Page 3354 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 17 August 2011
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during the winter recess, where both of them said, “Your legislation may be okay in many ways, as are some of the policies and procedures that underpin it.”
The real issue we need to address very strongly is training and staff development so that managers in workplaces, those people at that level, when problems do arise, whether be it a complaint or a public interest disclosure, actually understand how to deal with those matters in a way that is supportive of the person making the complaint, of the rest of the workplace whom the complaint may be made against, of the managers who oversee that workplace, that there are very clear understandings about what the process, the guidelines and the law actually say. That is more of a challenge, because that means you are trying to get to thousands and thousands of staff who work in our very dispersed ACT public service, often in very stressful conditions, for example, in schools and hospitals and other workplaces where we know there are high stress jobs. I think that is an area that we will have to work on.
We have got the RED framework, the respect, equity and diversity framework, being rolled out. A lot of work has been done over the past 18 months, and that in a way sets the standard. The challenge is to then get that to be fully understood across all our workplaces.
But I would say that I am taking a very active interest in this space. I am looking at current complaints that have been raised with the government, particularly long, ongoing and complex ones. And I would like the government as an employer in this city to set the standard that complaints, when they are made, will be listened to, that complainants will be respected and protected after making a complaint or raising a concern and that all of our staff across the public service are well trained and equipped with all the skills and capacities that they need to respond to those complaints. That is the message I am sending.
I do not think we are up to scratch across the service. I think there is enormous room for improvement, and I look forward to being part of the solution and part of the work going forward to improve our complaints handling and improving our legislative framework to support whistleblowers and those making complaints, to have those complaints fully investigated and adequately responded to.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Leader, ACT Greens) (12.14): There are a range of issues in this motion. I have to say at the outset that I am concerned at the new trend to bring motions about particular individuals into this place. Certainly on some occasions it may be appropriate. However, we have to be very mindful of the impacts that debates in this place can have on particular individuals.
I think the better approach is for us to consider the root cause of the issues and comprehensive responses that respond to the concerns of anyone who found themselves in those circumstances. That is a far better approach for us as members of parliament to take. We can respond to any impropriety that may have occurred but also ensure that it does not happen again, or at least that we have a proper system in place to deal with it.
There is, of course, considerable overlap between this motion, which deals with a number of specific incidents, and my motion this afternoon, which will address the
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