LOUDER THAN BOMBS

Prior to about 1985 child sex abuse did not exist in Australia.

At least, in the minds of the general public, successive governments and the health and social professions it didn't. In reality, of course, it was widespread.

Great efforts were made to ignore it and suppress any mention of it. And what has become apparent I so many historical cases, is that the truth was quite deliberately, ignored and suppressed.

This collective establishment denial enabled predators like Robert Hughes and Rolf Harris to act unimpeded for years. And, it allowed institutions entrusted to provide safety and shelter for vulnerable children, such as the catholic church, to facilitate and protect the actions of the numerous paedophiles held within its ranks.

To make matters worse, testimony from the current Royal Commission reveals that people who spoke out in support of abused children frequently suffered as a result.

Common tactics deployed against these whistleblowers included false allegations, attacks on their mental health, loss of employment and black listing. Meantime, the establishment denied any wrong doing, protected the perpetrators and more children were abused as a result. 

This pattern, of institutional abuse, followed by sham investigation, denial and cover up is broadly similar to the pattern of bullying abuse that the mister men have identified in the northern territory department of health.

The sham investigation is conducted by human resources. The aim of it is, at the very least, to diminish the seriousness of the allegations and make the complainant go away. But, as our recent independent survey found, human resources will often, if not always, in the first instance, ignore the complaint.

The results of the investigation will trivialise the complaint leading to a denial that the misconduct ever took place.

This in effect, completes the cover up. By this time, of course the perpetrator is fully aware of the investigation and plans for a time when reprisal action can be taken against the complainant.

The investigatory process, to protect the organisation from reputation harm is followed by further abusive conduct. This is why the managers who bully staff in the northern territory department of health have been getting away with it for years.

We have found that senior managers are aware of the problem yet have done nothing to resolve the issue. In addition, most of the bullying is perpetrated by managers. We also found that clinicians are so disheartened by the shoddy process that they'd prefer not to use it.

 Human resources appears to be the mechanism of choice for covering it all up so that it can happen again. And the perpetrators – who in the main are managers - get a sense that they can operate with impunity. And they can.

And from our independent survey more than 85% of staff confirmed that the human resources department are essentially, crap.

Sticking to the theme, here are a few emails that we have received;

'The reason that I decided to write to you is to tell you how widespread the problem of bullying in remote health actually is. I'm an agency nurse and I must have done 30 contracts over the past few years in the NT. The stories that I hear are appalling. If I did not keep hearing them as I go from community to community, I'd not believe them…….there are so many frightened staff out there.'

As our recent study showed over a third of staff who responded state that they being bullied right now.

'I know of one girl who spent thousands defending herself from false allegations made about her mental health by a manager and the nursing director in one of your stories. She nearly lost her registration because of it. Managers use mandatory notifications to AHPRA as a weapon to attack people they or their cronies don't like.'

The attack upon this person is well known to us and we'd venture, many others. The mister men know who it happened to, who the lawyer and legal firm are who were engaged to defend the nurse from this and how much it cost. We even know who printed off the AHPRA notification form inside Casuarina Plaza. Because just like our readership, we are insiders.

Management attacks upon the mental health of targets are common. The mister men are aware three cases and we will report on these in due course. In addition, the media reported on another here in early 2015. We know that last year, one nurse subjected to this process packed up their dreams and left Australia for good. 

'I was employed as a stand in manager and on my first day the district manager told me the person I was replacing was 'crazy' and she would like me to write a report about what I found at the clinic. A few days later, I called the permanent manager up whilst she was on leave and warned her what I'd been asked to do. What kind of a person is that district manager to go about soliciting complaints in that way?'

The soliciting of complaints is standard practice with some district managers. The mister men have evidence of this as well as evidence of two former directors of nursing engaging in the same misconduct.These are the tactics of the witch hunt.

'He drove out from Alice and threatened me. He told me, 'I can get rid of you any time I like and there is nothing you can do about it.' Of course he made sure there were no witnesses when he said it.'

The perpetrator has recently been promoted into a new position in Central which was never advertised or open for others to apply. He is well known for his nepotism, petty holding of grudges and sense of arrogant entitlement. Others have written to us to report his use of exactly the same cowardly and spineless tactic.

Recently,the mister menpublished the results of two independent surveys which we undertook canvassing the views of 180 clinicians across the territory. For those of you who have not seen the results, they can be found hereand here.

The results from these studies led us to conclude that this is the worst health department in the country. Bullying is as rampant as the cover up culture.

A third of survey respondents reported that they were being bullied right now.

Once the first survey results were released by us, Raelene Burke, so called senior director of human resources immediately went into denial mode releasing dismissive comments as reported in the NT News.

NT Media Censorship Officer Teflon Len

Not long after, in a pathetic attempt to restrict the impact of another negative story, readers comments were lifted from an NT News article on request from the health department. Fortunately, we had already saved the deleted comments and we reproduced them here.

Later, when we reviewed other negative stories published in the paper, we discovered that this wasn't the first time this had happened. And, we found it strongly correlates to the arrival of Teflon Len as CEO. 

So its just as well we are here to ensure media censorship doesn't apply to all.

And unlike Teflon, we believe in transparency when it comes to accountability and governance in the health department.

Interestingly, since Teflon Len arrived as the political pick of the CLP, cronyism appears on the rise too.

Perhaps one of the most cruel yet standard tactics the human resources department use to crush complainants is delay.

Time and again we have discovered that this tactic is used in the hope that the complainant will give up and go away. Recently we received an email from a nurse who was kept waiting for a response from human resources to a complaint for over 18 weeks. During this time the nurse was referred to a psychiatrist by their GP who recorded mental health deterioration to the point of suicidal ideation.

Before Burke snorts more derision our way, we'll add that we have seen the medical record. That's a clinician who sought fairness from the health department and ended up suicidal because impartiality was not forthcoming.

So take a bow you hopeless, heartless HR bastards at the northern territory department of health.

Our conclusion therefore in respect of the HR department is this: Do not ever trust them. Do not meet with them, speak with them, write to them or communicate in anyway with them unless you have sought prior legal advice. 

Dealing with them on your own will damage your health. They are inept, useless and biased. Read our independent surveys for further information.

They are only there to protect the organisation and not to deal impartially with you. Our independent survey results incorporating the views and experiences of 180 health department employees proves it. 

A Little Bit of News

1. The mister men are aware that  the elections are but a year away. We are looking at supporting an anti sleaze candidate standing in Port Darwin - Elferink's ward. 

We are getting a bit fed up with his cynical approach to important issues of the day, such as him secretly appointing his mates into positions that rely on impartiality. 

The potential election candidate is a respected local GP. 

2.  We readily admit there is more to life than numbers. However. Two days ago this blog reached 20,000 page views. This means the articles have been open and read more than 20,000 times in less than six weeks. 

This is becoming something of a movement. 

So please keep sharing our blog with your colleagues and we'll keep giving you the information that the health department don't want you to have.



Until next time

 

the mister men



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