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APRIL 2008 Newsletter of Whistleblowers Australia Media Watch

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APRIL 2008 Newsletter of Whistleblowers Australia Media Watch “All that is needed for evil to prosper is for people of good will to do nothing”—Edmund Burke The Whistle NO. 54, APRIL 2008 Newsletter of Whistleblowers Australia Media watch Call to beef up law ure investigations — a recommenda- life,” she said. “State Rail not only tion also made by the ICAC report — wants to bury me, they want to dance for whistleblowers and said whistleblowers should be on my grave for daring to speak out.” Jonathan Dart allowed to approach the media. Some of Ms Chand’s allegations Sydney Morning Herald, A spokeswoman for Mr Iemma have been given new currency by a 19 March 2008, p. 10 said the unit was unnecessary because lengthy investigation by the Independ- many of its functions were performed ent Commission Against Corruption. FIGURES reveal a sharp decline in the by government agencies. Evidence during public hearings number of complaints made against But Ben Blackburn, the sex assault has described a culture of claiming pay public officials in recent years, leading victim who blew the whistle on for unworked periods in a widespread to calls for laws protecting whistle- Orkopoulos, said the protected scam known within the organisation as blowers to be bulked up. disclosure laws were “completely “job and knock”. Two of the state’s best-known ineffective. Look at what happened to RailCorp has used the law firm whistleblowers — responsible for [Orkopoulos’s electorate officer] Clayton Utz for this matter and a dis- exposing the pedophile Milton Gillian [Sneddon] and myself — crimination case Ms Chand brought in Orkopoulos and the Bega doctor, there’s just no protection there at all.” the Administrative Decisions Tribunal. Graeme Reeves — openly criticised Since March 2005 RailCorp has whistleblower laws yesterday, saying spent $291,612.77 on legal fees on the they offered little protection. unfair dismissal case alone. It is Whistleblowers Australia’s NSW Whistleblower’s unclear how many thousands more it president, Peter Bowden, yesterday life in ruins has spent on her discrimination claim. sent a letter to the NSW Premier, Linton Besser “I was just so angry and disap- Morris Iemma, calling for the immedi- Sydney Morning Herald, pointed. My returning [to work] would ate introduction of the reforms tabled 15 March 2008, p. 5 have cost a 10th of the $300,000 they by the Independent Commission have spent,” she said. Against Corruption in a report to RAILCORP has spent almost Last October the Administrative Parliament in 2006. $300,000 in a three-year legal battle Decisions Tribunal dismissed Ms The recommendations come as against an employee who blew the Chand’s discrimination case. It figures from the State Ombudsman’s whistle on corruption and fraud. Now decided that several incidents she office reveal a decline in the number of it is appealing the $16,000 unfair described fell outside court time protected disclosures made in the past dismissal compensation she was limitations. eight years, from 153 in 2000 to 76 last awarded by the courts. She has appealed, and a decision year. Midway through 2002, as a on her appeal is due within the next In his letter, Dr Bowden said the revenue protection officer, Bimla few months. “problems of Wollongong Council and Chand told management about serial Ms Chand’s lawyer, Michael the ‘Butcher of Bega’, for instance, timesheet fraud and an overtime scam Vassili, said the chronology of both would likely have been stopped long that may have cost the organisation cases was all about “shooting the before they reached the stage they did thousands of dollars. For this the 48- messenger”. if the recommendations of the year-old single woman says she was “The evidence shows that they committee had been adopted.” subjected to years of harassment and spend very little effort in dealing with The commission’s review found bullying by colleagues. the accusations of corruption. This is some disturbing holes in the legisla- The final act of humiliation, highly unusual. There is no commer- tion. People making complaints to the however, was her dismissal in 2005, cial reason they would embark on the Health Care Complaints Commission, on what the courts later deemed were appeal. It fits squarely within Bimla’s for instance, are not to be extended spurious psychiatric grounds. claim of being victimised because she “whistleblower” status under the After tax, Ms Chand was to receive was whistleblower. The decision to Protected Disclosures Act. $11,381 from RailCorp when the appeal is obviously a decision based on The head of the Medical Error Australian Industrial Relations politics.” Action Group, Lorraine Long, who Commission ruled in December she RailCorp based its case on a helped expose the disgraced doctor Mr had been wrongly dismissed. psychiatric report that it commissioned Reeves, said the current laws protected But now RailCorp has appealed to which said Ms Chand suffered incompetence and malpractice. recoup this amount in an act Ms Chand “probable paranoid personality “Anyone who raises their head believes is emblematic of an organisa- disorder” and was not fit for work. above the parapet can pretty well kiss tion bent on silencing its critics. Three previous reports from the same their job goodbye,” she said. “With all the talk from politicians psychiatrist had found she was capable Dr Bowden called for a new unit to about whistleblower protection, of returning to work, and the diagnosis be established in the Ombudsman’s blowing the whistle has ruined my office to co-ordinate protected disclos- PAGE 2 THE WHISTLE, #54, APRIL 2008 was contradicted by three independent On Tuesday we published a police of diners, it reverses a worldwide experts. list of the 100 most violent pubs and trend. After the Herald’s campaign on The Australian Industrial Relations clubs in the state. The Bureau of Crime the subject, there was a promise to do Commission judgment said Ms Statistics and Research was happy to better, but with the lapse of time the Chand’s behaviour in the last year or hand over the list of assaults it Government’s will has weakened. so she was with RailCorp was compiled using police data. But the Instead of revealing all infringements “belligerent” and “obstructive”. NSW Police continue to oppose a and letting the public decide where to Medical experts had said it was in Herald freedom of information eat, only the worst offenders will be keeping with someone under intense application for a more comprehensive named. Here, secrecy is a recipe for stress. list which attempts to link all alcohol- poor hygiene. Why should any but the “The evidence is them dealing with related crimes to where those involved very worst offenders clean up their her conduct of complaining as a were last drinking. On Wednesday and act? As the Herald has found time and medical basket case as opposed to Thursday we revealed that a former again, freedom of information legisla- them seriously dealing with her inspector in charge of the linking tion is virtually a dead letter. complaints,” Mr Vassili said. project had left the police, where he The starting point for policy- Ms Chand said she would continue had opposed the Herald’s request, to makers and bureaucrats of any kind is to fight on, despite spending almost work for the Australian Hotels that everything must be kept secret, $90,000 of her own money in the Association. His first task: to keep the never mind who or what is damaged courts. But she would tell present same data out of the media. by the secrecy. Unless scandal forces RailCorp employees “not to report Today we publish the story of a information into the open, it will be corruption and don’t go down the path woman who made allegations of concealed. The only other way I went”, she said. “Because it is four malpractice at RailCorp, only to be Government information will regularly years out of my life without work and hounded out of her job, and pursued emerge is when it is leaked to damage with no prospect of getting any work. through the courts. some powerful person or group’s Basically my career has come to a A single dark thread unites these opponents. grinding halt as a result of acting in the stories: our State Government, its We get the politicians we deserve, best interests of my employer and bureaucrats, and our society in general, of course. The Government is allowed NSW.” tolerate and encourage attempts to to behave this way in a position of A RailCorp spokeswoman, Jo silence critics and suppress infor- public trust because we as a society Fowler, said she could not comment on mation. tolerate such behaviour and behave the legal proceedings, but added: “At When the SARS virus struck similarly ourselves. no stage has the ICAC requested southern China late in 2002, countries Unwelcome though the thought is RailCorp to investigate any claims Ms around the globe were critical, and in a mature democracy, Australians are Chand has made at any time nor is rightly so, of Chinese authorities’ so used to secrecy and comfortable RailCorp aware of any investigation by attempt to suppress evidence of a with bullying and subterfuge that many the ICAC into any claims Ms Chand dangerous epidemic. It took three of us seem to have forgotten the may have made.” months for Beijing to admit the virtues of openness and honesty. presence of the new virus — in which Pressure groups insist that factual time it had spread, and infected many information about their performance individuals, some of whom died. should not be released. Teachers will Secrecy and us: Australians joined the criticism.
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