Page 3594 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 2010

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MS GALLAGHER: I did not hear the strong opposition to the use of the Public Interest Disclosure Act. Once you have lost your fight on the Inquiries Act—indeed, many of the private obstetricians I spoke to when we were formulating the process forward also sought advice around how they could be involved, but in a protective way. Section 33 of the Public Interest Disclosure Act clearly states:

A public official shall not, without reasonable excuse, make a record of, or wilfully disclose to another person, confidential information gained through the public official’s involvement in the administration of this Act.

The act goes on to define confidential information as:

(a) information about the identity, occupation or whereabouts of a person who has made a public interest disclosure or against whom a public interest disclosure has been made; or

(b) information contained in a public interest disclosure; or

(d) information that, if disclosed, may cause detriment to a person.

Mr Hanson might say that he wants names to be blacked out; however, based on the act as it stands—there has been debate on the act in this place, and members have ultimately supported the legislation that is in this place—the act itself would prevent me from complying with that section of Mr Hanson’s motion. What it is actually asking me to do is ignore sections of the act just so that Mr Hanson can gain some joy out of having the results of an investigation into allegations of bullying and harassment tabled in this place—which I cannot, in my time in this place, remember being called for.

It fundamentally misunderstands the role of the Public Interest Disclosure Act. The Public Interest Disclosure Act is not a vehicle for a witch-hunt. It is a vehicle for people to make contributions which enable the improvement of services across government. The Public Interest Disclosure Act provides that. It gives that protection to people—the protection that many of the people that I spoke to were after. But the outcomes of that review process will also provide a basis for ACT Health to improve the way obstetric services are managed at TCH.

We all know that there have been issues with management in this area, in the maternity services area, but we have a good, established process and a way forward to ensure that all issues are identified and dealt with as they arise and that we continue to negotiate or discuss the recommendations of the clinical services review with both interested staff inside the hospital and also stakeholders on the outside. The clinical review—along with some of the other work that is going on in the unit, along with the fact that we are building the women’s and children’s hospital—really positions the services for women and children in the ACT to be the best in the country. I think that is what all of us in this place would want.

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