Home Affairs and Education departments make up over half of whistleblower reports

Wednesday 26 August 2020

More than half of reports to the Government’s whistleblower hotline in the past year have related to the Home Affairs and Education departments, Express has learned.

Both departments had 13 complaints made against them each through the Government’s ‘speak-up’ line on Expolink between summer 2019 and 2020, making up to 52% of the 50 reports made.

A request under the Freedom of Information Law revealed that, of the 50, 14 complaints resulted in disciplinary action.

Six, meanwhile, resulted in a staff member being suspended.

The Government confirmed that no cases were closed without action, as "all cases are reviewed". 

Pictured: Expolink's app for whistleblowing.

This is not the first time that the Home Affairs Department has been under scrutiny for complaints over the past 12 months – in September 2019, questions arose over why the Home Affairs Minister was barred from seeing a report on a complaint which was not upheld. 

Looking at the wider government, Express also discovered that that seven of the 50 complaints had concerned the Health and Community Services department.

When asked for a departmental breakdown of the 17 complaints outside of the Education, Home Affairs and Health Departments, the Government stated that “no further information can be disclosed as it could lead to the identification of individuals.”

The statistics come as external consultancy, HR Lounge Ltd, is continuing its review of whether the government has been successful in their attempts to stamp out abuse.

It follows their report from 2018, which revealed that the Government suffered from a “significant” bullying problem, with employees fearing “risk of retribution” and public exposure.

In response, the Government established new guidelines on bullying and set up their dedicated ‘speak-Up’ whistleblower hotline provided by Expolink, as well as establishing new guidelines on what bullying constitutes. 

Some of these include: inappropriate comments about someone’s appearance, personal preferences or choices, insults or offensive comments and jokes, as well as sexual advances, including over email or messages, singling one person out or treating them differently to other colleagues, refusing to acknowledge someone’s contributions and achievements, and taking credit for, or plagiarising, work.

Pictured: Adjectives described by Government staff to describe their seniors in the original 2018 report.

Yesterday, the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel sought to probe the matter further.

Its Chair, Senator Kristina Moore, wrote to the Chief Minister yesterday, saying that "the Panel would like to receive confirmation of the timeframe in which this second report can be expected. Furthermore, the Panel requests confirmation on the number of complaints and ongoing investigations into bullying and harassment."

The letter also requested "an outline of the disciplinary procedures that would take place in the case of bullying and harassment by Senior Officers, if they are found to be in breach of the Codes of Conduct. We would be grateful if you would confirm whether any such process has been conducted since January 2019."

Senator Moore has recently raised concerns about staff turnover in the Government and criticised the lack of a more robust exit interview process to resolve employee concerns, previously telling Express that “so many good, committed and capable people” have left as a result.