queensland government to change workplace safety laws.

In his latest quarterly report due to be tabled in Parliament shortly, Mr Brown said employees should be given the right to request compulsory mediation with their bosses to resolve workplace bullying.

"I don't think it would make much difference to the overall incidence of bullying [but] it would guarantee that person who felt they were being bullied had access to air their grievances in a compulsory conference chaired by a commissioner," Mr Brown said.

 

Queensland Council of Unions general secretary Ron Monaghan said bullying was an ongoing issue across the state.

"I think there's been a growing awareness for at least the last three to four years that we have to address this," Mr Monaghan said.

"People ... do not go to work to be injured, to be bullied."

Victorian teachers say parents undermine them. More than one third of Victorian teachers have considered resigning from teaching.

17 November 2009   ( Published on Bad Apple Bullies 5 July 2010.)

A Herald Sun survey of more than 1000 teachers has revealed that almost 80 per cent of Victorian teachers say parents are undermining the authority of teachers by questioning their decisions on classroom discipline and teaching methods.

The survey revealed more than a third of Victorian secondary school teachers had considered resigning in the past year and 49 per cent of them listed stress as the main reason, followed by low morale.

Presumably some teachers actually did resign, so this is more than one third of the teachers who are left in the system.

Many teachers listed parents as one of the biggest problems in their battle to maintain discipline and lift education standards.

"They ... question every decision made at teacher and principal level," one teacher said.

"They can be very verbal, aggressive and domineering, yet are not prepared to provide discipline to their children."

Teachers described parents as obnoxious, unsupportive and too quick to side with their children rather than believe "their little angels" could do something wrong and needed disciplining.

The survey revealed 52 per cent of all teachers believe students no longer respect them, with that figure rising to 61 per cent of Victorian secondary school teachers.

We must hold Queensland public servants - and ministers - responsible for their negligence.

3 July 2010

It's hard to forgive a system that recruited, promoted and protected the former director of surgery at the Bundaberg Base Hospital.

Jayant Patel was the symptom of a problem - Queensland Health and how it operates was definitely the cause.

Queensland Health and, my own experience suggests to me, the whole of the rest of the Queensland public service.

Who was responsible for recruiting Jayant Patel?

Who will be held accountable for failing to check whether he was suitable and credentialed to do the job he was being appointed to do?

Why was he promoted?

Why wasn't the refrain of dissatisfaction and concern by co-workers ever taken seriously?

Deputy Premier and Health Minister Paul Lucas says mistakes were made, and have been fixed.

That's not good enough!

Queensland Health remains riddled with inefficiencies, a lack of transparency, bureaucratic bungling and an inability to adopt the culture it needs to move forward.

And all voters have to placate their concerns is the assurances of the Health Minister that all is OK.

Comments on this story -

Chris of Redcliffe, Queensland  - The Sold Out State.

Madonna, This article of yours has improved my opinion of journalists tremendously...It was well put together, well thought out, easy to understand and soooo true!

As an ex Registered Nurse no longer working with 'Qld Filth' after bullying because I was a whistle blower (No compensation for me - just heartache and no job now), I was so thrilled to see an article that hopefully will rattle the cages and sort out out the irresponsible no-hopers that are supposed to be the leaders of this crumbling health system of ours.

The Queensland Public Sector Union calls for Queensland Health Minister Paul Lucas to resign.

3 July 2010

Alex Scott, the general secretary of Queensland's Public Sector Union, said Queenslanders can now join an internet campaign at www.Standupstepdown.com  where they may register their calls for Deputy Premier and Health Minister Paul Lucas to resign.

Mr Scott said the issue went beyond the failed computer system to the matter of ministerial responsibility for a “catastrophic” failure of public administration.

If Mr Lucas does not resign, rolling protests will continue in hospitals and the community, Mr Scott said.

“This campaign won't go away,” he said.

“The community should determine when ministers step down, not politicians.

“If Paul Lucas doesn't step down, the concept of ministerial accountability in public administration is dead,” Mr Scott said.

What is wrong with the Australian version of democracy? Why do we keep voting for such hopeless characters?

3 July 2010

Kevin Rudd's personality got in the way of his -- and Labor's -- credibility and success.

How could a man so bright, so driven, so positioned for achievement and success come undone so badly and, for some, so suddenly?

Many who worked with Rudd in Queensland openly loathe him.

He was awkward in public situations: his robotic hand gestures, his clumsy friendliness, his shameless resort to slang.

Rudd has IQ in spades, but he has had to work hard on his EQ, his emotional intelligence.

The bookish boy who grew up in hard circumstances in Queensland, on the outer at times with his peers and missing a father who died when he was 11, has always worked to construct himself.

This is similar to Peter Beattie's story of being brought up by his grandparents.

And Anna Bligh's story of her hard-working single mother and alcoholic father.

Australian voters seem to be attracted to leaders who had difficult childhoods.

Julia Gillard could not claim a hard childhood - but she claimed that her father had a hard childhood - in Wales.

And because of her father's hard childhood - in Wales - she felt driven to become Prime Minister of Australia - make what sense of that that you can.

In November 2009 Rudd took a quick detour to Afghanistan on his way to India.

On the ground with the troops he was a top bloke, announcing he wants to "have a yack with youse all".

Why does he do this, retreat to language that is out of date, embarrassing and underlines his insecurity?

Rudd's use of out-of-date Aussie language may be explained by the years that he has spent overseas.

Rudd was competitive to the point of being mean-spirited, determined to win every point.

His colleagues realised early on that he was a ditherer with a short attention span.

And Rudd is not our only blooper.

We nearly voted for Mark Latham as Australian Prime Minister.

Why do we keep voting for such unsuitable people?

Something is very wrong with the way that democracy is working in Australia.

3 July 2010

Rural incentives for medical practitioners - a sweetener of $120,000 just to take up a six-figure salary job, on top of provided safe and modern housing and allowances - are ridiculous.

I am a qualified teacher with more than eight years' tertiary education, and wide experience in a variety of school systems in different states and overseas, as well as experience in bush schools, tertiary institutions and jails.

I could apply for a position as a teacher in the Northern Territory and, if successful, I would receive at most $64,641 a year before tax.

No rural incentive, tax-free or otherwise.

And I'd have no choice of my placement.

I sometimes wish my trade union were as strong as the AMA.

  • J. Evans, Narrabundah, ACT, Perks make me sick, Commentary, p.15, The Weekend Australian, July 3-4 2010.

I agree with this comment.

In 1990, when I was working on Thursday Island, a public servant working for the Department of Foreign Affairs was provided with his own three bedroom house, a car and a boat.

While I, a well-qualified and experienced teacher, was expected to share a very basic flat with another teacher.

Thursday July 1, 2010

What causes bullies to be bullies?

A recent study suggests that there’s a biological explanation why some people experience joy in the pain of others.

Researchers at the University of Chicago used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to study eight boys aged between 16 and 18 diagnosed with conduct disorder to another group with no unusual signs of aggression.

The two groups were shown video clips of people suffering pain accidentally and intentionally.

According to neuroscientist Dr Jean Decety, professor of pyschology and psychiatry of the university, aggressive adolescents showed a specific and very strong activation of the amygdala and ventral striatum in their brains when seeing pain inflicted on others.

He said this suggested that they enjoyed watching the sufferers.

The other group, meanwhile, appeared naturally empathetic towards the people in pain.

Generally, studies have shown that bullies often display behaviour which fits diagnosis for narcissistic personality disorder. It is primarily characterised by self-importance and lack of empathy for others.

People with this disorder over-estimate their abilities and inflate their accomplishments but in reality have fragile self-esteem and need constant attention.

Does this describe anybody you know?

It certainly describes my bully.

Get tough on bullies, Along the Watchtower, M.Veera Pandiyan, The Star : http://thestar.com.my/columnists/story.asp?file=/2010/7/1/columnists/alongthewatchtower/6580958&sec=alongthewatchtower

Toni Hoffman says that whistleblowing is not easy - it destroys the whistleblower, their co-workers and their organisation.

30 June 2010

In Brisbane, Annie Guest reports.

ANNIE GUEST: When Jayant Patel arrived in Bundaberg on April Fool's Day in 2003, his history of grossly negligent practice in the United States wasn't known to Australian authorities, his co-workers, or his patients.

At least three of them died because of this and one is maimed for life.

There's been several inquiries, procedural changes and at least $16 million spent to stop it happening again.

So could it?

ANNIE GUEST: Tony Morris QC led the first judicial inquiry, until it was abandoned over concerns of bias.

He welcomes efforts to improve the system, but remains concerned that public health is run as a business, rather than a community service citing this example from the Patel saga.

TONY MORRIS: Part of it was also just simple cost cutting, ... I mean, one of the things that is very apparent is that were highly trained competent Australian educated surgeons who were willing to go to Bundaberg to take this position, but it was cheaper and easier to get Jayant Patel.

ANNIE GUEST: Another who is concerned not enough has changed is the nurse who blew the whistle on Patel, Toni Hoffman.

TONI HOFFMAN: Not for whistleblower doctors, I don't believe.

There is a culture of protecting colleagues.

ANNIE GUEST: Now you were the nurse who blew the whistle on Patel. Is it any easier for nurses to blow the whistle now?

TONI HOFFMAN: I don't think it's any easier.

I think that it's still something that is very difficult.

It destroys the person who's doing it, the organisation that they work for, their fellow co-workers; it shouldn't ever have to come to that.

ANNIE GUEST: Toni Hoffman says she's still recovering from her experience as a whistleblower, which she says has had a profound effect on her life.

Toni Hoffman, whistleblower nurse, stood up for her patients and has seen justice done at last.

Toni Hoffman, the nurse who first blew the whistle on Patel, was embraced by former patients at the Bundaberg court house after the guilty verdict.

"This is a huge victory for patient safety and patient advocacy and for standing up for what's right," Ms Hoffman said.

She said this was the end of the Patel saga for her.

"I think we have to draw a line in the sand somewhere and for me this is the end. I don't have anything to say to him."

Also outside court was local MP Rob Messenger, who many patients applauded for helping bring the case to light.

Something very odd seems to be going on at the Queensland CMC.

25 June 2010

Martin Moynihan was one of three people who selected Warren Strange as the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission's Assistant Commissioner of Misconduct ahead of directors Helen Couper and Russell Pearce.

Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart and CMC Commissioner Ann Gummow were also on the interview panel.

and

Gary Long SC's appointment as the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee's commissioner means he will now be investigating complaints against the CMC and its staff.

Gary Long approved the Palm Island police report, which was later panned by the CMC as biased and lacking in detail.

CMC director of misconduct investigations, Russell Pearce, now faces investigation by Mr Long.

Three senior Queensland Crime and Misconduct commission officers have now been stood down.

23 June 2010

The Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission has now stood down three senior CMC officers, all of whom are now facing investigation.

The CMC director of misconduct investigations, Russell Peace, was stood down yesterday on full pay.

Mr Pearce was informed of his stand-down by letter but given no further explanation by his employer nor by CMC chairman Martin Moynihan.

The CMC has revealed it has asked the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee to investigate Russell Pearce over the allegedly unauthorised release of information.

But the PCMC are useless - they will just send the complaint to the CMC and allow the CMC to investigate themselves.

Mr Pearce is the second CMC director to be stood down by new chairperson Martin Moynihan since he took over the position in February.

CMC Director of Research Dr Margot Legosz and her deputy Angela Carr have also been stood down on full pay.

23 June 2010

Having named at least six officers who he believes should face disciplinary action, CMC chairman Martin Moynihan has made it clear that the Queensland Police commissioner should “rise to the occasion”.

Whatever the cause of his injuries, the fact that medical treatment was not immediately sought for injured prisoner Cameron Doomadgee hangs heavily over the entire affair.

This is true, and it is a point that has not often been made.

Opposition leader Jean-Paul Langbroek has called for a “full inquiry, with royal commission powers, into the culture of corruption and cover-up across the Bligh Labor government”.

He quoted the Fitzgerald Inquiry finding that:

“A government which is self serving and cynical will likewise have a bureaucracy which wholly or partially reflects the same attitude.”

22 June 2010
Anyone who thinks Labor Premier Kevin Rudd was joking when he directed one line to the miners in his excruciating speech at the Press Gallery Midwinter Ball is kidding themselves.
It was only 10 words: "Can I say, guys, we've got a very long memory."
It was enough.
Message sent and received.
Nobody laughed when he said it.
Even some of his own Labor staff sat there stony faced.

Queensland Police Service - are Queensland police officers properly trained? Are they being bullied into bending the law?

Shine Lawyers are acting for former Queensland police officer Lee Scutts, who is seeking almost $2.3 million in compensation for the under-resourcing, inadequate training and bullying that he alleges that he experienced in the Queensland Police Service.

Mr Scutts alleges that he became a target for bullying after refusing orders from bosses to bend laws on handling child abuse investigations.

He was medically retired in 2008, after 17 years in the service.

Documents filed in support of his claim raise questions about the training and support given to Queensland police, and the standards of investigations as a result.

The Queensland Police Service denies the allegations and says it will defend the case.

  • Service hit by more allegations, David Murray, p. 12, The Sunday Mail, 20 June 2010.

Education Queensland executive is an activist against ... himself?

On 1 March 2010, Leigh Schelks, Education Queensland's Executive Director of Innovative School Improvement - whatever that might mean in a Queensland context - was only two links away from the Director-General of Education and the Minister of Education on the Department of Education and Training Organisational Structure - I March 2010.

But one month later, in the 4 June 2010 issue of The Queensland Teachers' Journal, Leigh was shown hugging and being hugged by John Battams, Grace Grace - Labor Member for Brisbane Central -and QTU president Steve Ryan.

Leigh was named Outstanding Delegate / Activist of the Year at the Queensland Council of Union's Labor Day Awards.

You have to wonder -

Leigh is a member of the Education Queensland executive.

So who or what has Leigh been active against?

Himself?

And Grace Grace is a member of the Queensland Labor Government.

So why is she hugging and congratulating an "activist"?

It all seems very strange.

Are Queensland Teachers' Union "activists" running Education Queensland?

Or are Education Queensland senior executives running the QTU?

Isn't there some sort of conflict of interest here?

Should senior officers of Education Queensland really remain members of the QTU?

And ...

I have spoken to each of these people about the abuse of Queensland teachers.

I told Grace Grace that bullied teachers were advised by the QTU that there was no hope of justice and to "accept the things that cannot change".

Grace told me that she found this hard to believe.

I urged her to discuss the situation with the QTU.

So ...

What exactly have this group of four hugging "activists" done for bullied Queensland classroom teachers?

And in what sense are any of them "activists"?

Rational Avoidance of Accountability : Mark Lauchs.

"Governments will endeavour to balance a public perception of being accountable with an actual unaccountable regime."

Mark Lauchs, p. 304, Rational Avoidance of Accountabilty, Law, QUT : http://www.law.qut.edu.au/ljj/editions/v7n2/pdf/9_Rational_avoidance_of_accountability_LAUCHS.pdf

The Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission "devolution strategy" seems to facilitate systemic corruption.

17 June 2010

Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission chairman Martin Moynihan has released a "bombshell" report, critical of a Queensland police investigation and the "internal review" of the investigation.

But Martin Moynihan and the CMC must accept some responsibility themselves for the dismal failure of their "devolution" strategy.

Education Queensland Ethical Standards Department "internal reviews" and "independent investigations" also fail to establish the facts.

They are shameful.

And I have found no other Queensland Government department that is willing to investigate corruption.

The CMC systemic "devolution" strategy seems to facilitate this systemic corruption.

The investigations suggested there was a belief within the Queensland Police Service that the best way to protect the reputation of the QPS was for police to turn “a blind eye to to actions of their colleagues which are substandard”.

Systemic!

This "blind eye and deaf ear"policy seems to be common to the whole of the Queensland public service, including the CMC.

”The investigations were characterised by double standards and an unwillingness to publicly acknowledge failings,” Mr Moynihan said.

Systemic!

The grounds cited for disciplinary action in the draft CMC report include

  • "negligence,
  • carelessness or indolence in the discharge of their duties;
  • misconduct, including failure to meet the standards the community would reasonably expect ... ".

These qualities seem to be required of all Queensland public service "investigators".

So why are the CMC picking on the police?

The CMC need to look at their own "devolution policy".

It isn't working.

The Queensland CMC "devolution policy" is failing the ordinary people of Queensland.

17 June 2010

The multimillion-dollar report into the investigation of the death in custody of Cameron Doomadgee, known as Mulrunji, found evidence of Queensland public service officers protecting colleagues and bias.

The police investigation into the death in custody was "deeply flawed", according to the CMC's report, which offers damning insight into a Queensland public service culture of "double-standards".

The two-year Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission ( CMC ) probe uncovered evidence of Queensland public service bias, acting above the law, protecting fellow public service officers from blame and "obfuscating" evidence when Queensland public servants investigated their fellow public servants.

"Black or white, what do you say when the system (that is) supposed to protect you, fails you?

What do you say when the system ordinary Queenslanders trust, betrays that trust?" Palm Island mayor Alf Lacey said.

I say that the CMC "devolution policy" is failing the ordinary people of Queensland, Mr Lacey.

Do the Queensland police ask burglars to investigate their own burglaries?

Of course not, how ridiculous.

But the CMC ask Queensland public servants to investigate their own corrupt practices.

And of course the Queensland public servants can find no evidence of their own corruption.

Of course nothing changes.

Of course a culture of corruption flourishes.

Queensland teachers are at risk at work because Education Queensland will not spend the money to investigate their complaints.

13 June 2010

Australia will pay for its part in the search and rescue of sixteen-year-old solo sailor Abby Sunderland who encountered extremely rough weather in the Indian Ocean.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority's Rescue Coordination Centre took over Abby's rescue from the French on Friday, after her stricken yacht Wild Eyes drifted into Australia's search and rescue region.

Australian authorities commissioned a Qantas plane to search for Abby, who is about 3700km off the coast of Western Australia.

It's been reported the Qantas charter cost $10,000 an hour.

On Saturday afternoon the Australian Defence Force joined the rescue by deploying two Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C aircraft.

"If needed, one of the AP-3C Orion will fly to Mauritius to refuel and will then fly south and provide coordinating support for civilian ships that have responded to the yachtswoman's emergency beacons," a Defence spokesman said.

"If required, the aircraft will also be able to drop emergency supplies to the yachtswoman."

Abby has vowed to attempt another circumnavigation.

Mr Kinley did not say how much the rescue mission would cost, but said there would be no attempt to recover costs.

In 1980 I was inspected for a day in New South Wales and then placed on the Primary Promotion List One, qualifying me to be a principal of a small school.

In addition to my three-year basic training, I had spent three years studying part-time at UNE, then two more years studying at Armidale CAE.

I was awarded the college medal in the Armidale B.Ed degree.

Then I studied three years at Sydney Uni for a Masters' Degree in applied linguistics.

When I was recruited to Queensland in 1987, I was told that my application was outstanding.

When I  was asked to become a LOTE teacher I studied Indonesian full-time for several months in Java and part-time for two years in Australia.

Then in 2000 an incompetent Queensland 'acting' principal - with all the knowledge of Education Queensland policies that could be contained on one small sticky-note - made an agreement with another incompetent principal - who was on leave at the time and had not discussed the situation with me - that they would destroy my mental and physical health and drive me out of work.

And when I asked for the behaviour of these incompetents to be investigated - in December 2000 - the investigation was delayed till 2006.

And it was stopped after my first allegation was substantiated.

Because, I was told, investigating my complaint properly would be "too expensive".

Australia has the money to rescue 16 year old children whose parents send them out to sail around the world with no insurance.

But there seems to be no money to rescue good Queensland classroom teachers who are being bullied into ill health and out of work.

You have to conclude that Queensland teachers are safest if they are really stupid and poorly qualified.

And that poorly qualified teachers have less to lose if they are attacked and driven out of work.

New South Wales firefighters say senior management are the worst perpetrators of psychological bullying.

11 June 2010

New South Wales firefighters are being bullied and harassed, often by senior management, within the "boy's club'' ranks of the NSW Fire Brigades, a report has found.

More than 600 people have suffered or witnessed bullying in the past two years, the investigation by advisory firm KPMG revealed today.

Of those who took their concerns higher, only 52 said they were happy with the response.

Initiation rites are still being carried out, causing "discomfort and distress''.

"Focus group participants suggested that senior management were the worst perpetrators of psychological bullying,'' the report said, adding that some staff felt station management acted like ``dictators in their own small world''.

The workplace bullies in Queensland schools are robbing Queensland children of decent, caring, outstanding teachers.

25 March 2010

Senior officers of Education Queensland claim that they are constantly looking to identify problems and issues that inhibit the delivery of a high-quality education to our students.

Let’s talk about what happens when a school hires an outstanding teacher who becomes finds themselves in the crosshairs of a bully; a predator that roams the halls of their school looking for a victim. 

The workplace bully steals the dignity, self-esteem, confidence, joy, happiness, and quality of life of the targeted victim.

But when the target is a teacher, a great injustice occurs because the bully robs Queensland students of what they want, need, and deserve ... decent, caring, outstanding educators.

To avoid the unbearable suffering that will be inflicted by the bully, the teacher exhibits avoidance behavior and does not report to work. 

All available sick, vacation, and personal time is used.  

The Premier, the Minister of Education and the Director General of Education can and must take a stance against this growing workplace malady that is eroding the quality of education in Queensland.

Research suggests that bully-bosses may feel threatened.

ABSTRACT

When and why do power holders seek to harm other people? The research examined the idea that aggression among the powerful is often the result of a threatened ego.
Four studies demonstrated that individuals with power become aggressive when they feel incompetent in the domain of power.
Regardless of whether power was measured in the workplace (Studies 1 and 4), manipulated via role recall (Study 2), or assigned in the laboratory (Study 3), it was associated with heightened aggression when paired with a lack of self-perceived competence.
As hypothesized, this aggression appeared to be driven by ego threat: Aggressiveness was eliminated among participants whose sense of self-worth was boosted (Studies 3 and 4). Taken together, these findings suggest that (a) power paired with self-perceived incompetence leads to aggression, and (b) this aggressive response is driven by feelings of ego defensiveness.
Implications for research on power, competence, and aggression are discussed...

CONCLUSION

The present findings highlight the importance of perceiving personal competence when holding a position of power.
Power holders who do not feel personally competent are more likely than those who feel competent to lash out against other people.
Additionally, the finding that self-worth boosts assuage the aggressive tendencies of such power holders implies the effectiveness of a strategy commonly employed by underlings: excessive flattery. It is both interesting and ironic to note that such flattery, although perhaps affirming to the ego, may contribute to the incompetent power holder’s ultimate demise—by causing the power holder to lose touch with reality.

 Full paper at: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~nathanaf/power_incompetence_and_aggresssion.pdf

Rob Messenger, Independent Member for Burnett - Christine Cameron.

Saturday 12 June 2010

I understand that Rob Messenger, Independent Member for Burnett, made the following speech in the Queensland Parliament this week :

Mr MESSENGER (Burnett—Ind) (9.06 pm):

I rise to make a very short contribution to the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill.

I have listened to the debate tonight and I have grave concerns about how well this bill is going to look after the workers who are applying for compensation.

I have fears about what this legislation may do to victims of accidents, and I have been concerned mainly with many workers who have come to me who have been employed by this state government, mainly healthcare workers.

When they come to me they normally are making whistleblowing public interest disclosures and are classified as whistleblowers and many of those people are undertaking workers compensation claims.

I have to say that these people are very brave individuals and they are risking everything.

They are risking their careers and they are risking their reputations to speak out about what they believe is the truth.

Often healthcare workers speak out because they have a genuine love for their patients and a commitment to provide good service for the people of Queensland and to protect the people of Queensland.

These people deserve to be protected, and they should always be protected by politicians as well.

What I have found, though, unfortunately, is that many of these people are not being protected by the government, which is their employer.

Often the government is out to crush these people—to destroy these people mentally and physically.

That is why they then have to resort to launching legal action against the government and using workers compensation to get a fair deal for themselves and for their families.

One lady who springs to mind who is going through a particular case now is Christine Cameron.

She made some whistleblowing claims early last year, and this very brave nurse whistleblower has been severely impacted upon.

She has been damaged in that as a nurse she cannot even bear to look at the site of the Bundaberg Base Hospital.

She now has to walk away from a profession that she loves.

She enjoyed caring for people and looking after people.

She had given her whole life to nursing and now she has had to walk away from that profession because she cannot even go near the hospital.

That is the damage that has been caused to her.

I worry that, if this bill is passed by this place, as the minister says in his second reading speech, general damages, being damages for pain and suffering, will be capped at approximately $300,000.

In the case of Christine Cameron, $300,000 is not enough.

She deserves much, much more because she saved people’s lives and her legacy will continue to save people’s lives.

It was because of Christine Cameron speaking out that the Bundaberg Hospital’s accident and emergency department had $6 million spent on it and administrative assistants were no longer triaging patients.

There has been a bit of a shake-up there.

There are seven independent reports going on at the moment now because of Christine Cameron’s bravery.

1972 Workers’ Compensation & Rehabilitation & Or Legislation Amendment Bill 09 Jun 2010

We are still waiting for a final report to come back from this government.

That report—surprise, surprise—is being written by the area manager.

It is absolutely crazy that that sort of report can be written by the department which the complaint was made against.

In that regard the CMC has abrogated its duty.

We referred the allegations to the CMC.

The CMC referred them to the ethical stands unit and then somehow the ethical standards unit gave the job of writing the report to the area manager.

That is another matter.

But that is the sort of damage, that is the sort of hypocrisy that goes on within this government and the way in which it treats its employees.

This government is not looking after its employees.

I am not referring only to the health department.

If members go to any department they will find people who have spoken out, but have been identified and crushed.

When it comes to looking after its workers, this government has a sad legacy.

That is why there are many claims on the workers compensation system.

That is why the workers compensation system was being inundated with claims. ...

Wednesday 9 June at 8.30pm

Every Family's Nightmare airs tonight on on SBS One.

On March 30, 2006, at 11.58pm, 15-year-old Patrick Waring was ordered out of bed by the West Australian police, charged with rape and remanded, with a bail hearing set for the following Monday.

Patrick told the police that he had never met the girl who had been raped, a denial that, in the eyes of the police, only seemed to reinforce his guilt.

Patrick, awaiting trial in jail, was beaten up and routinely strip-searched.

After three months of this, the family turned for help to Robin Napper, an independent forensic investigator and former British detective superintendent.

Napper quickly discovered a litany of basic policing errors.

Patrick would not be released from jail for another year and only after a long and painful journey through the West Australian criminal justice system.

''What happened to Patrick could happen to any of us,'' says filmmaker Ed Punchard.

''As our film shows, if the police ever get a hold of you, you can find yourself on an express train that is very hard to get off."

You have to think that only a British policeman would have spoken up about these police errors.

There is something about the Australian public service culture - not just the police culture - that facilitates public service incompetence, abuse and corruption.

When go wrong in the Australian public service, there seems to be no mechanism to put them right.

Other than to cover-up.

And so ordinary, decent Australian people suffer injustice and have their lives and health destroyed.

You have to conclude that the criminals have gained control of this colony.

And that their values prevail.

June 7th, 2010

Dr. Gary Namie reports from Cardif : The international academic workplace bullying group IAWBH ended its biannual 3-day conference in Cardiff, Wales with 230 attendees from 30 countries.

If you mount a bullying lawsuit, scientific findings - such as the documents from this conference - can be used by your attorney and expert witnesses to bolster your case, countering the employer defense that you lie about your experiences.

The IAWBH conference was not an HR conference.

But HR is increasingly asked to join IAWBH at the table.

Frankly, the empirical findings do not currently paint a positive portrait of HR’s ability to stop bullying.

The HR problem may be less a matter of willingness than a lack of internal political clout to effect requisite changes.

IAWBH welcomes HR professionals who “get it” and do not blame targets for their fate.

5 June 2010

When Anna Bligh announced her program for Wild River declarations for Cape York Peninsula, she described it as a "down payment" on her Queensland Labor government's commitment to the environment.

Rather, it was a down payment on electoral debts that she owed to environmental groups for the Queensland Labor 2009 election win, particularly to the Wilderness Society.

It is not possible to convey the intensity of the feelings I harbour for these bastards.

It is not their contempt for Aboriginal people.

It is not their utter lack of principle.

It is the torment of our own powerlessness that gets me.

How can Aboriginal people be dealt with fairly in a governmental system in which we have no adequate representation?

The root cause of our malaise as a people is the torment of powerlessness we endure at the hands of those in power, who see us as nothing more than a mendicant people.

It is not just Aboriginal people, Noel, we all feel powerless.

The convicts have gained control of the colony.

5 June 2010
 
As a managing lawyer at Trilby Misso, it's part of Robyn Davies' job to monitor calls to the law firm about workplace stress claims and psychological injuries.

"Many people who phone keep trying to cope but the longer they do, the worse their symptoms get until they reach the stage where they are suffering severe anxiety that requires medical intervention, " Davies says

Davies says those that have suffered an injury due to workplace bullying can make a claim through WorkCover Queensland or make a common law claim by approaching a law firm.

To ensure a case is successful, she advises those encountering bullying to act immediately by keeping diary notes including the names of anyone who witnessed the events.

"The average employee does not know what they need to prove a claim."

They think because they have right on their side that that will be enough," Davies says.

Trilby Misso has won a number of bullying claims.

"Workplace bullying is a major occupational health and safety issue but some employers just don't get it," Davies says.

"All employers have a duty of care to their employees to provide a safe workplace."

6 June 2010

The Sunday Telegraph reveals that the New South Wales Ombudsman has begun an inquiry into claims Premier Ms Keneally and her office breached the State's whistleblower laws by compiling a "dirt file" on a whistleblower who exposed corruption by Penrith MP Karyn Paluzzano.

The inquiry by the Ombudsman's Office focuses on statements made by Ms Keneally's office following revelations Tim Horan, a staffer in Ms Paluzzano's office, had made a complaint about Ms Paluzzano to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

The Ombudsman's Office is examining whether the Premier's office was in possession of a dirt file on Mr Horan.

Under the State's Protected Disclosures Act, it is illegal to persecute whistleblowers.

This situation interests me because I "whistleblew" to Anna Bligh in June 2002 that Queensland teachers were being bullied into ill health and out of work - and in 2004 I discovered that my Education Queensland official records had been extensively falsified.

This article suggests to me that the falsified records may not only have been placed on my file to conceal the abuse - they may also have been "payback" for my whistleblowing.

And that the Queensland Ombudsman may have a responsibility to investigate this situation.

7 June, 2010

In a submission on the national English curriculum, some of the nation's most respected scientists in reading research are concerned that while the requirement to teach phonics is included in the curriculum, it fails to clearly state the best way to teach it as shown by research.

The submission says the curriculum lacks a statement clearly specifying that all sound-letter correspondences be taught intensively and systematically.

It also fails to specify the teaching of the skills of blending sounds for reading and of segmenting sounds for spelling, and that decoding skills be taught "to the level of fluency".

The signatories to the submission include Macquarie University professors Max Coltheart and Kevin Wheldall.

I knew that the "whole language" approach to teaching reading (and writing) did not work in about 1979.

I had, unknowingly, been used as the "control" teacher in a trial of the "Big Book" whole language method when "Big Books" had first arrived in Australia from New Zealand.

I had achieved better results with my class using phonics.

When I arrived in Queensland in 1987, I was appointed as an advisory teacher.

I told my fellow advisory teachers that Sydney Uni had held a conference a year or so before in which the failure of "whole language" had been discussed.

My fellow advisory teachers told me that I was telling them this "because you are new here and you feel that you have to keep saying things".

They told me - they told me over and over again during 1987 - that "Queensland is leading the world in this".

That same year I attended a conference in Darwin during which Northern Territory teachers agreed that "whole language" was not working.

In about 1994 I was teaching a class of Grade 3 children, half of whom had only learned to read two letter words.

It held them back in so many other areas, so I made teaching reading my priority for that year.

I used the phonic approach to teach the class to read.

At the end of the year I showed the principal the huge improvement in the student's reading results.

He spoke to me very sadly, advising me that I had used the wrong method to teach them and so he considered that I had failed.

The principal would have prefered me to continue to teach them using the "whole language" method - the method that had failed these children for their first two years at school.

The really shameful thing about the failure of "whole language" is that it was allowed to fail so many Queensland children for so many years.

This seems to be because Queensland is a "one thought state".

Only one "right" thought is allowed - Queensland teachers can be punished for having "wrong thoughts".

And so education theory in Queensland is driven by fear and fashion rather than by fact.

6 June 2010

Last night "Underbelly" portrayed a corrupt NSW policeman as a "good mate" to his police informer friend.

And it made the point that, in an environment in which the courts seem to be failing, the informal policies adopted by the corrupt NSW police may actually be a better option.

I can appreciate this point.

But when the corruption affects you personally - when a corrupt "mob" turn on you and fabricate allegations against you, and when the corrupt system will not allow you to establish your innocence - well, then you see the situation differently.

"Underbelly" pointed out that the corrupt policeman only served three years in jail.
 
While the policeman who turned informer lost his wife, his children, his friends and his job and his future.
 
And that fifteen years later the informer was still lost.
 
Even I found myself thinking that the police informer would have been better off if he had stayed corrupt.
 
On Tuesday we will watch "Australian Druglords" and then "Australian Families of Crime".
 
Are we celebrating the corruption in this criminal colony?
 
5 June 2010
 
Government corruption will always be with us.
There will always be people driven by the pursuit of profit and/or power, who believe that the end justifies the means and that the rules do not apply to them.
Corruption damages the reputation of all those in government, including the un-corrupt.
Where it is allowed to occur, particularly at the highest levels, it conveys the message that it is acceptable to behave dishonestly, in breach of the trust owed to the people who placed them in power and in contempt of the rights of others.

And corruption thrives on secrecy.

5 June 2010

A survey of 2487 nurses in hospitals in two Australian states found more than one-third had experienced emotional abuse during their previous five shifts.
About one in five had experienced violence.
Patients and their families were responsible for most physical assaults and threats of assault.
Most emotional abuse was also from patients and families, but up to one-fifth was from co-workers.
  • Journal of Nursing Scholarship, J Nurs Scholarsh 2010;42:13-22 (Roche M, et al) quoted in Pulse, Adam Taor, Health, Weekend Professional, The Weekend Australian, June 5-6, p.11

3 June 2010

An organisation's values should make plain what behaviour is and is not acceptable.

And these values need to be brought to life for employees through clear in-house communications.

The evidence suggests that managers are often not fully equipped to manage, communicate and support individuals in a way that is supportive rather than aggressive or dismissive.

It is important to understand clearly what values are being enacted in the workplace that lead to bullying behaviour in the first place.

Behaviours that do not fit with the values of an organisation need to be identified quickly and actively managed, so everyone within the organisation can be clear about what is and is not right.

A lack of investment and support in management processes could well lead to a greater propensity for bullying cultures to be established.

All managers need to be fully trained and supported to do their jobs in a constructive, even-handed and supportive way.

And there should be more than one reporting route available: there is little point reporting all issues through a line manager if it is also conceivable that same line manager is the one dishing out the unfair treatment.

 

3 June 2010

A 16-year-old Hope Vale girl allegedly punched a female senior police constable in the face at Cooktown on Monday.

Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers said the Bligh Government was not doing enough to protect police officers.

Six police officers have been assaulted in Cairns in the past nine days.

2 June 2010

The Queensland Police Union ( QPU ) has had a gutful of the bumbling Crime and Misconduct Commission spending millions of dollars to ruin careers of police officers.

QPU president Ian Leavers believes that 'the CMC is just plain anti-police'.

"Shoddy investigations and reports full of hyperbole have become the norm from an organisation hellbent on justifying its own existence."

"We have arrived at a position where it is now a rogue organisation, randomly destroying people's lives," said Mr Leavers.

2 June 2010

John Brumby, Premier of Victoria, announced today a major overhaul of the state's corruption bodies, including the creation of a new Victorian Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission ( VIACC ).

Why would he bother?

The Queensland CMC just "devolve" investigations, allowing Queensland government departments to investigate themselves and to "find no evidence" of corruption.

Once something "goes wrong" in Queensland, it stays wrong.

2 June 2010

Last week Kevin Rudd launched Asia Education Foundation reports on Indonesian (co-authored by Dr Phillip Mahnken from the University of the Sunshine Coast and Michelle Kohler from the University of South Australia), Japanese and Korean.

In 2002 the Howard government axed a Keating-era Asian language program.

Indonesian language learning is now in crisis.

99 per cent of school students abandon the subject.

The ACT, home to politicians and bureaucrats, had just 11 students in year 12 last year.

Kent Anderson, from the Australian National University, said it was well known that Indonesian had been in decline since the second Bali bombing in 2005 but the depth of the crisis was a surprise.

There is no culture of language-learning in Australia.

Parents did not learn a language, so they see no need for their children to learn a language.

Principals did not learn a language, so they see no need for their students to learn a language.

And Australian teachers are now paid so poorly that they cannot afford to travel overseas.

So classroom teachers see no value in language-learning.

And they undermine LOTE.

When you pay teachers poorly -

a) you lower the intelligence and ability of your teachers,

b) you limit the opportunities available to your teachers.

And when you limit your teachers' intelligence and opportunities, you limit the education that those teachers are able to offer your children.

8 April 2010

Teachers in Tasmania have labelled violent and unruly student behaviour as one of their most pressing concerns.

"In the event of threatened or actual violence, where all other efforts have failed, teachers may attempt to restrain a student if they believe there is a risk of significant harm to the student, other students, staff or members of the public," Tasmanian Education Department acting general manager of strategic policy and performance Jenny Cranston said.  

1 June 2010

Vindication does not happen often, but yesterday Dr Adrian Paterson, the head of Australia's Lucas Heights nuclear facility, said that whistleblower David Reid was "absolutely correct" to raise serious safety concerns at the site.

The comments contrast with the treatment that the 55-year-old reactor operator has received at the hands of management over the past 12 months.

Mr Reid was suspended indefinitely a year ago, accused of bullying.

He maintains it was an attempt to stop him from discussing safety issues at the radiopharmaceutical production facility, ARI.

Mr Reid remains suspended.

31 May 2010

Duntoon graduate Matina Jewell's story illuminates the gulf between political lip service about national debt owed to those who sacrifice so much, and the tenacity of officialdom in not giving an inch on that debt.

While serving in the Solomon Islands during the political crisis in 2003, Jewell ruptured her diaphragm but the injury was not diagnosed until after she had been injured again in Lebanon.

The army wanted her out on medical grounds but the Department of Veterans' Affairs did not want to acknowledge the abdominal injury was service-related.

Gaining adequate health cover from the Department of Veterans Affairs is so difficult and protracted, Matina says, "that many veterans simply give up or find it too much of a struggle" and "simply walk away".

31 May 2010

The Brisbane School of Distance Education had the third highest percentage of OP1-5 students in Queensland.

Brisbane Grammar School and Brisbane Boys College had the highest percentage of OP1-5 students.

This seems to suggest that attending a state school school in Queensland will depress your academic potential - that you will do better if you study at home.

31 May 2010

Air quality consultant Len Ferrari thinks that the secret New South Wales government-funded study into the effects of unflued gas heaters on children in public schools may seriously underestimate the level of pollution in classrooms.

Mr Ferrari said using a methodology that showed the average indoor pollution levels over a six-hour period downplayed peaks when nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and formaldehyde were concentrated in classrooms.

Tests at Blackheath Public School in the Blue Mountains were undertaken 18 months ago.

They showed gas levels in 30 per cent of classrooms exceeded international health guidelines.

30 May 2010

Three years after the Queensland Government promised a tuckshop revolution, many school tuckshops struggle to produce fresh and innovative meals, instead relying on nutritionally poor favourites.

Parents are now calling on the Government to fund chefs and caterers to run school canteens to counter an over-reliance on packaged foods.

30 May 2010

Education Queensland is looking to offer $10,000 scholarships to encourage the training of more language teachers.

The State Government says it needs an extra 80 specialist language teachers to ensure 90 per cent of Queensland state schools can teach languages in years 6, 7 and 8 from the start of next year.

Education Minister Geoff Wilson says there are 300 teachers within the system who are qualified in Languages Other Than English (LOTE), but teaching in other subject areas.

When I first became a LOTE teacher I was really happy because I really enjoyed learning languages.

And I was puzzled by the shell-shocked appearance of many of the experienced LOTE teachers that I met at a conference.

I gradually realised that Queensland LOTE teachers work in an environment where there is no history or culture of language-learning and where few of your fellow teachers have had the opportunity to travel overseas.

Many principals, classroom teachers and parents undermine LOTE teachers with their sighs and groans and lack of enthusiasm for LOTE.

And it only takes one complaint - from one of the hundreds of parents and teachers with whom a LOTE teacher has to work each year- for a LOTE teacher's career to be destroyed and for her to be driven out of work.

And no matter how hard you work at a school, if the local secondary school drops LOTE, or changes their LOTE - and they can do that at any time - your job will vanish and all of the work that you have put into learning the LOTE, building up resources and interest in the LOTE at the school will have been wasted.

LOTE teachers in Queensland need lots more support.

29 May 2010

The Queensland Police Union has slammed the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission ( CMC ).
 
Union president Ian Leavers said it was quite clear the CMC was "insistent in destroying decent people".
 
Destroying decent people seems to be the unofficial policy of the whole of the Queensland public service.

He said the CMC wasted millions of dollars conducting "substandard investigations".

"Because they have an agenda trying to justify their own existence," Mr Leavers said.

"The CMC is becoming a rogue organisation with limited or no success and really [they have] no one to answer to.

They are failing Queenslanders every day."

26 May 2010

University of Wollongong psychology lecturer Dr Gerard Stoyles says education and awareness are the first steps to identifying and dealing with emotional abuse.

Abuse often occurs when there is a power imbalance within a relationship, and one person callously decides to use that imbalance to their advantage.

University of Wollongong Associate Professor in Employment Relations Di Kelly, who has been studying in the field for decades, says a lot of workplace bullying falls under the category of abuse.

"If the one person who is making your life miserable is your supervisor then you've got to move to a different workplace (because) there's not a lot of opportunity to stop that bullying," Kelly says.

"All the literature says get out - I've been trying to find a solution for years."

I totally agree.

But it is so difficult for a Queensland classroom teacher to get away from a bully principal.

And if the principal puts you on Managing Unsatisfactory performance ( MUP ), they have got you trapped - you will not be allowed to escape from the school till the bully / OP19  principal agrees that you have "improved".

 
28 May 2010
 
At the start of this year, a staggering 178 out of 193 Prep to Year 7 students in Aurukun and Coen could not read above the kindergarten level.
Four months on, one advanced Prep class is out-reading older students!
And Year 4 student Imani Tamwoy is reading at the "age appropriate" level!
The method - called direct instruction - taught at the trial Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy in Aurukun and Coen is radically different from the one in Education Queensland schools.
Classes are arranged according to achievement level and not age.
School starts at 7.15am with breakfast.
Aboriginal leader and Cape York Partnerships chairman Noel Pearson, who has spearheaded the push for direct instruction for Indigenous students, said a "chaotic beginning", had calmed down and the results were impressive.

Congratulations Noel Pearson and the teachers and students at these schools.

What a terrific result!

 
24 May 2010

The Queensland Independent Education Union ( QIEU ) has warned Somerville House, Clayfield College and Brisbane Boys' College, three of Brisbane’s most elite schools, to “anticipate” strike action if Presbyterian and Methodist Schools’ Association (PMSA)  employers don’t revise their wages offer.

“Teachers in PMSA schools are determined to make a very clear statement to the employer tomorrow by showing they will not stand back and accept a wage offer and an hours of duty provision that undermines their working rights and conditions,” QIEU general secretary Terry Burke said.

 
24 May 2010
 
There are 51,000 unflued gas heaters in NSW public schools.
New South Wales Education Minister Verity Firth was warned by her department more than a year ago that these unflued gas heaters were giving off indoor air pollution at "levels over that considered safe for human exposure".
The Sydney Morning Herald says a ministerial briefing note it obtained, the accuracy of which was endorsed by senior bureaucrats, contradicts many of the public statements Ms Firth has since made about the health impacts of the heaters.
Ms Firth's spokeswoman said that, contrary to the information given to the minister by NSW Health last year, the heaters were safe if used when doors and windows were open.
 
But what twit would use a heater when the doors and windows were open?
 
24 May 2010

The Grattan Institute report, What Teachers Want: Better Teacher Management, which surveyed teachers and principals in 23 countries, said teacher evaluation and development in Australia is among the worst in the developed world.

Australia is ranked fourth-last for identifying teacher quality.

"An effective system would include peer review, ...

But the problem that we have in Australia is that the entry qualifications to education courses in Australian unis have now fallen so low that your "peers' are not your peers.

An OP2 teacher can't be evaluated by on OP19 teacher.

They are not peers.

The OP2 teachers in the system would be forced to work at an OP19 standard.

... the direct appraisal of teaching, and teachers' ability to identify and then address each student's learning needs,'' the report's author, Dr Ben Jensen, an education analyst at the Grattan Institute said.

Opposition spokesman on education Christopher Pyne said a Coalition government would move quickly to give school principals the autonomy granted their peers in non-government schools, with the power to hire and fire and to pay staff based on performance.

But will a Coalition government -

  • set minimum standards for entry to Australian university education courses
  • improve the principal selection process
  • weed out the incompetent and / or psychopathic principals?

If they don't, the situation will become even more dysfunctional because incompetents reward and promote incompetents.

Because psychopaths reward and promote the gullible, the unintelligent and the easily manipulated.

"Teachers prefer to work with peers or their grade group in a collaborative environment in evaluating and assessing their teaching programs, and what's lacking in schools is the space, time and respect for teachers to do so,"  Federal president of the Australian Education Union, Angelo Gavrielatos said.

Actually it can be very draining trying to work with an OP19 teacher.

You cannot really communicate.
24 May 2010
 
The Queensland Government will not reveal how many staff successfully sued Education Queensland in the past five years, the associated legal costs or the current number of lawsuits.

24 May 2010

Parkers Simmonds Solicitors senior partner Bruce Simmonds has suggested that student bullies be pulled out of school and sent to boot camp before they get out of control.

Opposition education spokesman Bruce Flegg said the minister needed to be more proactive with practical initiatives and agreed boot camp was a good idea for the bullies.

"Kids being suspended and just sent home is a bit of a joke," Mr Flegg said.

Education Minister Geoff Wilson ruled out boot camps, saying the alternative-education programs and strategies were enough.

The readers' comments on this article are interesting.

19 May 2010

Skills Australia warned recently that poor adult literacy and numeracy threatened to undermine the nation's long-term productivity goals.

 $661 million in funding was allocated in the budget to boost adult literacy and numeracy.

So teacher trainees who go into adult or vocational education are likely to encounter strong employment demand.

23 May 2010

Are you concerned about the abuse of psychiatric assessments to intimidate and silence workplace critics?

Me too!

This new website may be of interest  -

Ethical and Human Rights Considerations in Medical and Psychological Testing :   http://www.hereticpress.com/Dogstar/Psychology/WorkPsy.html#whistle

23 May 2010

New South Wales Emergency Services Minister Steve Whan established a government inquiry into the handling of abuse and harassment allegations against NSW firefighters.

The inquiry found the brigades had failed to properly investigate and disclose complaints and prevent bad behaviour.
 
The number of corruption and harassment investigations against firefighters has ballooned to 40.

"One of the criticisms I had from rank-and-file members about the previous complaint process was that ... people would have to make a complaint to their superior, who would pass it up the chain to people who may have been involved in the complaint," Mr Whan said.

This Steve Whan inquiry sounds quite effective.

22 May 2010

Australian Services Union secretary Julie Bignell said the 600 Queensland Health payroll staff continued to work record shifts – up to 15 hours – and were buckling under the pressure.

Staff are reporting record sick days and are poised to file workcover claims.

The State Government has embarked on an urgent workplace health and safety audit of the payroll hubs, which are already under round-the-clock security surveillance amid fear of threats from unpaid staff.

19 May 2010

A parent has complained about notices, pinned up during National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy  ( NAPLAN ) exams at Merrimac State High School on the eastern Australia's Gold Coast.
 
A letter sent to Education Queensland director-general Julie Grantham from "a very concerned parent," alleged that her son told her "that in all the rooms where the exam was held the walls were covered in posters which gave them assistance to many of the questions."
 
The student took a photograph of the posters on his mobile phone.
 
Classrooms are normally covered in posters made by teachers. So - this is yet another job for teachers - removing all of their posters then replacing them after the exam. Maybe this child's mother would like to volunteer to do the job.
 
The Queensland department of Education is investigating three incidents, including the latest Gold Coast claim and two north coast region state school teachers.

19 May 2010

Melbourne City Council parking inspectors have been the victims of 126 assaults in three years, 45 of them physical attacks.

But they say that the bullying in their office is worse than beltings in the streets.

Australian Services Union organiser Richard Duffy says it's mean management, not Melbourne's mean streets, doing the real damage.

"Our members expect a level of difficult behaviour from people out in the general public.

"They don't expect it when they go back into the workplace.

"They don't expect it from managers."

18 May 2010

In the past three months, calls to the Victorian WorkSafe authority have increased by almost 100 per cent, as 1749 employers and workers sought more information on how to prevent bullying.

Workplace bullying has returned to the public spotlight following several high-profile cases, including that of Brodie Panlock, who took her own life in 2006 after an ‘‘unbearable level of humiliation’’ from colleagues at Cafe Vamp in Hawthorn.

18 May 2010

Premier Anna Bligh yesterday said principals would no longer have to seek departmental approval before excluding students under legislation to be introduced into State Parliament this week.

Education Minister Geoff Wilson said about 770 students were expelled each year but he expected that number to rise under the new powers.

Principals will be able to recommend permanent exclusion from all Queensland state schools in extreme situations.

In such cases, a student could enrol in an alternative education course or the school of distance education.

Opposition education spokesman Bruce Flegg said school principals have been fettered when it comes to discipline.

18 May 2010

One of the most disturbing trends of recent years has been the rise in violence and intimidation in our schools.

The trend is mirrored by a lack of respect for teachers.

The editor of www.goldcoast.com.au  welcomes and strongly support moves by the Government to introduce legislation this week to give principals the power to expel students without the need to become enmeshed in Education Queensland's moribund bureaucratic processes.

Currently principals can only make a recommendation to a supervisor in the Education Department, a time-consuming process which separates crime and punishment to the extent no lesson is learned.

We hope the latest legislative move is the only the beginning of a trend to restore the school principals back to the important position of power and trust they traditionally held in our communities.

But first there is a need to reform the promotion system and to weed out incompetent or psychopathic administrators.

18 May 2010

Children exposed to higher levels of pesticide found on commercially grown fruit and vegetables in the US were more likely to have attention deficit/hyper-activity disorder.

Researchers in the US and Canada studied data from 1139 children aged between eight and 15 and found that children with higher residue levels of pesticides known as organophosphates were roughly twice as likely to have attention deficit/hyper-activity disorder, the study in the journal Pediatrics found.

18 May 2010

South Australian figures reveal an increase in the number of students studying to be science teachers, from 76 in 2008 to 153 this year.

Head of the University of Adelaide School of Education Professor Tania Aspland said the university "hunted" maths and science graduates and held promotion evenings to sell the benefits of a teaching career.

In Queensland I would describe this as false advertising, but workplace bullying seems to be less of a problem in South Australian schools.

There are far fewer "hits" on the Bad Apple Bullies website from South Australia than from Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

"I know at a school level, if a senior maths, physics or chemistry teacher goes on leave, we cannot replace them," Mathematical Association of SA president Mark Darrell said.

He said the Government must make maths and science teaching as financially rewarding as careers in the private sector.

Queensland public service mates are being asked to investigate their mates. It is not working. They can't do it.

15 May 2010

When public service mates investigate public service mates you risk a "perception of collusion".

For example, mates may tip off their mate about crucial witness accounts.

Mates may collude with mates concerning their evidence.

Their main concern may be to "cover for" their mate and themselves.

This corrupts the evidence.

The Queensland public service practice of mates investigating mates is unsatisfactory, inappropriate and undermines the credibility of any "investigation".

And ...

If a public service abuser were to admit at the start all the facts as he or she knew them, perhaps their colleagues would not think that they had to lie to protect their mate.

But if somebody really is a psychopath, can they really understand that they are lying?

My bully continually changed her "story" and I had the impression that she considered what she was saying at each moment to be true.

She just seemed to invent a new "truth" whenever you pointed out that her story did not make sense.

And the fact that her new story was not the same as her "truth' of the day before did not seem to worry her.

The Queensland CMC needs to be properly resourced and empowered to investigate complaints concerning Queensland public service departments.

Corrupt and incompetent public servants must be weeded out of the Queensland public service.

  • Mulrunji tip-off spoils case, Jamie Walker, P. 2 The Nation, The Weekend Australian.
  • Colluders should be weeded out : Doomadgee lawyer, Tony Koch and Jared Owens, P. 2 The Nation, The Weekend Australian.
  • Breach of trust felt by every citizen, Tony Koch Comment, P. 2 The Nation, The Weekend Australian.  

14 May 2010

TERRY O'GORMAN: ... there's only one conclusion and that is that the concept of Queensland (public servants) investigating Queensland (public servants from the same department) is broken.

The whole model needs rejuvenation, the whole model needs to be turned on its head and something much more effective has to be produced.

... the CMC's got some questions to answer.

Why has the CMC sat back for almost six years and allowed this farcical situation to develop?

... and indeed the ... Parliamentary Committee ( PCMC ) that is supposed to oversight the CMC.

It doesn't work either.

And if there's one outstanding reason why it doesn't work in our view it's become the captive of the CMC.

It's captive of the body that it's supposed to supervise.

JESSICA van VONDEREN: The (Queensland public service department) says it ... has already made some changes to operational procedures.

They always say that, Jessica.

And nothing ever changes.

14 May 2010

QLS Government Lawyers Conference 2010, Sebel and Citigate Hotel, King George Square, Brisbane.

10.20 - 11.15am

Julie Kinross, Queensland Information Commissioner.

11.15-12.00am

Lemm Ex, Principal Privacy Officer, Office of the Information Commissioner, Queensland.

1.15-3.00pm

Helen Couper, Director Integrity Services, Crime and Misconduct commission.

... And nothing ever changes.

5 May 2010

David Reid, An employee at Australia's only nuclear facility alleges that serious breaches of safety have occurred at the Lucas Heights reactor.

And his views have been backed up by a confidential report by ARPANSA, the organization that regulates the nuclear industry in Australia.

But the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, or ANSTO, which operates the reactor, maintains the facility has a strong culture of safety.

JOHN THOMPSON: For the man who raised the safety issues in the first place and his family, it's been a bittersweet experience.

DAVID REID: I wish I hadn't opened me big mouth.

4 May 2010

Earlier today Jennifer Launt, one of NSW Parliamentary Secretary Karyn Paluzzano's senior staffers, admitted she and another staffer Kerrie Donlan had incorrectly and fraudulently filled out sitting day relief entitlement forms during a period in 2006 and ‘07.

She blamed the scam on whistleblower Tim Horan.

“I think he was the author of the scheme,” she told the commission.

“When we were looking through the forms in the last month or so, we saw a few forms that looked like Tim Horan had signed Karyn Paluzzano’s signature.” 

1 May 2010

Greg Robertson, general counsel at Harmers Workplace Lawyers says that "a number of bullying cases recently have highlighted situations where employers have, for whatever reason, stood by and done nothing to report or stop the incident. These cases contain lessons for all employers."

Greg Robertson says that workplace bullying, if allowed to persist, will result in a breach of workplace laws.

When Bad Apple Bully Bosses see that no action is taken on a workplace bullying complaint, it becomes open season for workplace bullying at that workplace.

  • Employers must deal with bullying, Workout, p.1, Weekend Professional, The Australian.

1 May 2010

Madonna King writes in The Courier-Mail today :

The Bligh Government is increasingly being seen as not telling the truth.

Now it has changed the Child Protection Act 1999.

A section has been added that bans the publication of information identifying a child victim of crime.

This means that the media could not name Daniel Morcombe, according to a government spokesman, unless his name was used by the Police Commissioner.

The Bligh Government has not consulted lawyers or media organisations over the ramifications of the new law, or even alerted them to the new law's operation.

The Bligh Government seems to want to control what you know and what you don't.

There is a pattern of spin that is bringing into question every decision made by the Bligh Government.

So, punters, do you believe the two-year jail term or $100,000 fine for identifying a victim of crime is aimed at protecting children?

Or is it aimed at trying to cover up information which is your right to know?

22 April 2010

Trilby Misso Managing Lawyer Robyn Davies said that Trilby Misso is receiving at least 12 enquiries per month from people who are suffering extreme stress or depression caused by bullying in the workplace.

“This is double the number of enquiries we were getting a year ago.

 Bullying is now among the most common complaints we receive from workers seeking compensation,” Ms Davies said.

“But we believe that these numbers represent only the tip of the iceberg.

People who phone us are usually at their wits end, having tried to improve the situation over a period of months or even years.

Complaints to their employers often fall on deaf ears.

They keep trying to cope but the longer they do the worse their symptoms get until they reach the stage where they are suffering severe anxiety that requires medical intervention.”

Ms Davies said companies which failed to adequately protect their employees were liable for the mental anguish and depression caused by their failure to act.

“It is a major occupational health and safety issue but some employers just don’t get it,” she said.

“All employers have a duty of care to their employees to provide a safe workplace and this should include ensuring their safety from bullying in all its forms.”

27 April 2010

Thousands of union members will attend the annual Labour Day march through Brisbane on May 3.

They will be raising concerns about the privatisation of public assets.

And Queensland Health staff will be protesting the fact that they have not been paid, or been over paid or underpaid over the last six weeks, in an ongoing payroll bungle.

Last year Premier Anna Bligh led the Labor Day march.

But this year Ms Bligh will not be at the Labor Day march.

She will fly to Canada for a "biotechnology symposium".

Because "there's an unfortunate clash," Ms Bligh told reporters in Brisbane.

Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek said the premier was running scared.

 

24 April 2010

How much do Queensland Government directors-general earn?

Ken Smith, once the director-general of the Queensland Department of Education, but now promoted to director-general of Queensland directors-general earns $477,192.

Rachel Hunter, also once the director-general of the Queensland Department of Education and now, amazingly, director-general of Queensland Justice, earns $426,662.

and Julie Grantham, the current director-general of The Queensland Department of Education also earns $426,662.

  • PS ... Des Houghton, P. 65, The Courier-Mail : 24-25 April, 2010.

19 April 2010

The Courier-Mail revealed last year a Queensland Department of Premier and Cabinet ( DPC ) system in which Anna Bligh's ministerial staff were told about and invited to discuss applications with Right To Information decision-makers in her department after receiving weekly status reports outlining future decisions.

And The Courier-Mail has learnt that the DPC has now told independent Right To Information units in other departments to produce fortnightly reports detailing the names of applicants and what potentially embarrassing information they are seeking.

The new Queensland Right to Information plan extends the DPC "invitation to discuss" exercise to reporting to an outside organisation – DPC and the Premier's own office – about applications from individuals, industry groups, media organisations and the Opposition.

The plan allegedly breaches applicant confidentiality and privacy rights and risks political interference before decision-makers decide to block or approve access to material.

Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek described the new Queensland Right To Information plan as "intrusion, manipulation and political interference".

17 April 2010

Health Minister Paul Lucas said he did not receive a memo addressed to him warning of troubles in the Queensland Health payroll system.

Why not?

A Deep Throat in Queensland Health has told Des Houghton that there are nearly 600 more Briefing Notes to The Minister that have gone unanswered.

Many of these Briefing Notes to The Minister - Paul Lucas - tell of failures in the Queensland Health system.

Deep Throat said "It is common knowledge - and a great source of frustration to Health managers - that briefing papers that go to Lucas do not get replied to.

He simply refuses to reply to correspondence."

  • Teflon Lucas in hot spot, PS ... Des Houghton, P.60, The Courier-Mail, 17 April 2010

15 April 2010

Robert Needham, the former head of the Queensland's corruption watchdog, the Crime and Misconduct Commission ( CMC ), has been cleared of allegations he ignored serious complaints.

14 April 2010

Nine months ago, on July 6 2010, Anthony Price, the director of the Queensland Health Enterprise Solutions Transition (QHEST) addressed an 11-page memo to Paul Lucas, Queensland Minister of Health,  warning Mr Lucas that the project was millions of dollars over budget, lacked "project management" and was suffering "critical failures of governance".

But Mr Lucas yesterday said the memo did not go "up the chain" to him at the time and that he had only sighted it late last week.

"I did not get that brief and it is clear it did not go up the chain, OK?" Mr Lucas said.

"It was not sent to me.

How can you say someone has warned me in something they didn't communicate to me?

 ... It wasn't briefed to me, I'm sorry.

Not only was it not briefed to me, it had not even gone to the deputy director general or the director general, let alone to me.

I don't have the benefit of seeing things that are not sent to me ..."

13 April 2010

The Bligh Government is working with key education stakeholders to set up the Queensland Education Leadership Institute  ( QELI ) by July this year.

"The aim of QELI is to develop leadership in schools by offering targeted professional development to principals as well as teachers with leadership aspirations.

"Principals and teachers in regional and remote parts of Queensland will be able to access programs online."

 

Chaos erupted on Mornington Island - declared alcohol free on July 1, 2008 - when six police went to a booze-fuelled house party.

Police have alleged six party-goers used fishing spears and rocks to smash their Toyota Land Cruiser and attacked two male officers.

A police spokesman said one officer was punched in the head while another received injuries when rocks struck his chest and legs.

You gain a lot of respect for the police when you work in a remote community.

These young men do an amazing job in very difficult conditions.

Greg McMahon is the Secretary of the Queensland Whistleblowers Action Group ( WAG ) .

Greg McMahon is concerned about the Griffith University "Whistle While You Work" report into whistleblowing in Australia.

The 13 organisations who funded this research were all "watchdog" organisations like the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission. 

These organisations are part of the problem.

Greg is concerned that the report did not investigate the systemic problems that facilitate the abuse of whistleblowers.

He says that there is a need for the watchdog organisations to be investigated.

Or there will be no systemic change.

Greg has spoken about his concerns on ABC radio :

http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/2009/12/whistleblowers-report-.html

8 April 2010

Dr Inderjit Virdi, a surgeon at Townsville Hospital, was cleared of 19 allegations by junior doctors at an independent inquiry in 2007.
 
But Dr Virdi's employment contract was terminated by Queensland Health in September last year.

Queensland Health has admitted that it wrongly dismissed the surgeon.

The termination followed more than six years of turmoil at Townsville Hospital, with claim and counter-claim of medical incompetence and bullying, staff shortages and mismanagement.

"Dr Virdi has shown great stamina and courage to fight back," said Dr Don Kane, president of Salaried Doctors Queensland.

"He was shafted well and truly. It's been a huge battle. They almost destroyed his life; they almost destroyed his marriage.

"It was totally, totally wrong.

They just hounded him as a "troublemaker" simply because he wanted to improve the service.

"And his is not the only case.

It's going on all over the state.

"Despite warnings in the 2005 inquiry, nothing has changed.

Queensland Health sails along as if nothing matters.

It stinks."

Dr Kane said Dr Virdi's compensation "could be huge".

6 April 2010

The Productivity Commission says inconsistent state and territory definitions about bullying, work violence and fatigue had led to uncertainty.

It says mental stress claims are not given the same attention as physical hazards in occupational health and safety legislation.

 

BOSSES accused of workplace bullying suffer severe health effects including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and suicidal thoughts, research shows.

University of Adelaide PhD candidate, registered psychologist Moira Jenkins, interviewed 30 managers accused of bullying, "breaking the long tradition of listening to only the victims' point of view" and finding there are long-term health and career consequences - whether guilty or not.

"There was significant anxiety and depression among them," Ms Jenkins said.

"Some of them had talked about post-traumatic stress disorder, some had contemplated suicide.

The study, to be presented at a workplace bullying conference in Cardiff, Wales, later this year, found "the health effects of being labelled a bully are severe . . . (but) participants reported very little follow-up or support".

I think it would be far more important to research -

Do the bully bosses demonstrate any signs of remorse?

Do the bully-bosses understand that what they were doing was bullying?

Have the bully-bosses made any committment to stop bullying?

Has anybody ever - either before or after the bullying - told the bully-bosses that they must stop bullying?

Are the bully-bosses still bullying?

Were the bully-bosses promoted for bullying?

 

My bully was laughing and jeering at me when she was bullying me.

She seemed to be absolutely confident that she was going to be allowed to "get away with it".

Is she still laughing?

Message from the members of two Facebook sites -  Justice For Brodie Panlock and Say No To Bullying.

Brodie Panlock worked in a cafe in Melbourne Victoria. She was 19 years old.

Brodie was bullied so relentlessly that she jumped off a four story parking lot.

She passed away in hospital three days later. 

Two mothers, one from Queensland and one from Victoria, have organised a Facebook petition for a change of law relating to workplace bullying.

The mothers took up the challenge because of their disgust at the sentences the men who bullied Brodie received.

The mothers are looking for more signatures to be collected and added to the petition, and would really appreciate any assistance you may be able to give.

They hope you will join them -

 http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=say+no+to+bullying&init=quick#!/saynotobullying?ref=search&sid=564299631.3599747882..1

 http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=say+no+to+bullying&init=quick#!/group.php?gid=296035944587

4 April 2010

Is the poor outlook of the financially crippled WorkCover a product of mismanagement and its Labor-stacked board?

Should the board of WorkCover be held accountable for its position?

Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland president David Goodwin said the WorkCover board, along with union bosses Bill Ludwig and Ron Monaghan and Labor Holdings' Ian Brusasco, had to be held accountable.

Trilby Misso chief executive Graeme McFadyen said the public had been "'hoodwinked" and the picture being painted by the Government was a facade.

He said sharemarket losses claimed by WorkCover of about $800 million last financial year would have recovered since the economy turned around and would be nowhere near that level now.

Attorney-General and Industrial Relations Minister Cameron Dick said that the State Government would not allow the current review to be derailed by the "wild and unsubstantiated claims made by lawyers with vested financial interests".

1 April, 2010

Organisations need to act on bullying behaviour before it becomes repeated – anything else signals that these behaviours are acceptable.

“The issue of bullying isn’t something that you can just ignore - the longer you leave it, the worse it’s going to get," says WorkSafe Acting Executive Director for Health and Safety Stan Krpan.

Look closely at your workplace for any bullying risks, put a bullying policy in place which responds to these risks, discuss it with staff, and act on it,” he said.

WorkSafe is receiving about 30 bullying-related phone calls a day.

30 March 2010

A study by Oxford and Essex universities found that Jamie Oliver's healthier school dinners have improved kids' marks in science and English.

Absences were also cut by 15 per cent.

This seems to suggest that both absences and academic results in Aboriginal community schools might be improved if healthy school breakfasts and lunches were provided by these schools.
 
It can be really difficult to buy fresh, healthy food in some remote communities in Queensland.

24 24 March 2010

In a newly published book, No One Would Listen, whistleblowing American fund manager Harry Markopolos describes how he lived in fear of his life.

For three years, he carried a Smith & Wesson revolver, checked under his car for bombs and avoided walking along dark shadowy streets.

Markopolos tried, umpteen times, to raise the alarm about Bernard Madoff's US$65bn Ponzie scheme which imploded at the end of 2008, leaving thousands of charities, hedge funds, pensioners and Hollywood stars bereft of billions of dollars.

Markopoulos says that Bernie Madoff "was a knowing predator.

He would show up at weddings, funerals.

At funerals, he would put his arm round the grieving widow and say 'I'll take care of you' and of course he did, he'd wipe her out," says Markopolos.

"He was hunting at social occasions.

Everybody thought of him as nice uncle Bernie.

But he was a predator."

Dismissed as a misguided obsessive and a self-publicist until Madoff's eventual confession, Markopoulos became increasingly anxious for his safety.

The Wall Street Journal, which did nothing with Markopolos's dossier on Madoff for two years, recently patronised him as "a little bit nuts".

But Markopoulos says, "If you're a whistleblower, you need to be eccentric.

You have to have a firm belief in your core values and you have to be willing to risk it all to do what's right."

21 March 2010  

Scientists have shown that children - and, presumably, teachers, nurses, paramedics, police, etc. - who are bullied are more likely to have cognitive deficits.

They score lower on tests that measure verbal memory and executive function, a set of skills needed to focus on a task and get the job done.

Mental-health problems, such as depression, are also more common.

Animal studies have shown that chronic high levels of stress can kill brain cells.

Bullied classroom teachers cannot operate effectively because so much of their time and energy is drained away, dealing with the workplace abuse.

15 March 2010

Previous research has focused on what psychopaths tend to lack -

  • fear,
  • empathy
  • and the ability to maintain normal relationships.

But a team led by Joshua Buckholtz of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, examined what there is too much of - 

  • impulsiveness
  • and an extreme attraction to risk-taking and rewards.

The new data suggests psychopaths "have such a strong draw to reward - to the carrot - that it overwhelms the sense of risk or concern about the stick"

12 March 2010

Suspending Queensland teachers, principals and education officials - many of whom may be the subject of "joke", malicious or "payback" allegations made by students, parents, other teachers or principals - is costing taxpayers more than $1 million a year.
 
The teachers sometimes have to wait for the outcomes of investigations for more than two years.
 
The process is very stressful.
 
"The department conducts all investigations in a professional and timely manner," Education Queensland assistant director-general, human resources, Craig Allen said.
 
"However the length of time taken to conduct external investigations, such as those by police, is outside the control of the department.
 
 As is any matter which may be proceeding through the courts."
 
 
And then there are the faux CMC / Ethical Standards Unit "investigations" that seem to be deliberately delayed for several years - so that the principals being "investigated" can claim to have forgotten what they did and why they did it.
 

Opposition education spokesman Bruce Flegg said there was "something very wrong" with a system that left suspended staff on full pay for more than two years.

He said it wasn't fair to staff or to students and was "certainly not fair to taxpayers".

12 March 2010

Education Minister Geoff Wilson says Queensland principals could be disciplined over the asbestos-related problems in Queensland schools.

"The principal is the senior official and has a duty of care to all staff and students," he said.

"It is the principal's responsibility to ensure the safety of students and staff, particularly when it comes to asbestos related issues.

"Any failure of a principal to fulfil those obligations will result in disciplinary action."

"The Minister is trying to pass the buck and blame school principals and blame contractors," Opposition education spokesman, Bruce Flegg said.

"There is no doubt that when it comes to the safety of asbestos in schools the buck stops with the Minister and we've been through this time and time again."

10 March 2010
 
Lynette Bishop said her son was scared and angry after being beaten by a group of young boys at a blue-light disco on the Sunshine Coast on Friday night.

She said there had been too many cases of extreme bullying and the Queensland government must act.

"There's nothing in place now, despite what Anna Bligh said on the news last night that there are strict guidelines and policies in place - that's absolute rubbish.

Laws were needed to "re-empower" police, teachers and parents, she said.

"I issue a challenge to her - Anna Bligh - to come back to me within a three-month period as to what she's doing to change the legislation and exactly what legislation she [Ms Bligh] thinks is in place to protect our young."

I wish you luck, Mrs Bishop.

I met Anna Bligh on 23 June 2002 and told her that, when Queensland teachers were bullied at work, the only advice of the Queensland Teachers' Union was to "accept the things you cannot change" because the Education Queensland Grievance process did not work.

As you say, Mrs Bishop, all you get in response is rubbish.

Nothing really changes.

6 March 2010

 Australian Industry Group ( AI Group ) chief executive Heather Ridout said a big issue holding back Australians from participation in work was that -

  • 40 per cent of employed Australians and
  • 60 per cent of the unemployed
"don't have the literacy or numeracy levels to participate fully in a modern workforce".
 
A yet to be released survey from the Australian Industry Group has found that -
  • 75 per cent of Australian firms believe a lack of English language and mathematics skills hurt their productivity.

She said English-as-a-second-language speakers had always been part of the problem.

But it was the lack of improvement among Australian-born workers that was worrying.

4 December 2010

A Bundaberg nurse, Christine Cameron, claims that the Crime and Misconduct Commission ( CMC ) is amateurish and inept.

She claims that the CMC failed in its duty by flick-passing her complaints to other agencies for investigation.

These investigations led to "fabrications" and a "whitewash", she said in statements tabled in Parliament.

Cameron, 48, said she was dumbfounded to discover most of the complaints she listed in official incident reports weren't investigated at all.

"When I rang the CMC in January, they told me the case was now in the hands of Steve Hardy, the director of the (Queensland Health) Ethical Standards Unit," she said.

The Ethical Standards unit then referred the complaints back to district health manager Kevin Hegarty.

A review of the hospital's emergency department was done by Prince Charles Hospital's executive director of medical services, Dr Stephen Ayre.

"Queensland Health is essentially investigating itself," AMA Queensland president Dr Chris Davis warned.

"The ESU said the claims were unsubstantiated," Ms Cameron said.

"I'm dumbfounded.

How could they get away with it?

"We are asked to report incidents but I quickly realised the official policy is to cover things up."

Cameron's allegations are contained in statements tabled in the House by Rob Messenger (LNP, Burnett).

Messenger backed Cameron's call for a royal commission, saying the investigations lacked integrity.

"At the very least, this is unethical behaviour.

At worst, this is corruption and cronyism in the Labor Party," he said.

 

Counselling psychologist and Deakin University senior lecturer Dr Helen Mcgrath said that bullying could happen to any child ( or teacher ) and not just the ones who seem to be vulnerable.

Parents  ( and teachers and principals and Education Queenslands District Office and Head Office administrators, and all other Queensland government public servants ) should remember that -

- bad things continue because of what good people don't do.

Don't just turn away from it.

Do or say something that will actually make it clear that this is not right.

It links back to things like the Holocaust, the Ku Klux Klan – they were massive community bullying situations."

27 February 2010

Victorian government media adviser Peta Duke has been "redeployed" after a document was inadvertently sent to the ABC.

The document said that the Victorian Labor government would "consult" with the community - over plans to develop a hotel - then block the proposal and say that it did so because "it listened to community views".

The document seems to suggest that all Labor government "community consultation" is a sham.

  • 'Sham' media staffer moved, AAP, P.6, The Nation, The Weekend Australian, 27-28 February, 2010.

17 February 2010

Most Queenslanders no longer trust anything that the Bligh Labor Government say.

It has stopped listening to anything other than the sound of its own voice.

Now there is barely the pretence of justifying its actions.

Our indifference created the monster and we suffer for it.

Now the penny has dropped.

We’ve had enough.

We can either allow the lies and the meaningless words to soothe our indifference or to anger us to action.

Democracy demands more of us than a poorly thought, ill-cast vote on election day.

Get loud and angry now or accept that our gift to the future will be nothing more than memories of what we have let go.

 
17 February 2010
 
Former Queensland director-general Scott Flavell said senior public servants now felt compelled to follow inappropriate orders because they can be easily sacked with little compensation.

Mr Flavell said the introduction of three-year contracts with limited termination compensation was discouraging "frank and fearless" advice.

12 February 2010

Why don't people just leave a toxic workplace?

In the case of Queensland teachers, it is because they are trapped at their school, especially if they are working in a remote area.

The problem is that most employers don't -

  • truly educate their staff to identify bullying,
  • provide systemic solutions to rectify the causes,
  • develop interventions
  • and empower victims to create ways to block bullying behaviours.

Most policies are superficial, formed without -

  • adequate staff collaboration,
  • regular monitoring,
  • comprehensive training programs,
  • meaningful consequences
  • or conciliatory, restorative dispute-resolution processes.

This is true.

And any "new" Education Queensland polices often seem to be created by the people causing the problem.

Most victims of bullying don't understand that they are being bullied until they are injured.

Their spirit is broken, their good name trampled on; they are humiliated in front of peers.

Their fight/flight instinct is paralysed and they become stuck in time, obsessing over what is occurring but unable to take action.

10 February 2010

This week's ruling by Melbourne Magistrate Peter Lauritsen - imposing $335,000 in fines on the staff of a cafe for workplace bullying - sends an unambiguous message about the serious nature of workplace abuse.
 
Last month a draft report of the Productivity Commission found that 2.5 million Australians experienced some aspect of bullying during their working lives.
9 February 2010

Fines were the justice system's maximum sanctions under Victoria's Occupational Health and Safety Act against the workplace bullying that took place in a suburban Melbourne cafe.

Despite what many wished, a prison term was not available.

''The nights we find really hard,'' Brodie's mother, Rae Panlock, 54, told The Age.

''Once the lights are off and you lie there … and think about all those things.

''I knew she was tired and working hard, so we'd send her home with extra food and vitamins, but she didn't like to the talk too much about the cafe towards the end."

"It just breaks my heart to think what she would have gone through …''

She hopes similar victims of workplace bullying find help, and prays they have someone like Michael O'Grady, the WorkSafe investigator whose dedication to Brodie's case assembled such a water-tight prosecution, alongside.

''I don't think the world's a great place to be at the moment,'' Rae says.
8 February 2010

A young waitress, Brodie Rae Constance Panlock, 19, killed herself in September 2006 after being subjected to relentless workplace bullying.

Three of Brodie's workmates, Nicholas Smallwood, 26, now of Queensland, Rhys MacAlpine, 28, of Kooyong, and Gabriel Toomey, 23, of Melbourne, all pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates Court to failing to take reasonable care for the health and safety of persons.

The cafe's owner Marc Luis Da Cruz pleaded guilty to two charges, including failing to provide and maintain a safe working environment.

They were all convicted and fined a total of $335,000.

Magistrate Peter Lauritsen said there was a "poisonous atmosphere" among the staff at the Hawthorn cafe.

Brodie Panlock's father Damien Panlock said the law should be changed to include a custodial sentence for workplace bullies.

5 February 2010

The article below was actually published in The Cairns Post on November 14 2009. I read it today and thought that the article and the comments were very interesting.

Former Cairns police officer Rosario Russo, 43, who retired from the Queensland Police service in January 2009, claims he suffered a mental and physical breakdown following years of job-related stress, bullying and threats from his fellow officers.

He claims that his colleagues tried to drive him out of the force by issuing him an improper search warrant for stealing property, a charge for which he was later cleared.

He said the ordeal drove him to consider taking his own life.

The Weekend Post has been in contact with current serving officers who tell their own stories of bullying in the ranks.

And The Weekend Post has become aware of a report that links a large majority of police officer suicides to workplace bullying.

Queensland Police Union spokesman Ross Mussgrove said "undoubtedly" bullying occurred within a police officer's workplace.

The Reader's Comments on this article, especially those by Alison Alloway of Cairns, Dr Robert Lewis of Cairns and Jack Scagnetti suggest that there is a high level of awareness of public service workplace bullying in Cains.

4 February 2010

Anna Bligh has dismissed suggestions the Queensland CMC "watchdog" is toothless because it allows agencies like police and Education Queensland to investigate themselves.

It's toothless, Anna.

4 February 2010

There will be continuing revelations about corruption in Queensland until the power to initiate investigations is restored to the CMC and it is properly resourced.

23 January 2010

The Australian will announce the "Australian of the Year".

The Bad Apple Bullies website has nominated Karen Smith for this award.

Karen is the nursing assistant who reported the abuse of elderly people in a Queensland aged care home - and was sacked!

You can read Karen's story on her website : SING : Silence Is Not Golden  http://whistleblowerssupportgroup.blogspot.com/ 

Karen appeared in the recent SBS TV series about whistleblowers.

Her husband talked about how Karen's whistleblowing - "she wanted to do it for the old ladies" - has affected their lives.

Karen and her husband are having to live on a very reduced income.

To support Karen Smith as Australian of the Year - and to protest her treatment - write to The Editor in Chief, The Australian, GPO Box 4162, Sydney, 2001.

Or email the Australian, giving your name, address and phone number and saying why you support Karen.

A nomination form was also published on Page 2 of The Australian on Saturday 9 January 2010.

17January 2010

Education Queensland have just performed a stunning back-flip.

Foreign languages will now be reinstated as a mandatory subject in Queensland state schools.

Education Queensland had quietly allowed principals to opt out of teaching LOTE (Languages Other Than English) in Years 6, 7 and 8 – the years it used to be compulsory.Figures provided to The Courier-Mail by Education Queensland last week showed 298 state schools did not teach a foreign language ( or intercultural investigations, which can be taught instead of LOTE under the changes ) in 2009.So even more than 298 schools are actually not teaching LOTE.But the schools have concealed this by calling not teaching LOTE "intercultural investigations".

Education assistant-director general Yvana Jones last week said the changes – implemented statewide in 2009 – were made because a "one-size-fits-all approach didn't work in state schools".

The real truth is that many state school principals had not learned a language themselves and so they gave Languages Other Than English ( LOTE ) no support at all.

And young Australian teachers used to teach for two years and then set off overseas to do a world trip.

Teachers who have travelled - especially those who have travelled independently - or who can speak another language themselves are much more supportive of LOTE.

But nowadays Queensland teachers are paid so poorly and have so little job security - many of them have not travelled at all.

Within hours of the story appearing on Saturday, Acting Education Minister Stephen Robertson moved to separate the Bligh Government from the Department's changes.

Queensland Education Minister Geoff Wilson has since ordered his top bureaucrat, director-general Julie Grantham, "to investigate how an 'optional' approach to LOTE came to be rolled out statewide without the endorsement of the State Government".

Isn't that amazing.

LOTE was significantly undermined by school principals - and the Queensland Government claims to know nothing about what was going on in their schools.

Ms Grantham is on leave.

Smart move, Julia.

  • Language subjects backflip in Queensland schools, Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail

31 December 2009

Robert Needham, outgoing chairman of Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission ( CMC ) said the the practice of Queensland police men and women relying on the Queensland police union to provide their legal defence compelled officers to join the union.

Even if they had little real interest in union affairs.

Mr Needham makes o good point here.

And his comment could also apply to the Queensland Teachers' Union ( QTU ), or any other Queensland public service union. 

Mr Needham said parliament should consider establishing a defence fund for police officers - and teachers and other public servants - who were under investigation or facing complaints.

Mr Needham said that a huge percentage of Queensland police - and teachers and other public servants - did not vote in union elections.

"That shows that there is (sic) a lot of people in there who are not really interested in union affairs, and clearly they are there because of the chance that if there is an allegation against them, they need to turn to the union to be represented.'

And then they find that they are refused any legal advice, and that they are exposed to abuse.

This situation gives the unions too much power.

And it exposes Queensland classroom teachers to workplace abuse.

Mr Needham said he has been pushing for all public sector unions ...  to introduce a code of conduct to help promote integrity and honesty.

Mr Needham, to promote integrity and honesty in Queensland schools, or anywhere else in the Queensland public service, you need to PROMOTE public servants who act with integrity and honesty.

At the moment Queensland public servants who demonstrate any integrity and honesty are being attacked and driven out of work.

You need to totally reform the Queensland public service promotion system - and to weed out the Labor brown-nosers, the lazy charming smilers, the incompetents, the illiterates and the psychopaths.

  • Push for code of conduct for Queensland police, Michael McKenna, The Australian.

19 December 2009

Yesterday Martin Moynihan  - a former Supreme Court judge - was appointed to replace Robert Needham as Chairman of the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission ( CMC ) for the next two years.

During 2009 the CMC investigated 80 cases, compared with the usual average of about 110 cases.

Because Mr Needham claimed to believe that the public service had "matured".

And Mr Needham had increasingly referred misconduct complaints back to Queensland public service departments, allowing the Queensland public servants to investigate themselves - and to find no evidence of their own misconduct.

Judge Moynihan said yesterday that he was aware of suggestions that some Queensland public service departments may be less "mature" than Mr Needham claimed to believe.

"I think it needs to be looked at," Judge Moynihan said of the "just let them investigate themselves and find no evidence of their own misconduct" Queensland CMC "devolution process".

  • New CMC boss Martin Moynihan to target government departments, Patrick Lion, The Courier-Mail.

30 November 2009

Queensland Education Minister Geoff Wilson said any allegation about the bullying of Education Queensland whistleblowers would be treated "extremely seriously".

"I urge (Opposition education spokesman) Dr Flegg to provide any evidence he has about these issues to Education Queensland for investigation as a matter of priority," Mr Wilson said.

Mr Wilson said his department encouraged staff to come forward with their concerns.

Mr Wilson, your staff seem to be afraid to tell you the truth!

On 4 September this year Robina Cosser sent an official submission to Anna Bligh and her "Round Table" concerning workplace bullying in Queensland schools.

Hasn't Anna Bligh discussed the submission with you yet?

When Robina first asked for the workplace bullying to be investigated in December 2000, she was threatened five times that "action would be taken" against her if she contined to complain.

Robina Cosser was certainly not "encouraged to come forward with her concerns".

The CMC and Education Queensland refused to investigate her complaint till 2006 - after Robina had discovered that her Education Queensland "offical records" had been extensively falsified.

And even in 2006 the "Independent Investigator" was only allowed to interview two of the bullies and to phone another bully.

And he was only allowed to copy down exactly what these bullies told him, even if it was obviously untrue. 

Mr Wilson, why don't you know these facts?

A copy of Robina's submission to Anna Bligh concerning the corruption / failure of the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission ( CMC ) / Education Queensland "investigation process" can be found on Anna Bligh's website :

http://www.premiers.qld.gov.au/community-issues/open-transparent-gov/submissions/submissions-201-220/robina-cosser.aspx

Mr Wilson, don't just passively wait for your staff to tell you about the bullying - they are too afraid to tell you the truth!

You need to set an example for your staff - read Robina Cosser's submission and find out the facts!

  • Qld teachers complain of bullying, AAP, The Brisbane Times, 30 November 2009 

Queensland and Australian public service corruption, victimisation, harassment, workplace bullying, mobbing, discrimination and "payback".

9 December 2009

Gary Long SC has been appointed as the Queensland Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Commissioner.

He replaces Alan MacSporran, who, we are now told, has been doing the job for the past five years. 

Who knew that?

Who knew anything about Alan MacSporran?

What exactly has Alan MacSporran been doing for the past five years?

When I complained to the PCMC about the  CMC / Education Queensland faux "investigation process", what exactly did Alan MacSporran do?

Gary Long will assume the part-time position on January 10.

PCMC chairman Paul Hoolihan, the member for Keppel, said Mr Long was unanimously supported by the bipartisan committee.

The parliamentary commissioner is a focal figure in the review and oversight of the Crime and Misconduct Commission.

The parliamentary commissioner is charged with the responsibility of handling and investigating complaints against the alleged actions of the corruption watchdog and its officials.

Now they tell us.

They have been keeping this a big secret.

Complaints are referred to the commissioner by the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee.

This is not exactly true, according to my understanding of the situation.

The PCMC do not actually read complaints about the CMC.

Their office staff send complaints about the CMC directly to the CMC.

The PCMC allow the CMC to investigate themselves.

Then, based on the CMC's investigation into the CMC, the PCMC make their decision to do something about your complaint or to do nothing about your complaint.

At every stage of the CMC / Education Queensland faux "investigation process" the public servants that you have complained about are allowed to investigate themselves.

The Bligh Labor Government holds a 4-3 advantage in that committee room.

But under the Crime and Misconduct Act, the decision to refer a matter onwards for investigation by the commissioner must be made on bipartisan terms, with at least one non-government member acquiescing.

Twenty-seven such complaints against the CMC or CMC officers were lodged in the 2008/09 financial year, according to the PCMC annual report released last month.

  • Long time coming for new anti-corruption commissioner, Chris Barrett, The Brisbane Times 

8 December 2009

In February 2009, former Bundaberg Hospital nurse Christine Cameron raised over 100 complaints about patient treatment and the manipulation of records at Bundaberg Hospital.

"The Crime and Misconduct Commission ( CMC ) didn't investigate, they handed it back to Queensland Health, and you can't have a department investigate itself and come up with an unbiased report," Ms Cameron said.

"... They don't want anyone to know and they don't want to investigate it and don't want to sort it out."

Mrs Cameron says an interim report provided to her by the Department's ethical standards unit was biased.

"I asked them on the first day would they come back and check things with me and they never did," she said.

"They did just the initial interviews and that was it."

This is why the Queensland CMC "devolution strategy" is a dismal failure.

Queensland government department / CMC "investigations" seem to consist of simply copying down any silly excuse, even if it is obviously untrue.

Then the departmental / CMC"investigation" is declared "finalised" and the complainant is not allowed to tell the "investigator", the Department and the CMC that they have been fooled with lies that could easily be disproved.

The purpose of a Queensland CMC / departmental investigation seems to be to find no evidence of the corruption / misconduct and to declare the investigation "finalised".

"They've never come back to me to check things so I could say, 'well, that's wrong - I've got documented evidence against it'."

But Queensland Health District director Kevin Hegarty says Queensland Health did "act on the allegations".

  • Qld Health accused of Bundaberg hospital cover-up, Kallee Buchanan, ABC News

 

6 December 2009

39 per cent of Victorian teachers report they have been repeatedly bullied at work.

Parents' groups say the bullying culture among teachers is contributing to the problem among children - because students who see bullying in role models mimic that behaviour.

This is absolutely right.

School principals who are liars and bullies themselves seem to encourage poorly-behaved students to lie and bully.

The Sunday Herald Sun has also found:

  • Victorian teachers encourage parents to complain about their enemies to school principals.
  • Staff routinely complain about each other's teaching ability to year leaders, principals and even education authorities.
  • Difficult students are "palmed off" on unpopular colleagues.

Mary Bluett, president of the Australian Education Union Victorian branch, said she was not surprised teachers topped the table for workplace bullying.

"Bullying is a problem with some principals."

  • Teachers trapped by class bullying, Evonne Barry, Herald Sun

 

Wednesday 2 December, 2009

Karen Smith appeared on SBS TV at 8:30pm in Law and Disorder.

 
Go Karen!  - A real Australian Hero. 
 
 
Monday 30 November 2009

New figures released by the Queensland Government showed the number of formal complaints of bullying and aggressive behaviour by teachers against other teachers had increased by more than 40 per cent over the past two years.

  • In 2007, 26 teachers made formal complaints to the education department about other teachers.
  • The number rose to 30 in 2008.
  • And there have been 37 complaints so far in 2009.

Opposition education spokesman Bruce Flegg said he had been approached by a number of teachers concerned about being told by other teachers to keep quiet about school problems.

"There's pressure to cover up those sorts of events, but teachers in those schools want the root causes to be addressed," Dr Flegg said.

"I don't think there is any doubt whistleblowers are being bullied.

"The agenda is about controlling the public relations rather than fixing the problems."

Dr Flegg said it was a systemic problem that required government action. 

  • Teachers bullied to keep quiet on problem schools, AAP (Isn't there any Queensland Newspaper Reporter with the guts to write about this issue under their own name?) 

 

Wednesday 25 November 2009

The Queensland Labor Government has linked debate on its "Integrity Bill" with the Opposition's legislation for a corruption commission of inquiry.

Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek told Parliament that the "Integrity Bill" is not enough and that a Royal Commission is needed.

But Labor MP Grace Grace says an inquiry would be a waste of money.

"All matters can be investigated by the CMC ( Crime and Misconduct Commission ), who has (sic) more than enough powers to carry out investigatory functions," Ms Grace said.

Actually, Grace Grace, in my experience that is NOT correct.

The CMC do NOT have the powers - 98 per cent of the CMC's  powers have been "devolved" to Queensland government departments - the government departments are being allowed to investigate themselves.

And it is not working.

Grace, I met you when the Queensland Parliament was held in the Cairns Convention Centre.

I told you that, when Queensland teachers were bullied at work, the immediate and only advice of the Queensland Teachers' Union  ( QTU ) was to "accept the things you cannot change" because there was no hope of justice.

You said that you found that hard to believe.

I urged you to check the facts with the QTU.

What did the QTU tell you?

I would be interested to know.

  • Qld MPs glove up for integrity stoush, Kerrin Binnie, ABC News

 

Sunday 22 November, 2009

The Queensland Department of Education's 2008 / 2009 report reveals that -

  • one education department bureaucrat received a pay rise to between $440,000 and $459,999
  • and another received a pay rise to between $460,000 and $479,000

- while Queensland classroom teachers were battling for their miserable pay rise of 12.5 per cent - over three years!

Liberal National Party (LNP) education spokesman Bruce Flegg said that the massive bureaucratic salaries were an insult to Queensland classroom teachers.

And were hard to justify given Queensland was at the bottom of the class in literacy and numeracy standards.

  • Bureaucrats pay 'a slap in face' to teachers, AAP

Monday 16 November, 2009

Last week, Education Minister Julia Gillard convened a national conference in Canberra involving 150 school leaders from around Australia.

Although her focus was on selling the Government's education revolution, it quickly became apparent that principals had other, more immediate and pressing things on their collective mind.

Foremost was classroom misbehaviour.

The reality is that spending billions on school buildings and trying to attract quality graduates to teaching is useless if teachers cannot teach because of disruptive children who refuse to learn. 

The real issue confronting Australian schools, which politicians are ignoring, involves rude, disengaged and violent students.

The result?

New teachers are quitting in droves, older teachers are retiring early and stress-related claims are on the increase.

  • New teachers say classroom violence their biggest concern, Kevin Donnelly, director of the Melbourne-based Education Standards Institute, The Courier-Mail.

13 November, 2009

Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard yesterday launched a strong attack on critics of the government's plans to publish school test results, accusing them of focusing on non-academic skills and wanting to produce "happy, illiterate, innumerate children".

Ms Gillard said "I don't believe our aim is to have schools full of happy, illiterate, innumerate children."

If Julia Gillard was a Queensland teacher, she would be put on 'Managing Unsatisfatory Performance' for having 'wrong thoughts'.

  • Testing foes want happy, uneducated kids: Gillard, Natasha Bita, The Australian

Anna Bligh responds to the "Queensland Green Paper on Integrity" submissions.

9 November, 2009

Queensland premier Anna Bligh will today unveil the first wave of measures to clean up the state's accountability -

  • The role of the state's Integrity Commissioner will be expanded to provide advice to all MPs rather than just ministers.

  • There will be changes to the Whistleblower Protection Act.

  • An ethical standards branch will be established to provide advice to bureaucrats.

 

And a "second wave of reforms" will be unveiled in the middle of next year.

  • Anna Bligh to cap donations, ban lobbyist success fees, Steven Wardill, The Courier-Mail 

Queensland classroom teachers do not have "the best working conditions in the world", Mrs Bligh.

Monday, 9 November, 2009

Queensland teachers are expected to vote in a fortnight on their new pay deal.

The deal could see the state's beginning teachers as the highest paid in the country in July 2011, with a base salary of $56,900 ( up from $48,829 ).

Classroom teachers who are selected for the new "senior teacher" classification will receive a salary of $83,308 a year in 2011.

 

Notice that it is only classroom teachers whose pay rise will have to be won on "merit".

 

Principals and heads of program, deputy principals and guidance officers will receive an additional 2.5 per cent pay rise in July 2011.

 

No "merit" will be necessary in their case.

But they will judge the "merit" of classroom teachers.

 

"We're sending a clear message to students starting university, enrol in a graduate teaching program and -

  • take up one of the best jobs in the world
  • in the best state in Australia
  • with the best conditions," 

Premier Anna Bligh said.

 

Mrs Bligh, Queensland teachers do not have the best working conditions in the world.

You know that.

What have you actually done about the workplace bullying in Queensland schools since 23 June 2002, Mrs Bligh?

  • Teachers win pay deal, Thomas Chamberlin, The Cairns Post

Queensland Teachers Union accept pay deal - but most classroom teachers seem to "win" very little.

7 November, 2009

The Queensland Teachers Union ( QTU ) state council yesterday signed off on the Government's offer of a 12.5 per cent pay rise over three years – an offer the union recently rejected.

The QTU wanted an 18.5 per cent increase.

Classroom teachers will get the (previously rejected) 4.5 per cent wage increase backdated to July 1 and further increases of 4 per cent in July 2010 and 2011.

But some last-minute sweeteners were thrown in by Premier Anna Bligh :

Teachers with 13 years or more experience can immediately apply for an upgrade.

This promotion and pay rise would not be automatic, but based on "merit".

Principals and other administrators would receive an extra 2.5 per cent pay bonus after the three-year deal.

  • Premier Anna Bligh finds $1 billion for Queensland teachers, Darrell Giles, The Sunday Mail

Look out for whistleblowers on SBS TV!

SBS TV are running a series of programs on whistleblowers in the weeks before the Adelaide conference of Whistleblowers Australia:

 

Andrew Wilkie : Weapons of mass destruction : Wednesday 18 November

Alan Kessing : Airport Security : Wednesday 25 November

Karen Smith : Resident Care Abuse : Wednesday 2 December

The programs will run at 8.00pm or 8:30pm.

 

SBS will also be running a series of short "mini programs" about 6-8 minutes long, to be run online from just before the first documentary on Wednesday 18 November:

Debbie Locke, a former detective in the NSW police,

Phil Vardy, medical researcher and scientist in the Mcbride affair,

Alan Parkinson, talking about the Maralinga clean-up fiasco,

Jill Joliffe, speaking about the Balibo Five, who were murdered in Timor L'Este.

Nicolas Rothwell : The Failed State

24 October, 2009

Nicolas Rothwell's article "The Failed State" in The Australian today is interesting.

He is actually describing the Northern Territory but many of his comments could also apply to Queensland -

" In Australia we are used to seeing progress in governance, not failure. ...

Not in Queensland.

We expect governments in our jurisdictions that function well, provide efficient services, and maintain a fair match between the rhetoric of politics and the facts on the ground.

Not in Queensland.

... Elections have been reduced to straight vote-buying and the provision of high-cost "bread and circuses" projects.

... Why support an opposition party when you will be excluded from the circle of favour that expresses itself in plum jobs, promotion opportunities, special awards, consultancies, contracts and development opportunities?

... In this environment, a party-state comes into being -

  • Bureaucrats carrying out party dictates,
  • politicised appointments to key posts,
  • a climate of obedience,
  • a culture of prudent silence.

Buttressing this inner cement of unspoken ties is a culture of vociferous announcement.

At the core of the system is a mind-set reminiscent of Pacific Island cargo-cults.

An institution is named, set up, housed and lightly staffed : problem solved.

A few words are added to an old policy and a "new" policy is announced and launched : problem solved.

Thus Queensland is full of facades rather than real institutions -

  •  a Crime and Misconduct Commission that investigates 2 per cent of the disclosures that it receives.
  • Ethical Conduct Departments that conduct faux "investigations", produce falsified "final outcome" reports and facilitate appalling ethical conduct.

Such facade institutions, and the philosophy behind them, infect the air.

They create a fantasy approach to administration, where the declaration of a policy is sufficient to change the world.

Hence the avalanches of "reviews" even as conditions in the real universe continue to deteriorate.

 

The fantasy approach to administration necessitates a ceaseless production of propaganda and spin.

So a large media army is employed in the state sector.  

But fewer newspaper reporters are employed. 

So there is a much-reduced print forum for the reflection of events.

The result is a strange void at the heart of things, a silence, a failure of serious conversation about serious issues.

 

Meanwhile, the obedient, silent bureaucrats receive vast salaries and perks.

And consultants feed at the trough.

  • The Failed State, Nicolas Rothwell, The Australian

The Queensland Police Union stand up and fight for bullied union members.

October 17, 2009 (and earlier report on 12 October 2009)

Sergeant Robbie Munn is a 30-year veteran police officer who has exposed cronyism and corruption in the police force.

The police force claims that Sergeant Munn requires psychiatric help.

And he has been ordered off work even though his doctor says he is fit for duty.

Queensland Police Union general secretary Mick Barnes said Sgt Munn was a victim of "bastardisation" in the force.

Police work is very stressful and most police officers will tell you the best therapy they get comes from chatting to their workmates.

So -  "When the police department turns on you ... it's sort of like being rejected by a parent," one officer said.

 

Senior Sergeant Mick Isles is another highly respected police officer.

He was in charge of Ayr police station, in north Queensland.

His "treatment" by the Queensland police began with his very public arrest at a charity event last August.

Senior Sergeant Isles was off work for 13 months on stress leave.

First the Crime and Misconduct Commission ( CMC ) and then the police ethical standards command investigated allegations of wrongdoing.

Senior Sergeant Isles was fully exonerated.

He returned to work on September 21 2009.

But he was still feeling humiliated by the lengthy investigation that was well known around town and the police service.

Exactly what has happened to Sen Sgt Isles is unknown.

An extensive search south of Ayr located his vehicle but no sign of the 58-year-old.

Steven Isles, his son, has begun a crusade of sorts against what he describes as a culture of victimisation within the Queensland Police Service ( QPS ) and the CMC.

Steven Isles has been inundated with support from dozens of serving and former officers from Cairns to South-East Queensland.

Many agreed to be interviewed by The Brisbane Times, though they declined to be named for fear of recrimination.

All were scathing in their criticisms of the treatment of Sen Sgt Isles.

Other police officers raised concerns of bullying within the police service.

"It was so blatantly obvious that they didn't like you and they came after you," one officer said. 

Steven Isles is going to make sure his father's case won't be forgotten.

"We are here to fight this culture, we want to make sure that no employee is treated like this again."

  • AAP Police whistleblower sent home, told to see psychiatrist, Tuck Thompson, The Courier-Mail, 12 October, 2009 
  • Shadow over the thin blue line, Evan Schwarten, The Brisbane Times, 17 October 2009

The Queensland Ombudsman : Response to Anna Bligh's "Integrity Review".

16 October, 2009

3.3 Whistleblowing

" ... The Whistleblowers Protection Act 1994 (WPA) ... makes each public sector agency responsible for receiving public interest disclosures about the conduct of its officers, managing the disclosure process, and taking steps to protect its officers from reprisals.

In my view, this current system is seriously flawed.

A decentralised whistleblowing model whereby the recognition, investigation and resolution of a public interest disclosure (PID) can be handled totally within the agency whose officers are the subject of the PID, without any measure of external oversight (unless it involves official misconduct), does not represent best practice in this area and does not provide whistleblowers with an adequate level of protection."

The Ombudsman suggests that -

  • When an agency receive a disclosure (PID) they send the disclosures involving official misconduct to the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) and all other disclosures to the Ombudsman.
  • Then the Ombudsman would either investigate the disclosure or refer it back to the agency to conduct the investigation. The Ombudsman would be empowered to monitor, take over or review the investigation.

But handing investigations back to agencies and allowing them to investigate themselves is useless.

The ombudsman strongly suspects that there is significant underreporting of PIDs of maladministration.

For example, in the 2007-8 financial year Education Queensland reported that they had received no PID's of maladministration.

They probably "lost" them.

There may be some confusion in agencies about terms such as 'maladministration'.

The Ombudsman recommends that the CMC and the Ombudsman share responsibility for supervising agencies in this manner so that the purposes of the Whistleblower Protection Act are not defeated by -

  • misinterpretations
  • inconsistent approaches
  • inadequate investigations
  • or lack of commitment.

The CMC and the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Commission ( PCMC ) support this idea.

In the 7th PCMC's Three Year Review of the CMC ( tabled 20 April 2009), the PCMC called for the Queensland government to undertake a complete review of the Whistleblower Protection Act.

(In about 2006) a Directive was issued requiring all agencies under the Public Service Act to implement internal complaints systems that complied with recognised standards for complaint handling.

Education Queensland must have lost their Directive.

The Ombudsman then developed a State-wide project to provide training to agencies on understanding and applying the principles of effective complaints management.

But I have seen no evidence of any change.

They attend your training courses and nothing changes.

The Ombudsman wants to develop a training program designed to assist agency staff to understand the principles of whistleblowing.

Training is a cop-out.

It is easier and nicer to "train" people than to actually deal with their corruption.

Training is not the answer.

Nobody cares.

Accountability is the answer.

Show corrupt public servants that you are willing to hold them accountable.

Train and test and hold accountable.

 

Apologies

The Ombudsman is another enthusiast for Claytons apologies - the apology you get when nothing actually changes.

He suggests that any type of Departmental apology be "protected".

At the conclusion of an investigation the Ombudsman often recommends that the relevant head of a department apologise to a complainant who has suffered some detriment as a result of the agency's defective administrative action.

The CMC chair supports the Ombudsman's idea that legislative change should provide that an apology by an agency regaring a decision or action affecting an individual does not constitute an admission of liability and will not be relevant to a determination of fault or liability.

So the Government department that has harmed you will say that they are sorry that they have harmed you - because they know that if they say "sorry" it will calm you down - but their "sorry" is a "protected sorry" - they are not going to do anything to correct the harm that they have done you.

What kind of Claytons sorry is that?

If you are really sorry, you want to correct the harm that you have done.

For example, if a "decision" to punish a teacher was made in breach of several Departmental policies - and if this abusive document was then placed on the teachers' official record - this document will continue to damage that teachers' professional reputation long after your Claytons "sorry".

There is a need to correct the document - to annotate all copies of the document to say that the decision was made in breach of Departmental policies and it has been withdrawn.

http://www.premiers.qld.gov.au/community-issues/open-transparent-gov/submissions/submissions-181-200/qld-ombudsman.aspx

Scott Patterson, former senior Queensland state government policy adviser : sacked for "refusing to lie to the CMC".

4 October, 2009

Scott Patterson is a former senior Queensland state government policy adviser.

In late 2000 Mr Patterson told senior figures that he would not lie to the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission ( CMC ).

Mr Patterson said that he was the only office member not interviewed by the CMC during a "probe".

Mr Patterson claims that he was then sidelined and sacked in late 2001.

"I didn't trust the CMC then and I don't trust them now," the former Labor Party member said.

"It seems there is an intimate connection between the CMC and the government."

Mr Patterson said that his experience was not an isolated incident among ministerial staff.

Another former ministerial staffer, Jacqueline King, recently claimed that she was sacked after raising concerns about jailed former minister Gordon Nuttall in 2002.

  • Ministerial adviser sacked after 'refusing to lie' to CMC, Steven Wardill, The Courier-Mail

The Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) : the CMC submission to Anna Bligh's integrity and accountability review.

1 October, 2009

Recommendation # 4 - Ethics education

The CMC recommends that ethics education programs include adequate attention to ... conflicts of interest which disadvantage or cause a detriment. ...

Recommendation # 25 - Codes of Conduct

The CMC recommends that all agencies seek to find ways to improve the working effectiveness of their codes, through training, regular updates, effective consultation and public commitment to ethical conduct.

Recommendation # 26 - Role of the Public Service Commission

The CMC recommends that the Public Service Commission take a more active role in the oversight of the conduct and actions of government agencies.

 

The CMC seem to be lobbying for the Public Service Commission to take over responsibility for investigating Queensland public service corruption.

 

Transparency.

... when an official's actions and decisions are open to scrutiny, not only by their superiors, peers and official oversight agencies, but also by the media and the general public, ... opportunity is severely limited and the risk of detection rises.

Accordingly, to minimise the risk of corruption, every strategy to increase the transparency of government should be explored and, wherever practicable, implemented without delay.

The principle of transparency applies to all aspects of public administration, and relies upon :

  1. systems and processes which can be understood by the uninitiated
  2. communication in plain language and using the minimum of jargon and obscure expression
  3. ...
  4. independent, merit based and and evidence-based processes for making decisions
  5. publication of sound, fair and eqitable reasons for decisions which are made
  6. ...
  7. ...
  8. rigorous processes at all levels to ensure that and conflict of interest, pecuniary or non-pecuniary, is openly declared and appropriately managed.

 

Prevention is undoubtedly better than cure. Effective management of misconduct and complaints alleging misconduct shows both employees and the community that such matters are dealt with honestly, fairly and openly. Openness about the way inappropriate conduct is addressed and managed can be an effective deterrent.

The CMC's devolution strategy is a key change-maker. It is targeted towards an evolution of management attitude,

I have seen no evidence of any such evolution of management attitude.

"Devolution" - i.e. allowing Queensland Public Service Departments to investigate themselves -  does not seem to be working.

 

... and the changes to organisational culture which flow from it.

Organisations come to appreciate that complaints, and even identified instances of misconduct, are learning experiences, opportunities to discover ways to do the job better.

At the moment they seem to be learning that they can delay an investigation for years and then produce a report full of absolute gibberish.

And that the gibberish will be "accepted" by the CMC.

 

Agencies are encouraged in the development and monitoring of processes which ensure that misconduct is effectively prevented.

On the rare occasions that it does occur, the processes and monitoring are desgned to address the issues effectively, and to use each instance constructively for the ongoing improvement of the organisation.

Can the CMC nominate one Queensland government department in which this golden dream has been achieved?

 

An agency which cannot learn from the abuses which sometimes occur is an agency which cannot improve.

So what exactly did Education Queensland learn from their abuse of me?

"We can get away with it if we delay the investigation for years and then all tell the investigator that we can't remember what we did or why we did it?"

 

Ethics education (Green Paper question # 4)

A range of miscellaneous issues ... tend to slip from the forefront of consciousness in the ethical decision-making process ...

  1. In identifying possible conflicts of interest, there are a range of non-pecuniary interests which are of considerable relevance. Membership of community groups (eg. branches of certain political parties) ... social networks (family, friends, campaign managers, wives of workmates) - all are susceptible to being perceived as influencing an official position or decision. Education about the perception of these non-pecuniary ties is important to ensure that appropriate conflict of interest declarations are made by officials.
  2. Conflict of interest is not limited to an opportunity to seek an advantage for oneself or others. It also includes opportunities to harm, disadvantage or cause a detriment to persons or organisations. Targets of disadvantage can (include people with) ... professional differences, personal disputes and political, professional or cultural rivalries. It is important that all definitions and education programs include this aspect. ...

...

Responsibility for dealing with complaints

The CMC strongly opposes the suggestion that it takes sole responsibility for dealing with complaints, for two principal reasons-

  1. external complaint management will not lead to positive cultural or systemic change within the Queensland public sector.
  2. it would mean more than doubling the CMC's budget and operational capacity.

Devolution is about strengthening public sector agencies integrity, accountability and misconduct resistance.

In my experience it is about turning a blind eye to the corruption.

It is about accepting "outcomes" that are falsified gibberish.

It does not mean that the CMC ... will stop holding agencies accountable for the way in which they deal with complaints of misconduct.

In my experience, the CMC does not "hold agencies accountable".

The CMC accepts gibberish.

The CMC will also continue to take a lead role in building the capacity of agencies to prevent and deal with misconduct.

In my experience, the CMC have a very, very long way to go with this.

Education Queensland, for example, seems to take no interest in preventing or dealing with misconduct.

Misconduct / corruption/ professional negligence / incompetence / workplace abuse etc. seem to be systemic.

This is the problem.

So long as an agency relies upon the ever-present oversight agency to deal with complaints, it will be unable as an organisation to accept responsibility and embrace accountability in its own right.

Poor performance and misconduct will continue to be perceived as the oversight body's problem, and standards will not improve.

Only when an agency takes responsibility for its own culture of integrity, and extends that responsibility downwards from the senior management to line managers and individual employees, will it fully appreciate that ethical behaviour is integral to its operations.

OK, we understand the theory.

But do the CMC understand that it is not happening?

Leaving public service Departments to investigate themselves is not working!

Because the corruption / negligence / abuse is systemic.

Managers must embrace complaints about misconduct as a positive learning opportunity, a tool for them to address any inappropriate conduct of an employee and any systemic issues, control failures, policy and procedural deficiencies, poor workplace culture and standards ...

But, in my experience, they don't.

Queensland public service Departments "lose" complaints and produce falsified "final outcomes" that are full of gibberish.

How can Departments learn from complaints if the CMC accept their gibberish?

...

Compensation

... in a New South Wales case ... the court awarded $664,270 in damages to a police officer on the grounds that his employer had breached its duty of care to the officer.

In order to encourage public officers to disclose corruption and misconduct of which they become aware, it is necessary not only to promise protection and to take active steps to provide that protection, but also to ensure that there is an adequate system of compensation should that protection, for whatever reason, fail.

...

Offence of misconduct in public office (Green Paper questions # 31, 32)

Effective prevention and minimisation of misconduct depends in aprt on potential offenders knowing that there is a real and potent punishment in store for wrong-doers.

... there is no doubt at all that if there is no penalty for particular misconduct, many people would feel that there is no reason not to engage in it.

...

Deliberate failure and wilful neglect.

... a man was violently assaulted by a number of men who beat and kicked him to death.

(An Engish police) constable took no steps to intevene inthe assault and when it was over merely drove away. He was charged with the common law offence of misconduct in public office. Lord Widgery, in delivering the decision of the Court of Appeal, said :

The allegation made was not of mere non-feasance but of deliberate failure and wilful neglect. This involves an element of culpability which is not restricted to corruption or dishonesty but which must be of such a degree that the misconduct impugned is calculated to injure the public interest so as to call for condemnation and ppunishment. ...

A Queensland public servant was asked to "review" a teacher's complaint that she was being bullied. All but the first page of her complaint had been "lost". But a mass of falsified documents had been placed in  the teacher's official file to create the false impression that they had been discussed with her during the process of her Stage 1 Grievance. The public servant was instructed to base his "review" on the falsified "records" and not to "consider" the teacher's response to the falsified "records".

So what should the "reviewer" do?

...

Apologies

While it is true that an apology does not fix a problem, experience shows that it is a powerful signal that the gravity of the issue is appreciated, and that the feelings of the aggrieved person are accorded proper respect. An apology undoubtedly provides satisfaction to many complainants ...

...complainants quickly (and justly) become resentful of a government culture which denies imperfection and will not genuinely engage with them.

An apology is a good start, but if the Department really regret the error they should "put it right".

For example, if an irrational and unjust decision to put a teacher into a punishment program has been placed on that teacher's official record - in breach of several Departmental policies - that teacher will have to declare that detrimental decision to all future employers.

The unjust decision should be withdrawn.

I understand that the actual document cannot be destroyed, but all copies of the document could be annotated to say that the decision has been withdrawn.

Then the professional harm to the teacher would be minimised.

...

Trade Unions and the QTU in particular.

The CMC also notes that trade unions which have coverage over government employees do not generally have codes of conduct or other ethical frameworks which govern their actions or set standards for their behaviour or provide them with guidance when ethical dilemmas arise.

While the members of these organisations are bound by the relevant agency Code of Conduct, paid officials of the unions are not.

A considerable number of unions have members who are employed in the public sector and the conduct of those unions and the decisions made by them have a considerable impact on the conduct and behaviour of public officials.

It is acknowleged that no power exists or should exist to enable the government to regulate the conduct or action of such bodies.

However, it would be adventageous to the relationship between these bodies and the government and its agencies that the unions should voluntarily develop ethical frameworks.

Voluntary codes or ethical frameworks could provide useful assistance and guidelines, especially in dealing with grievances, disputes and disciplinary matters where the interests of one member may be in conflict with the interests of another, or with the interests of the majority of members in the workplace or in general.

In particular, guidelines are desirable to ensure that the union's duty to support and protect a member accused of misconduct should not lead it to sacrifice the interests of other members affected by the alleged misconduct.

One of the interests commonly endangered in this way is the members' wish to be perceived by the public as honest and ethical.

While support should certainly be provided to members as a right, partisan, energetic and vocal defence of members who are proven to be dishonets or unethical can severely damage the public perception of the ethical conduct of all members.

...

Strengthening Codes (green paper questions # 2, 35)

The CMC, in its regular dealings with agencies, has identified a general need for agencies to place a greater emphasis on training and education.

Staff (and especially senior staff) need to be regularly reminded about their obligations.

It is equally important that the agency be visibly committed to ethical conduct, and placing a high priority on Code updates and awareness is a crucial part of this.

The CMC has recently received information that ministerial staff frequently avoid Code of Conduct training (which is provided to them by Ministerial Services).

Given the key exposure of staff in these positions, coupled with the fact that they are frequently political rather than public service appointees, it is vital that Code of Conduct and ethical decision-making training be compulsory within a short time (no more than three months) of commencement, and that strong measures (suspension of salary, termination of contract) be in place to enforce this.

Similar concerns are heard from time to time from other agencies, especially in regard to senior management and other high level staff, who often claim to be 'too busy' to attend.

This sends a very poor message to less elevated staff about the ethical commitment and standards of management and of the organisation as a whole.

All agencies are encouraged to put in place strict attendance requirements, as the effectiveness of codes of conduct is heavily dependent on the commitment of the agency's senior management.

...

http://www.premiers.qld.gov.au/community-issues/open-transparent-gov/submissions/submissions-101-120.aspx

Neil Laurie, Clerk of Queensland Parliament : submission to Anna Bligh's integrity review.

29 September, 2009

The Clerk of the Queensland Parliament - Neil Laurie's - response to Anna Bligh's "integrity review" has been published.

Mr Laurie writes that :

"I believe that the root problem lies in institutional weakness.

This is turn leads inevitably to -

  • lack of transparency,
  • an absence of fear of detection or enforcement,
  • poor leadership in ethics and integrity
  • and, most importantly, the growth of a culture that either accepts, ignores or is fearful of reporting unethical conduct.

... I would strongly recommend compulsory, certified ethical training in the public sector, requiring refreshment of certification every few years for every public officer.

The more senior the officer, the more regular the refreshment.

Education should include study of "real life" past unethical conduct.

Hopefully this will not only reinforce ethical behaviour, but provide identifiers as to unethical behaviour and the deterent effect if those case studies include those 'caught in the act'.

... Many self labelled 'whistleblowers' are not in fact whistleblowers,

What evidence do you have to support that statement, Mr Laurie?

... but rather are either opportunists or persons themselves the subject of allegations of misconduct or poor performance ...

Mr Laurie, are you aware that whistleblowers - or even Queensland teachers who try to discuss professional issues such as the unsupervised groups of children who are roaming about the school disrupting the other classes - seem to be put into punishment programs to "pay them back"?

... and who attempt to use the status of whistleblower as protection.

But there are also many genuine people who feel conflicted with knowledge or suspicion that activities are taking place which are not within the public interest.

The amount of courage it takes to stand up and do the right thing in the face of authority and power cannot be understated.

I am not sure that you are right about that, Mr Laurie.

If you have very little experience of corruption it takes very little courage to expose corruption.

You are just doing the obvious thing.

I think that is why 'outsiders' from overseas or interstate are at risk in Queensland.

They have no experience of corruption and so, when 'outsiders' experience corruption in Queensland they try to deal with the corruption in what they think is the normal manner, expecting that they will be supported.

While people who have long experience of corruption - most Queenslanders - just seem to concentrate on 'not knowing'. 'not understanding' and 'losing' evidence.

... The risk, if not the actuality, is that the public service no longer gives full and frank advice or that such advice is 'filtered'.

It is understandable that Ministers will want to work with Directors-Generals that they know and trust.

However, the perception is that as the years progress, the number of officers with political allegiances / connections increases. ...

http://www.premiers.qld.gov.au/community-issues/open-transparent-gov/submissions/submissions-81-100/clerk-of-parliament.aspx

"When you stick your hand up and say anything nowadays, you just get smashed and told to shut up".

Wednesday 26 August, 2009

Queensland Emergency Medical Service Protection Association (EMPSA) president Prebs Sathiaseelan said Queensland paramedics and emergency workers operate in a "culture of fear".

"When you stick your hand up and say anything nowadays, you just get smashed and told to shut up," a senior officer told The Courier-Mail.

The Courier-Mail reveals today that an internal investigation found an Emergency Management Queensland boss guilty of victimisation, harassment and inappropriate comments.

  • Paramedics operate in 'culture of fear', Alison Sandy and Tuck Thompson, The Courier-Mail

Ken Smith - Can Julie Kinross release the Freedom of Information documents that I have been waiting for since September 2003?

7 August 2009

The Queensland government has announced the appointment of Julie Kinross as its new Information Commissioner.

Ms Kinross, who has acted in the position since April 2008, has been appointed to the job for the next three years.

 

Oh no!

-  does that mean that I am going to have to wait till 2012 for the Freedom Of Information documents I have been waiting for since September 2003?

 

Ken Smith, would you please tell Ms Kinross that she can give me those documents.

Or are my FOI applications still being blocked at the Cairns District Office of Education Queensland?

 

"The Information Commissioner will be responsible for assisting and training agencies to proactively release information under these new laws, as well as monitoring and enforcing compliance with information and privacy laws," Ms Bligh said.

 

Not in my experience, Anna.

  • Qld names new Information Commissioner, AAP, Sunshine Coast Daily Online

How many times do Robert Needham and David Solomon need to be told about Queensland public service incompetence and corruption?

Friday 7 August, 2009

Queenslanders will now get a say on how government accountability can be improved.

Queensland Members of Parliament and senior public servants love to talk.Then they walk away and do nothing at all about the situation.

 

Premier Anna Bligh has released a green paper canvassing a range of issues including how investigations into misconduct claims should be processed and whether current guidelines that set standards are good enough.

Doesn't she know yet?

How many times does she need to be told? 

Ms Bligh said Queenslanders would be able to make submissions to the green paper. 
 

A round table of experts including Integrity Commissioner David Solomon and Crime and Misconduct Commission head Robert Needham will then consider the feedback before providing advice to the government on changes.

How many times do Anna Bligh, Ken Smith,  David Solomon and Robert Needham need to be told?

They have been told about the public service incompetence and corruption over and over again: http://www.badapplebullies.com/letters.htm

They don't seem to be able to hear the whistles.

  •  Anna Bligh seeks public input on preventing corruption, Rosemary Odgers, The Courier-Mail

In Queensland, we are dealing nothing less than a serious failure of the democratic process and everything on which our society is built.

31 July, 2009 

If Tony Fitzgerald is right about corruption in Queensland, we are dealing nothing less than a serious failure of the democratic process and everything on which our society is built.

The Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) was supposed to receive and investigate complaints, institute proactive intelligence-driven investigations of official misconduct including corruption, and to provide research and corruption prevention reports and recommendations.

The CJC was largely successful, probably too successful for political comfort.

But Peter Beattie - the first chairman of the Parliamentary Criminal Justice Committee - sowed the seeds for the CJC's destruction with a "behind-closed-doors" review.

This resulted in a merger of the CJC with the Queensland Crime Commission to create the Crime and Misconduct Commission.

That was on January 1, 2002.

On that date the aggressive fight against corruption and official misconduct previously conducted by the CJC was replaced by a relatively benign regime of so-called "capacity building" within departments and public-sector organisations.

And public servants investigated public servants.

And today Queensland public servants are allowed to invetigate themselves - and to "find no evidence of" their own misconduct.

And the Labor Government has made it legal for ministers to lie before the Queensland Parliament.

The weakness, the relative impotence of the CMC, is tacitly acknowledged by chairman Robert Needham every time he warns of dangers that seem beyond his control.

Peter Beattie cannot credibly deny the consequences that are part of Anna Bligh's inheritance.

It's time for the Bligh Labor Government to forget the handwringing, admit its errors and fix a problem that is staring us in the face.

  • Return to the dark side, Terry Sweetman, The Courier-Mail

In Queensland "you can't rely on policy, process or representations of government to deliver a just or proper outcome."

Friday 31 July, 2009

David Marriner, veteran developer, told The Courier-Mail yesterday that he felt his money would be safer in South America, which he said had less corrupt processes and procedures than Queensland.

Mr Marriner claimed he had been pressured to employ former minister Merri Rose, warned to hire lobbyists and showered with invitations to fundraising events during his ill-fated attempt to win approval for an international airport at his Laguna Whitsundays Resort. 

"In my opinion investing in Queensland has a greater risk in the current environment than investing in Chile," he said.

"You just can't rely on policy, process or representations of government to deliver a just or proper outcome."

  • Developer David Marriner tips bucket on Queensland, Steven Wardill, The Courier-Mail

Australian Public Service workplace bullying, harassment, mobbing, victimisation, discrimination and "payback" : July, 2009.

Wednesday 29 July 2009

Today -

Robert Needham, Chairman of the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission,

The Honourable Jerrold Cripps QC, Commissioner of the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption

and The Honourable Len Roberts-Smith RDF, QC, Commissioner of the Corruption and Crime Commission of Western Australia

- will meet in Brisbane for the second Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference.

They will discuss contempoary anti-corruption trends and strategies such as -

  • not reading disclosures,
  • not recording disclosures that are made over the phone
  • and accepting ""Final Outcome Advices" that are based on gibberish and faux investigations.

And to network.

The conference will end with a fun interactive drumming session.

The delegates will begin to drum in four different rooms and will follow the drums to converge on each other to enjoy a final cocktail party.

Delegates will almost certainly disregard one teacher whistleblower who would like to tell them about the total failure of the CMC / Education Queensland investigation process.

They will be too busy eating, drinking and congratulating each other on the wonderful living that they are making out of the business of corruption:

http://www.badapplebullies.com/letters.htm 

 

Tony Fitzgerald QC, the famous Queensland corruption reformer, has spoken out after years of silence.

He was particularly critical of ex-premier Peter Beattie.

Mr Fitzgerald said that he had decided to move to New South Wales when Peter Beattie was elected.

He attacked the "ethics" of the current and former Queensland Labor governments.

Mates and supporters were being appointed.

  • Queensland has forgotten corruption lessons, Tony Fitzgerald QC says, Tony Koch and Sean Parnell, The Australian

 

Saturday 25 July, 2009

Tony Koch raises some very signifcant issues in The Australian today -

Can Queensland  public servants effectively investigate their own?

There are calls by legal representatives and civil liberties lawyer Terry O'Gorman for the reinstatement of a dedicated investigative team within the CMC to handle all complaints.

At present 98% of complaints to the CMC are handed back to the government department involved.

The system does not work.

It was set up to fail.

The original CJC's brief was to investigate corruption in the public service - and the police and politicians.

But in January 2002, under Premier Peter Beattie, the CJC was amalgamated with the Crime Commission to become the Crime and Misconduct Commission.

Peter Beattie's Crime and Misconduct Act 2001 required the CMC to hand complaints over to the relevant departments to be dealt with if the complaint was not considered to be "serious".

This handing-over process was termed "building the the capacity of agencies to prevent and deal with cases of misconduct effectively and appropriately".

The CMC was also given the responsibility to promote public confidence in the integrity of agencies (departments) in the way misconduct was handled.

Does that mean that CMC officers are required to lie?

Before January 2002 the CMC had been expected to fight corruption and misconduct aggressively.

But after January 2002 the CMC was relegated to a benign regime of public service "capacity building".

Obviously, when an in-house investigator reports to a senior manager, the senior manager may not welcome a rigorous investigation that results in adverse findings about their own conduct.

It is now clear that Peter Beattie's post January 2002 public service "capacity building" experiment has failed.

And that Anna Bligh's government must make a sincere effort to root out the corruption in the Queensland public service.

  • The secret police, Tony Koch, The Australian

Friday 17 July, 2009

NO MORE BAD APPLES : BLIGH

Was the front page headline in the Courier-Mail today.

  • No More Bad Apples : Bligh : Premier forced to defend Labor integrity, Steven Wardill, State Political Reporter, p.1 and p.7, The Courier-Mail.

According to Premier Anna Bligh, the Fitzgerald report did not just find "a couple of rotten apples", it demonstrated an entire system of Government that was corrupt to the core.

A system of government in which the accountability mechanisms were either non-existent or had completely broken down.

Deputy opposition leader Lawrence Springborg said that Gordon Nuttall's behaviour was "symptomatic of a Labor government that has been in power for almost all of the last 20 years, where they believe anything goes and its members lack moral compasses and moral judgment".

Four years ago Premier Anna Bligh co-sponsored a motion with Peter Beattie to exonerate Gordon Nuttall of contempt of parliament over evidence he gave to an esimates committee hearing.

Mr Springborg said that this seems to have sent Mr Nuttall a message that "anything would go".

Dr Rae Wear, a political academic from the University of Queensland, said that ministers seemed to get a sense of entitlement that clouded their judgement.

  • Joke's now on Nuttall, The Canberra Times

Thursday 16 July, 2009

Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek said that voters couldn't be sure there weren't "more bad apples" in the Bligh government.

  • Govt goes after Nuttall's super, property, AAP, The Brisbane Times

Opposition deputy leader Lawrence Springborg last night said that Queensland Premier Anna Bligh had vocally supported legislation to make it legal to lie in Parliament when Nuttall had been accused of this offence several years ago.

  • Ex-Queensland premier condemns ... Nuttall's corruption, Steven Wardill, The Courier-Mail

4 July, 2009

Outgoing Queensland Integrity Commissioner Gary Crooke, QC, warns that MPs are thumbing their noses at conflict-of-interest criticisms.

Mr Crooke said he was often aware of politicians and senior public servants who did not seek the Integrity Commissioner's advice because they believed in their own ethical standards.

"... There a developing tendency in public administration for people to say: 'If we just do it and tough it out people will forget about it'," he said.

  • MPs thumb noses at ethics, says Gary Crooke, QC, Steven Wardill, additional reporting by Rosemary Odgers and Patrick Lion, The Courier-Mail

3 July, 2009

Education graduates in Queensland will be tested on their literacy and numeracy skills.

Primary school teaching graduates will be tested from the end of 2011 at the earliest.

Education graduates who fail the test will be allowed to the test again and again till they eventually pass, and they will be registered as teachers as long as they do eventually pass the test.

Tests for high-school teaching graduates will be introduced at a later date.

What does this tell us about the standards at Queensland universities?

Education students need to attain basic literacy BEFORE they begin university study.

This is really degrading the teaching profession.

The Government is yet to figure out what would constitute a pass mark for the tests, which will judge proficiency in literacy, numeracy and science.

The Queensland College of Teachers will be responsible for developing and administering the tests.

  • Queensland teachers can fail literacy, numeracy test, Steven Wardill and John McCarthy, The Courier-Mail.

 

Wednesday 1 July, 2009

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has announced the formation of an Institute of Education Leadership -- only the second in Australia -- to resource principals and senior teachers wishing to become principals.

  • Bligh ticks spelling tests for teachers, Ken Vernon, The Gold Coast News

Sunday 7 June, 2009.

Premier Anna Bligh's new legislation on Freedom of Information will come into force on July 1.

Section 54 of the new Right to Information Act allows the Government to publish details from a successful FOI application on the internet 24 hours after they have been released to a person or media organisation.

Anna Bligh refused to take this section out.

  • Anna Bligh's info law has a catch, Darrell Giles, The Sunday Mail

Australian Public Service workplace bullying, harassment, mobbing, victimisation, discrimination and "payback" : May, 2009.

Monday May 18, 2009

The Right to Information Bill will be introduced to Queensland parliament this week.

One provision of the new laws seems to be intended to discourage Freedom of Information applicants.

Information released to applicants will be published online within 24 hours of its release to the journalist or outlet that paid for the application.

  • Govt to overhaul freedom of information laws , AAP, The Brisbane Times


Thursday 14 May, 2009

The biggest threat of corruption is through public sector complacency, Robert Needham, the Chairperson of the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) has said.

Robert Needham said that standards had noticeably slipped.

"While I don't believe systemic corruption exists in Queensland, ..."

  • CMC warns of complacency on corruption, Rob O'Brien

 

Wednesday 13 May, 2009

Australian school principals or other school executives are bullying classroom teachers at alarming levels, Professor Deidre Duncan of the Australian Catholic University and Dan Riley of the University of New England have found.

In a national online survey of more than 800 teachers, 99.6 per cent said they had experienced bullying in the workplace.

State school principals received the worst rating for bullying.

"In government schools, the principal receives a significantly higher nomination as a frequent or persistent bully than found in independent or Catholic schools," Professor Duncan said.

Teachers also reported being bullied by parents.

Education Minister Geoff Wilson said the research was a concern and he would ask his department to look into it.

  • Teachers are 'worst school bullies', Elizabeth Allen and Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail

Tuesday 5 May, 2009

Geoff Masters said that his recent review of primary education in Queensland was told of underperforming school leaders.

"A theme that emerged from the review was the fundamental importance of having all players – teachers, students, parents, school leaders, system leaders – working in a consistent and mutually supportive way," Professor Masters said.

  • Queenslanders' maths skills slump, Craig Johnstone, The Courier-Mail

Monday 4 May, 2009

A University of New England study has revealed that almost all Australian school teachers have been bullied in the workplace, often by senior staff or the principal.

"The survey's findings are highly disturbing, as zero tolerance to any form of bullying is the expected norm in Australian schools," Dr Dan Riley from the University of New England, in northern NSW, said. 

"The report reveals that the most persistent bullies were identified as the school executive staff and then the principal and that the typical victim is a teacher," Dr Riley said.

  • Almost all school teachers have been bullied, AAP, The Courier-Mail

Australian Public Service workplace bullying, harassment, mobbing, victimisation, discrimination and "payback" : April 2009.

Tuesday 28 April, 2009

Ray Halligan is the  chair of Joint Standing Committee on the Corruption and Crime Commission in Western Australia (WA), the WA version of the Queensland Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee (PCMC).

Mr Halligan says that the Queensland system that allows party politics to throw out complaints concerning official misconduct is "totally and utterly wrong".

In Queensland, the government holds a majority on the PCMC.

This allows Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee decisions on complaints concerning official misconduct and corruption to be made on a political basis.

  • Queensland loophole 'totally and utterly wrong': WA watchdog chair, Chris Barrett, Brisbane Times

Saturday 25 April 2009

Queensland's deputy public service commissioner Gary Barnes has been appointed the new head of the Northern Territory Education Department.

Northern Territory teachers might want to ask how Gary Barnes dealt with workplace bullying in Queensland schools.

  • Territory education names its new boss, Nick Calacouras, Northern Territory News

9 April 2009

Each day in New York 700 teachers do not go to work in schools.

They go to sit together in "rubber rooms", a sort of prison for teachers.

Imagine being trapped in a room day after day for months and perhaps years with a group of very disturbed and depressed people.

It is hard to believe that American teachers are being treated this way in 2009.

http://www.mobbingportal.com/rubberroom.html