12:30pm.
The Corruption Prevention Network Queensland (CPNQ) will discuss -
Bullying ... A pathway to corruption?
Level 26 Conference Room, Mineral House, 41 George Street, Brisbane.
Further details:
http://www.cpnq.org:80/content/standard.asp?name=Calendar
http://www.cpnq.org/page.asp?nid=rgzddt&name=June2008
Robina Cosser will represent the Bad Apple Bullies website at this meeting.
Robina Cosser says:
I am a bit worried by the statement that:
"Fear, revenge and malice can drive people to commit unlawful acts ... to strike back at the bullies."
Because to me this seems like double-dip bullying.
First you bully someone.
Then, when they protest about the bullying, you accuse them of being "malicious" and "wanting revenge".
And as for "unlawful acts" -
When you are bullied in Queensland you soon learn that the "laws" are written by the bullies for their own benefit and protection.
For example:
The Education Queensland process for dealing with workplace bullying seems to consist of allowing the bully-mob to investigate themselves and "find no evidence" of their own bullying.
Then the bully-mob write three letters to you and send them to Mary Street to be signed by very senior Departmental officers.
These senior officers passively allow themselves to be manipulated like puppets by the bully-mob.
Then all officers of Education Queensland refuse to communicate with you again.
Very neat.
If you complain to the Premier or the Minister, he or she will tell you that your complaint is the responsibility of the CMC.
But the CMC only have the resources to investigate 2% of the complaints that are their responsibility.
Odd that.
So your complaint is returned to Education Queensland.
Then one of the officers that you have complained about is allowed to investigate his own behaviour.
And he finds no evidence of his own bully-mob-bullying.
Then he meets with the CMC and he tells them what you want.
He uses you as a puppet to say his own words.
He tells the CMC that you have asked him "to commit unlawful acts ... to strike back at the bullies" because you are driven by "fear, revenge and malice."
And the CMC officers carefully copy "what you want" into their official records.
And then the CMC also refuse to communicate with you again.
If this is a "lawful" process, and I presume that it must be, then it is a process that has been developed by the bully-mob for their own benefit and protection.
It is a process that facilitates the workplace abuse of Queensland teachers.
Sunday July 6, 2008
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23974951-952,00.html
Saturday July 5, 2008
Queensland magistrates and JPs are allowed to issue justices examination orders (JEOs).
More than 95 per cent of the JEO's are issued by JPs, who need no medical qualifications.
The JEO's allow police to enter a person's home and take them away for psychiatric assessment against their will.
Justices of the Peace have ordered psychiatric assessments on more than 2500 Queenslanders in the past three years.
Less than half of the assessments were justified.
Queenslanders who are forced to undergo a psychiatric assessment are also routinely refused -
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all information about their case,
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the name of the JP,
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the name of the complainant,
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the right to know what prompted the action.
David Solomon, who reviewed Queensland Freedom of Information laws, called for the role of JPs to be reconsidered.
Dr Solomon also said that it was unfair for someone deprived of their liberty not to be told what was alleged about them.
The Bad Apple Bullies webmaster comments:
This situation is wide, wide open to malicious abuse.
This issue was raised in The Courier-Mail in June 2006.
Did Queenslanders really vote for this abuse of decent, ordinary citizens to continue?
More than half of JPs' psychiatric orders not justified, The Courier-Mail: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23969595-3102,00.html
State of mental injustice, Madonna King, The Courier-Mail, Saturday July 5, 2008, http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23968113-27197,00.html
Children as old as five are being sent to school in nappies.
The Parents and Citizens Council said it had been inundated with complaints from parents.
And that it was an issue affecting "dozens" of Prep classes in the state.
Parents and Citizens Council president Margaret Black said that parents need to toilet-train children before they get to school.
Teachers believe the increasing use of full-time day care has promoted a culture where it is normal for three and even four-year-olds to wear nappies.
Teachers' groups are calling for nappy-wearing children be banned from attending school.
State School Principals Association president Norm Hart has written to Education Queensland, citing concerns that the problem could result in litigation.
Because teachers who changed dirty nappies could possibly be accused of molestation.
Queensland Teachers' Union president Steve Ryan said that parents need to inform the school if their child has problems with toileting.
The Bad Apple Bullies webmaster comments:
This is a very important point.
I once took a Grade 7 child with toilet problems on an excursion.
Nobody had told me about his toilet problems.
His mother had taught him that he should not go to the toilet at break times or when told to do so, he should only go when he felt 'the urge'.
And that, if he did not go to the toilet immediately he felt 'the urge', he might die.
This mother's ridiculous behaviour caused huge problems for this young boy, and also for me.
Brisbane psychologist Kathy Valentine said -
"Parents can sometimes handle the issue of toilet-training inappropriately by shouting at children if they make a mistake or putting too much pressure on them, and this can set them back."
Brisbane pediatrician Johanna Holt said schools needed to be aware of workplace health and safety issues when teaching nappy-wearers.
"Really, children who are still in nappies should not be going to school in the first place."
Friday July 4, 2008
06:06pm
More than 150 paramedics and other workers gave written submissions to a parliamentary inquiry into the New South Wales Ambulance Service.
The inquiry was told that there is a culture of bullying and intimidation in the NSW Ambulance Service.
Station officer Phil Roxburgh told the committee he had seen morale fall, stress levels rise and cases of suicide increase in his 30 years with the ambulance service.
Mr Roxburgh is continuing to push for an investigation into the treatment endured by Christine Hodder, who committed suicide in 2005.
Mr Roxburgh said management had ignored complaints that she was victimised.
And that his push for an investigation has led other workers to contact him with similar stories.
Other submissions alleged that key management personnel were focussed on undermining each other.
NSW Director-General of Health Professor Debra Picone conceded that more work needed to be done to combat bullying within the service.
Wednesday July 2, 2008
The Western Australian Department of Education has signed up 50 Scottish teachers to work in schools in regional WA.
Can you imagine their shock when they arrive in a remote WA town?
Can you imagine their shock when they see their accommodation?
Can you imagine a teacher with a thick Scottish accent trying to communicate with an Aboriginal child?
Do WA Aboriginal children really need to learn to speak English with a strong Scottish accent?
63 overseas teachers, mostly from the United Kingdom, have been sponsored on 457 visas to work in WA.
They are probably expecting life in a remote Western Australian town to be like "Home and Away".
Saturday June 28, 2008
About 100 WA teachers and civil servants protested peacefully outside the Labor Party conference at the Perth Hyatt Hotel this morning.
They were chanting quite loudly.
David A Kelly, State School Teachers' Union WA General Secretary, was driving the union bus around the hotel.
He was detained for 15 minutes while police "did a license check".
Dave Robinson, Unions WA Secretary, was forcibly removed by police.
He was advised that he would be arrested if he returned to the forecourt of the hotel.
Finally the teachers and unionists were told to move off the private property.
The police gave the unionists five minutes to go, then they lined up and moved towards the teachers.
The teachers all moved away.
The Bad Apple Bullies webmaster comments-
Why are QTU demonstrations so boring with their uniform posters, matching T-shirts, dark glasses and matching hats pulled well down to conceal the identities of the marchers?
When was John Battams last forcibly removed by the police?
I'd like to see that.
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Hyatt rally broken up by police, Don Rowe, Campaigns, SSTUWA website, (The best way to read this article is by using the link on the PLATOWA http://www.platowa.com/ website news page. You can check out the rest of the SSTUWA website at the same time. )
Friday June 27, 2008
10:06am
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says that Australians have a moral responsibility to act if they suspect that children are being abused.
"I think the whole community's got a responsibility ... to act sensitively and responsibly," Mr Rudd told Fairfax Radio Network.
"The basic principle here is the protection of our most vulnerable. Little children together with the aged and infirm Australians are the two groups most vulnerable.
"Frankly that's a higher call that goes across everything else; that if you have a reasonable suspicion or reasonable concern that a young child is the subject of abuse, I think you've got a moral responsibility to act."
The Bad Apple Bullies webmaster comments:
That is exactly what I was brought up to believe, Mr Rudd.
So when a child disclosed to me that he was often being hit by a male teacher, I reported the disclosure.
The principal told me that the male teacher had a long history of warnings for this sort of abuse.
And I myself had twice seen him behaving aggressively towards students.
But no written record was made of my disclosure of the male teacher's abuse.
And one year later I was "paid back".
My health and my career were destroyed.
If you really want children to be safe at school, Mr Rudd, you must make sure that their teachers are safe at work.
Friday 27 June 2008
Twelve Sunshine Coast families are calling for action to be taken to protect local primary school children from sexual attacks by older children.
The parents believe that their children were not properly protected at school.
Shadow Child Minister Jann Stuckey says that the parents are being fobbed off and bandied from one Queensland government department to another because nobody will accept responsibility for dealing with the problem.
On Tuesday the parents were invited to attend a meeting to discuss the problem with Suzanne Pearce, Education Queensland's executive director of schools, and Robin MacAlpine, the regional executive director.
Monday June 23, 2008
Premier Anna Bligh said yesterday she was pushing for 'renewal' of her Cabinet team.
But she said that she will leave it to her Ministers to announce their retirements in their own time.
"I've had a number of discussions with a number of my team," she said.
"Those discussions I think people would understand are by their nature at this stage personal discussions, and people will make announcements at the appropriate time."
Queensland Education Minister Rod Welford announced yesterday that he was 'considering his future in politics'.
Last month, Mr Welford indicated that he planned to stay on.
Welford reconsidering political future, ABC Brisbane
Saturday June 21, 2008
2000 West Australian teachers will be banned from the classroom in two weeks unless they pay their $70 compulsory annual registration fees.
The WA College of Teaching says that if the 2000 teachers do not pay their annual $70 fee it will be illegal for them to teach.
WA’s teacher shortage is on the verge of crisis.
The State Government may have to take desperate measures to accommodate thousands of children.
Education Minister Mark McGowan refused to comment on the planned ban last night.
WACOT director Suzanne Parry said last night she was confident most, if not all, the 1000 teachers working would pay the fee before the July 3 deadline.
Shadow education minister Peter Collier said it would be a disaster if even 10 per cent of those 1000 teachers refused to pay their fees.
"We can’t afford to have one teacher lose their position for not paying a WACOT fee,” Mr Collier said. “Teachers have endured so much over recent years, this has the potential to make a crisis situation catastrophic."
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2000 teachers face threat of class ban, Gabrielle Knowles, The West Australian, Quoted on the PLATOWA Website: http://www.platowa.com/
It seems few Queenslanders care that local, state and federal governments are fanatical about hiding from the public gaze any information even remotely adverse.
It has widely been confirmed that tomes of politically sensitive documents, often unrelated to deliberations at hand, have been piled on a trolley and wheeled through the Queensland Government cabinet room so as to invoke the 30-year secrecy provision.
Such revelations should awaken Queenslanders to the prospect that our access to free and accurate information about our government is severely compromised, if not closed.
Today most, if not all, governments employ the permanent election campaign and, in the pursuit of victory at the next election, have become obsessed with controlling information and manufacturing a favourable public image.
Tight control of information may prove administratively efficient, what does it mean for democracy and especially citizens' relationship to the state?
Have Australian governments' desire for the control of information and, with it, public opinion become all-consuming?
Premier Anna Bligh and the credibility of her Government have an enormous amount riding on any FoI changes.
But the old patterns of doing politics in Queensland - where development is valued above ideas, the power of personal networks still prevails and lopsided parliaments produce practically one-party states.
Governments rule with little regard for parliament.
Senior public servants use the media as a repository for their political spin.
These customs, while alien to classical Westminster principles, are politically effective.
Some of Peter Beattie's strategies in overcoming public hostility were crude: in combating the public hospital crisis, for example, the government bought full-page newspaper advertisements that declared, with little evidence, that the health corner had been turned.
Anna Bligh may prove to play a much straighter bat.
But any government's ability to speak in policy harmony is only as efficient as the politicisation of its civil service.
In Queensland, as elsewhere, the top rungs of the professional public service - where directors-general and ministerial advisers are often party sympathisers if not financial members - not only permit but assist in the enforcing of a scrupulous top-down control of information.
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Deception by omission remains the most widespread practice.
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Another is releasing bad news on public holidays,
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or amid a wider package of distracting good news stories.
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Another is the minuting of top-level public service planning and strategy meetings in the vaguest terms so that potentially contentious decisions may be protected (even under FOI) by ambiguous interpretation.
There's little doubt an air of paranoia, among minister and public servant, has crept into executive offices where a culture of self-protection prevails, where the FOI applicant is regarded as the enemy.
Friday June 20, 2008
The Teachers Federation claims hundreds of Queensland teachers are under investigation because of parent complaints they yell too much.
Caroline Hutchinson of the Sunshine Coast Daily says -
The way I see it, going to school is my children’s job, just like their dad and I have a job.
It’s regularly boring and sometimes you get into trouble for doing the wrong thing.
Sometimes you get into trouble because someone else did something wrong and you copped the blame.
It’s not always fair or fun, but it is life and the quicker you learn to play by the rules, the happier you’ll be.
Parents who allow their kids to turn every perceived slight or injustice into a federal case are fools.
You can’t trust your children to tell the whole truth about what happens in the classroom.
When parents get themselves too involved, they can easily get it wrong and suddenly allegations and finger pointing take on a life of their own.
This week the Victorian Principals Association issued a plea to parents to “butt out” of their children’s education.
- Parents, butt out of school, Caroline Hutchinson, Sunshine Coast Daily.
Thursday June 19, 2008
05:03pm
Coalition education spokesman Tony Smith says that the October 2007 Partnerships in ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Learning report commissioned by the Howard Government proves that Kevin Rudd's $1.2 billion plan to provide every student in Year 9-12 with their own computer will be useless without proper teacher training and support.
Mr Smith said that the report showed that teachers viewed computers as a distraction.
"It shows that simply dumping computers at schools will be of no great benefit if teachers are unwilling to use them and there's no money to actually make them work," Mr Smith said.
The report revealed that teachers often viewed computers in schools as unnecessary, distracting and peripheral to the "main game" of teaching, and there would need to be a "serious investment of thought and research" into addressing those concerns.
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Computers a distraction, teachers say, AAP, The Courier-Mail.
A wide-ranging report on schools to the Carpenter Government has found that WA teachers are being driven out of the profession by the increasingly bad behaviour of the children.
Lance Twomey's Education Workforce Initiatives report recommended significant pay rises for all teachers and a "zero tolerance" approach to bad student behaviour.
Professor Twomey and his taskforce described the stressful working conditions in WA schools.
The taskforce called for teaching staff to be better protected at work.
SSTU president Ann Gisbourne said -
"There is no doubt there has been a deterioration in behaviour ... some of it is to do with lack of parenting skills and the home situation," she said.
Ms Gisbourne said that in some schools teachers paired up for playground duty for their own safety.
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Behaviour of kids sending teachers packing, Paige Taylor, The Australian.
Wednesday June 18, 2008
A Partnerships in ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Learning report commissioned by the federal Government suggests that the use of computers in schools is largely ineffective.
The report highlights an "avoidance culture" among many teachers who are unwilling to use computers.
The Bad Apple Bullies webmaster comments -
Classroom teachers are being bashed once again.
It is easy to bash Australian classroom teachers because their code of conduct makes it very hard for them to respond.
But the problem may not be the teachers.
They may be making good professional judgements.
In the 90's computers were introduced to Queensland classrooms.
Two or more computers were placed in each primary classroom.
The noise and 'whizz-bang' of the two computers was very distracting.
Suddenly it became very difficult to gain the attention of the class.
And there were few computer programs designed for students.
Schools needed programs designed to support the curriculum.
Programs that had been properly tested and found to be effective.
The report says -
"Processes and learning gains should be tested in some form. It is not sufficient to report that there are benefits to embedding ICT into the curriculum based on hunches or feelings that it was effective."
Far, far too many educational decisions are based on the hunches, feelings - and gossip - of administrators.
Meanwhile, Queensland classroom teachers who try to discuss their professional concerns are ignored, denigrated or driven out of work.
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Low marks for computers in schools, Justine Ferrari, Education writer, The Australian.
Tuesday June 17, 2008
01:15pm
MORE than 6000 teachers and supporters are rallying in front of Parliament House in Adelaide over pay and conditions in public schools.
More than 11,000 teachers were expected to go on strike today.
530 schools were expected to close.
AEU state president Correna Haythorpe told the crowd-
"This is the first 24-hour strike in 12 years.
We are the lowest-paid teachers in the nation and under the Government's offer we will remain the lowest,"
"We need an offer that makes teaching a viable career choice."
Senior Labor sources last night said that the Government does not have sufficient funds to meet the teachers' pay demands.
The Advertiser, however, understands there are secret contingency lines in the State Budget with enough money to offer increased wages to doctors, teachers and TAFE lecturers.
SA Secondary Principals Association president Jim Davies yesterday warned the Government risked "not enough principals to run its schools" because of the "inadequate offer".
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Teachers mass for city rally - strike may be futile, Lucy Hood, The Advertiser, Adelaidenow.com , also reported in The Courier-Mail.
Sunday June 15, 2008
12:00am
2007-08 State Budget figures show many Queensland students failed to meet national benchmarks for reading, writing and maths from Years 2 to 7.
Scores were down in 17 of 24 areas, compared with 2006-07.
The worst results were for 11 and 12-year-olds in Year 7.
93.1% of Year 7 students achieved the national benchmark in reading in 2004-05.
81.7% achieved the national benchmark in reading in 2007-08, a fall of 11.4%.
82.3% of Year 7 students reached the national benchmark in maths in 2004-05.
73.1% of Year 7 students reached the national benchmark in maths in 2007-08, a fall of 9.2%.
Former chairman of the Australian Council for Education Standards Colin Lamont said children were being "dumbed down".
He said that bureaucrats "experimented far too frequently" with the curriculum.
"Everything has to be 'relevant' today . . . they have taken away what I call enrichment knowledge and that is a great shame."
The Bad Apple Bullies webmaster comments:
I would suspect that the falling OP levels of Queensland teachers are affecting the results that they are able to achieve.
If teachers cannot read, write and think very well themselves, how can they teach children to read, write and think effectively?
And it is interesting that the fall in scores has happened in the years directly after the Queensland Government encouraged hundreds of older teachers to battle to have themselves declared the 'most incompetent teachers in Queensland' and be awarded $50,000 to 'change careers'.
These older teachers were more expensive to employ, but they could read and write effectively and they knew how to teach children to read and write.
Now these teachers are banned from ever teaching in Queensland - the smart state - again.
Saturday June 14, 2008
12:00am
If the Government's rhetoric is to be believed, Queensland's public service is in for some sweeping changes to its culture.
Premier Anna Bligh seems to want to wave goodbye to the days of a secretive bureaucracy obsessed with process.
Accessing Queensland government information generally will, it seems, cease being a war of attrition.
This is going to be an interesting test of the extent of Bligh's power within Government.
Former journalist Dr David Solomon recommended that the Queensland Government stop spending vast amounts of time and effort holding back information and move to doing all it can to push information out.
In Bligh's words, this amounts to a complete rethink of the architecture of gathering, storing and releasing government information.
It will even have a new name: the Right to Information.
Ms Bligh said -
"The Queensland public is the source of the power and legitimacy of the Queensland Government and it is absolutely imperative that the public is well-informed about the operations of government and has fair and reasonable access to the information that governments hold."
As if to reinforce that change in thinking, Bligh and her Director-General, Ken Smith, this week also eased out some key government mandarins who had tended to have a major influence on the culture and behaviour of the Queensland bureaucracy, where adherence to process has come to be more valued than achieving results.
Dr Solomon said -
"The ... public sector cultural responses in administration of FOI inevitably move to crush the original promise of open government and, with it, accountability."
But for many years Queenslanders admired our old mate Peter Beattie's ability to keep a straight face as he observed that his government was the most accountable in the country - while introducing changes that sapped the power of the original legislation, and his ministers and public servants sniggered about using "Freedom from Information".
Thursday June 12, 2008
THE reign of Leo Keliher, one of Queensland's king-pin bureaucrats, is over.
The public service career death knell of the George St mandarin – who was former premier Peter Beattie's right-hand man – was sounded on Tuesday, along with that of senior environment bureaucrat James Purtill.
In a five-page memo to all Queensland Government CEOs obtained by The Courier-Mail, the state's current top civil servant, Ken Smith – director-general of the Department of Premier and Cabinet – announced the departure of Dr Keliher and Mr Purtill, simultaneously ringing in a new guard.
The Office of the Public Service Commissioner has been headed by Mr Purtill since July 2006.
The Service Delivery Performance Commission has been headed by Dr Keliher since late 2005.
The Public Service Commission will now replace the Office of the Public Service Commissioner and the Service Delivery Performance Commission.
Mr Smith's memo, while praising both men for their service, was silent on their future.
Instead he referred to the need to "infuse the senior ranks with fresh ideas and fresh thinking from time to time".
The Bad Apple Bullies webmaster comments:
How strange.
Could the Queensland Review of Freedom of Information have triggered these lobotomies?
- Leo Keliher, James Purtill get marching orders, Margaret Wenham, The Courier-Mail.
01:44am
Rick Snell, senior lecturer in law at the University of Tasmania, is very enthusiastic about the Solomon Report.
He says that it delivers a blueprint to achieve the next generation of Australian FOI or rights to information laws and practice.
"The Australian Law Reform Commission should seize the gift of the Solomon report and get the ball rolling on its long overdue review of the commonwealth's FOI legislation.
The ALRC has waited too long to squeeze new terms of reference from the Rudd Government. While the ALRC and Rudd have stood around, Solomon and his small team have done the hard yards. The Australian Right to Know campaign now has two important reports, the Moss and Solomon reports, on which it can live up to its name.
... Thank you to those responsible."
The Bad Apple Bullies webmaster comments:
And yet ... and yet ... so much in Queensland today is illusion.
It is very hard to believe that the FOI-Nazis will entirely change their character overnight.
And, in reality, hate to mention that word, the Education Queensland / Infocomm FOI review process seems to have come to a standstill at the moment.
Wednesday June 11, 2008
Karen Brooks comments in the Courier-Mail:
A teacher's ability to create a positive and equitable learning environment in the classroom and playground is slowly being eroded by a number of contributing factors.
Now teachers in Australian schools are being investigated for shouting at students.
Teachers are reportedly being examined by Education Department officials for little more than trying to control students.
Letters obtained reveal that some of the shouted phrases, which were "yelled" on unspecified occasions, included, "leave him alone", or "sit down".
Apparently, a teacher raising his or her voice contravenes the Code of Conduct 2004.
Some claim these investigations have resulted from over-zealousness.
Or malice.
Some teachers have even been accused of child abuse.
To call it "abuse" when a teacher shouts at one or more children, in order to manage them and administer what we all expect in an educational setting, is not simply hyperbole, it's increasingly and disturbingly becoming a sign of the times.
How else do you control 30 noisy children?
Or, for that matter, one or two perverse rebels who refuse to obey, particularly when every other avenue has been exhausted?
Clearly, the people who have complained have never had the privilege or pain of trying to manage that many children, day in day out, with the eyes and expectations of judgmental parents and an educational hierarchy upon them.
Shouting is a natural way of being heard.
Good point.
In an educational setting, it's often the only means of ensuring that discipline is instilled and rules obeyed.
There's a misguided belief out there, firmly taking root, that protecting children also means shielding them from the consequences of their actions – honest wrath, and adult reactions and responses – for fear it will damage them.
We're so keen to protect them from real dangers that we end up construing what are developmental and social lessons as threats to their well-being.
Preventing caring adults from acting responsibly towards young people in their charge for fear they might be investigated or, worse, labelled, is abuse of the worst and most avoidable kind.
The Bad Apple Bullies webmaster comments:
This is an excellent article, well worth reading in full.
Teachers seem to be getting more community support nowadays.
Thank goodness.
- Classroom yell turns up heat on pressured teachers, Karen Brooks, The Courier-Mail.
12:00am
Former journalist Dr David Solomon's investigation into the current FOI regime made 141 recommendations for reform which, in practical terms, add up to a complete rewriting of the existing law.
At 415 pages, his report is a reminder of all that is wrong with the operation of FOI laws in Queensland.
And with the Queensland Government's mean-spirited, arrogant approach to its obligations of openness and accountability.
The report notes a FOI culture of "anxiety, even hostility'' in Queensland.
It calls for the veil of secrecy used to shield state governments from numerous controversies over the past decade to be torn down within 12 months.
The Bad Apple Bullies webmaster asks -
Does this mean that I am going to have to wait another twelve months for my FOI documents?
It urges the government to adopt a "push'' model - putting information in the public arena - rather than waiting for people to "pull'' it free.
Queensland would have the most open regime in Australia if Dr Solomon's proposal for a complete rewrite of the existing law was adopted.
The Information Commissioner's position would be overhauled with the office's role recast as a "champion" of FOI, responsible for ensuring the release of information.
Quite a few lobotomies will need to be performed in order to achieve this particular goal.
Premier Anna Bligh seems to have heeded the calls for a change in her Government's attitude of secrecy and obfuscation in relation to Freedom of Information.
Ms Bligh said she felt "very comfortable'' with the reforms and gave a strong indication that all or nearly all of the recommendations would be implemented.
She says that she supports Dr Solomon's proposal that the 30-year rule governing Cabinet secrecy be reduced to 10 years, and three years for ministerial briefs, estimates briefs and question time briefs, subject to a possible extension of time on public interest grounds.
The most sweeping of Dr Solomon's proposed reforms is also one of the simplest - the application of a public-interest test.
It would require bureaucrats to follow this elegant rule: "Access is to be provided to matter unless its disclosure, on balance, would be contrary to the public interest".
Applying this test properly will require a reversal of an entrenched culture of secrecy within the Queensland public service which even Ms Bligh admitted yesterday has been allowed to thrive for too long.
It will be up to Ms Bligh, along with whoever she appoints as her new Information Commissioner to tackle this culture head-on so that the information laws envisaged by this review are applied with the spirit in which they were recommended.
Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said he was concerned the premier would be given the power to decide what cabinet information would be pro-actively released.
"Let's just hope that the loopholes that exist are not going to be used by the government to further curtail the right of Queenslanders to have access to information,'' Mr Springborg said.
"It's not the release of information that actually causes you trouble in government, it's the cover-ups.''
Journalism academic Professor John Henningham said -
"The government is serving people, we are paying them, so essentially they are doing their business for our benefit and so very little information should be kept from the public.''
- Reverse culture of secrecy, Editorial, The Courier-Mail, June 11, 2008, 12:00am
- Report recommends FOI overhaul, Gabrielle Dunlevy, AAP, The Courier-Mail, June 10, 2008 2:04pm
- Freedom of Information review says dump Cabinet secrecy rule, Steven Wardill, The Courier-Mail, Tuesday June 10, 2008, 12:00am
Tuesday June 10, 2008
02:35pm
NSW Premier Morris Iemma is standing by his embattled Education Minister John Della Bosca, saying he has no grounds to dismiss him from his front bench.
The incident on Friday at Gosford's Iguanas Waterfront Bar also included Mr Della Bosca's wife, federal Labor MP Belinda Neal.
Six staff members signed statutory declarations to say they were threatened by Mr Della Bosca and Ms Neal.
The complaints were later withdrawn and the nightclub issued an apology.
Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson said the incident was ugly face of bullying and the use of power to intimidate those without power.
"What has been reported and what we know from the statutory declarations is that Belinda Neal as the member for Robertson actually sought to use her parliamentary position to intimidate workers at the night club, and further to that, we understand that to threaten the licensing and other arrangements at the club," he said.
"Now, this is an abuse of power, it's the ugliest form of abuse of power by a parliamentarian."
- Premier stands by Della Bosca, AAP, The Courier-Mail.
12:00am
The parents of a former Noosaville State School student have revealed that they were ignored when they raised their concerns about their daughter's security at school.
"We just didn't like the way they handled those sorts of things ... we decided to take her out of the school ... we didn't like their security."
"They just didn't seem to care about our complaints or our concerns that our young daughter was just able to wander around the place without any sort of supervision ..."
The father said he knew of at least four other children who had also been removed from the school ... because of general apparent slackness with security for students.
"We spoke to other parents who said they had also approached the school with their concerns but got no response."
The Bad Apple Bullies Webmaster comments:
The comments of this parent interest me because I, too, raised concerns about the groups of unsupervised children who were missing from the Grade 7 classes at my own school.
These groups of unsupervised Grade 7 children were roaming about the school, disturbing the other classes.
I worried about who was responsible for the safety of these roaming groups of unsupervised children.
This parent is lucky.
He was just ignored.
My health and my career were ruined when I tried to deal with the situation.
I spoke to the usual principal at the end of Term 3 2000 about the numbers of groups of children roaming about, disturbing my lessons with other classes.
I spoke to the acting principal at the end of Term 4 2000 about the numbers of children missing from the Grade 7 classrooms.
The acting principal told me that she and the usual principal had decided to put me into the Diminished Workplace Performance Program.
When the Grade 5 and 6 teachers protested that the problem was not me, it was the behaviour of the Grade 7 children, they were told by the acting deputy principal (I understand) that I had to be punished because "we want to change the way that Annie is thinking".
These were not intelligent people.
They were not making intelligent decisions.
Parents often ask, "Why didn't the teachers do / say anything about this situation?"
The answer to their question is that Queensland teachers who try to deal with problems at their school may be attacked and driven out of work.
If the latest silly educational fad is for children to roam about, disturbing other classes and wasting their time, departmental-parrot-brained-OP19-principals will want children to be seen roaming about at their school.
Sunday June 08, 2008
03:40pm
NSW Education Department officials are investigating teachers for shouting -
at students.
What a waste of time.
Meanwhile, in Queensland the Crime and Misconduct Commission claims that it 'does not have the resources' to investigate the systemic abuse of the Grievance and Diminished Workplace Performance process to drive Queensland teachers into ill health and out of work.
NSW teachers say the investigations are eroding their authority and affecting discipline.
The situation has resulted in 750 school principals signing statements of concern.
Thank goodness that 750 NSW principals have integrity and plain common sense.
Teachers Federation deputy president Bob Lipscombe said -
"A number of teachers have been investigated for yelling in the classroom."
"These sorts of investigations can undermine their capacity to maintain reasonable discipline in their classes and the prolonged investigations often cause significant harm to teachers' wellbeing.''
Mr Lipscombe said that the investigations were a consequence of a decision by the department in December last year to cut back on the number of investigators who hold teaching qualifications.
Despite the letters ordering teachers to explain why they yelled at students, the department denies it investigates them for shouting.
A department spokesman said in a statement -
"A teacher raising their voice at a student will not prompt an investigation by the department,''
"The Employee Performance and Conduct Unit investigates staff for serious misconduct and poor performance.''
These public service weasels undermine hardworking classroom teachers with their vague hints and suggestions.
Opposition education spokesman Andrew Stoner said -
"The Government has taken away a lot of teachers' powers to discipline children in the classroom."
"It's no wonder teachers sometimes end up yelling at unruly and difficult students.''
Sarah Redfern public school principal Cheryl McBride said -
"A normal disciplinary action to prevent dangerous or threatening behaviour is being interpreted as something that needs to be reported as a child-protection incident."
It is interesting to compare the standard of behaviour expected of NSW state school teachers with the standard of behaviour expected of the NSW Minister of Education -
12:17pm
New South Wales Education Minister John Della Bosca announced on 13 May 2008 that he would relinquish his licence ahead of an impending six-month driving ban.
He had racked up a series of speeding fines.
But Mr Della Bosca was allegedly involved in an argument with bar staff at a Gosford nightclub on Friday.
The Bar staff have signed a statutory declaration claiming they were threatened by the state MP and also his Federal Labor MP wife Belinda Neal, member for the Federal seat of Robertson.
The threats included -
Mr Della Bosca has admitted to driving home after the incident.
NSW Liberal leader Barry O'Farrell has called for an investigation.
Mr Della Bosca said -
“I was confronted and attacked by somebody, I left the place and that is all I have to say about it.”
Friday June 6, 2008
The general public have contempt for both state and federal public servants.
Why?
Once upon a time we accepted that while it was ponderous, timorous and flannel-suited boring, the public service was hard-working, dedicated, meticulous, honest and – eventually – delivered the goods.
But nowadays "bureaucrat" has become a pejorative term, synonymous with conservative, lazy, self-serving and incompetent.
They are so eggbound by process and regulation that initiative is stifled, creating a comfortable somnambulant world.
If they are charged with an offence, they can idle along on full pay while a cumbersome system of hearings, appeals and counter-appeals runs its often futile course.
Even gross errors of judgment that lead to hurt or loss of life can lead to little more than a sideways transfer, promotion opportunities -
- or even a jolly morning-tea celebration in the Parliament House annex!
Thursday June 5 2008
Thousands of students are being suspended and expelled each year for violent and anti-social behaviour in Far Northern schools.
The official Education Queensland statistics reveal the extent of physical and verbal attacks, including schoolyard assaults and bullying, at both primary and secondary schools.
Education Minister Rod Welford says that the figures are good news - they reflect a crackdown on bad behaviour in schools.
The Bad Apple Bullies webmaster comments:
Principals who have the integrity to deal with bullying in schools deserve our respect and support.
I followed the school Behaviour Management Policy.
I gave the children three warnings and then sent them to the acting deputy principal.
Later I discovered that the acting deputy principal was secretly encouraging these children - who had been sent to her for poor behaviour - to make complaints about me.
She was doing nothing about their disruptive behaviour.
She was just secretly placing their comments concerning me on my official record.
She did not have the intelligence / experience / training to realise that she was undermining me and rewarding the children's poor behaviour.
The acting deputy principal's behaviour was in breach of the Public Service regulations.
But she was not malicious - she was just inexperienced and gullible.
She had not been properly trained for her work.
Blaming the teacher was a strategy that she had adopted to avoid dealing with the children's poor behaviour.
If a principal has the intelligence, experience, courage and integrity to deal with poor student behaviour, we, the community, really must give that principal our respect and our support.
The bullying of nurses by hospital management is rife in NSW.
About a third who gave evidence at the State Government's inquiry into hospitals chose to give their evidence in secret.
They were afraid of retribution if they publicly revealed their stories.
NSW Nurses Association employed Bob Whyburn, a lawyer, to support the nurses who gave evidence.
Mr Whyburn said that some nurses were too afraid even to be seen seated at the Special Commission of Inquiry into Acute Care Services in NSW Public Hospitals.
The nurses union employed Mr Whyburn to attend every one of the 34 sitting days because the union was so concerned about nurses refusing to come forward due to fears of intimidation by management.
This article is worth reading in full.
Points that the article raises are:
The NSW Nurses Union supports bullied NSW nurses.
The Union provides them with legal support and advice.
Why doesn't the QTU support teachers who are bullied?
and
Is this the sort of workplace culture that unions celebrate every Labor Day?
and
If workers are so very intimidated, should we be preparing children for workplaces where they will work in such high levels of fear?
When parents complain that children are bullied at school, should we tell them that we are preparing them for workplaces where they will have to work in high levels of fear?
and
Is this the sort of democracy that our fathers and grandfathers were fighting for?
- Scared nurses' secret evidence of intimidation, Natasha Wallace, Health Reporter, Sydney Morning Herald:
