When I was bullied at work, seven of my fellow teachers went to the bully and told her that she was "making a mistake". I will always appreciate their courage. Unfortunately the bully just bluffed her way out of it. I understand that my bully told the teachers that there were "secret reasons" why I had to be punished and that they would get into "very serious trouble" if they talked to me about the situation.
This all happened in 2000. To this day the Department of Education refuse to tell me why my health and my career had to be destroyed. Huge numbers of public servants have "lost" my letters or "misunderstood" my complaint. What really disgusts me about the situation is that it is union members who are doing this to their fellow union members. But I now realise that any public servant who allowed themselves to "know" what was going on would be destroyed themselves. So hours of public service time are spent "not knowing", "losing" and "not understanding". I describe this official process of "not knowing" about what a layperson would call corruption in http://www.badapplebullies.com/investigations.htm
This is not what I was expecting of my life, but it has been an interesting experience. I would not recommend a career as a Queensland teacher to any intelligent person.

Great article Kim, but don’t we already have world best standard whistleblower legislation in place?

From my observation it works as well as intended by the legislators. All matters reported to the relevant authorities are dealt with by stealth, the whistleblower is threatened and discredited sufficiently to render the whole case irrelevant and should he/she be stupid enough to persist there is always the law. to be used against them. What more can a justice system provide.

In the case of Alan Didak feeling threatened, all whistleblowers are placed in the same position perhaps only the gun missing in most, but certainly not all cases. Is the Australian culture perhaps a throw back to the convict-overseer days which also started our unique “tall poppy” syndrome – the group being punished for the actions of a single member. We are not “laid-back” without a reason.

Stan van de Wiel is a victim of whistleblowing in the case of “compulsory aviation incident reporting which revealed that CASA officials and the Minister were aware for a period of 2 years, of a banned additive being used in Aviation fuel and assisting in covering up this serious matter.

An associated source http://www.casa-x.org

"Dealing with the Mob", I understand your reticence to recommend teaching as a vocation , whatever you do don't move to Vic ; You would be moving from the frying pan to the fire . The Vic Edu Dept has no ethics , no regard for children or their families .
Parents are totally disenfranchised in their Students education .
Woe betides all who object ; The Edu. Bureaucracy will totally crush anyone who dissents , Teachers , Parents , Citizens or Students .
How this situation was allowed to develop in the first instance and allowed to continue today is an affront to democracy .

A terrific fight has developed in Western Australia an org. called PLATOWA is leading the fight to return decency , freedom and justice to Education : www.platowa.com another is : www.bgonews.com , look in Forum ; Education .

Citizens and Parents have met with Teachers here in Bendigo , in secrecy at night , parking our cars away from the venue to preserve the integrity of secrecy ; I thought the Teachers paranoid until I later learnt how people can use the anonaminity of the net to destroy people and reduce their children to psycholigical orphans .

every australian i've talked to is satisfied with oz culture. being a whistleblower in such a society isn't public spirited, it's suicidal. just keep yer head down, sheep, and do what the dogs tell you.

Do not ever even think about it.
While I am full of pride in my job I have now, informing of theft, contractors who buy the most grog getting the work, whole stockpiles of great value being sold as a private deal for cash.
Knowing a boss was drunk at work, and employed his mates, no never tell.
NEVER my 22 years in the one job ended and cost me an extra $350.000 in super alone.
The criminals are still at work I am doing more for my people but for far less money.
KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN
you can not win.

Dont bother going to the NSW Education system unless you want your head chopped off. THE Department of Education in NSW is biased and corrupted and most of all cruel.

In the Year 2000 I, as a parent, brought up some concerns about the neglect of the education of intellectually gifted children and I made some complaints and boy have my 4 children and family paid the price.

I have made numerous formal serious allegations of systematic bias, vilification, victimisation, bullying, neglect and misconduct against the Department of Education, allegations that include a a conspiracy to cover up and that come supported with documentary evidence. Instead of addressing the complaints my family has been targeted, vilified and ignored and the treatment that we are recieving from the Department invites people to ostrasize us and turn against us. People in the Department of Education have colluded to further victimise my children by either helping achieve that end or by agreeing to turn a blind eye.

Just about everybody turns their back.

No matter how many people I ask to help, be it Politicians, School Principals or Investigatory bodies - nobody seems to be in a position to do anything to help or protect the children.

Those employed by the system have to be loyal to the system as per their contract. There is also Legislation in place that prohibits the asking of questions in relation to corruption and misconduct. This leaves our children vulnerable to abuse.

It is time that the people rebelled. Our children are not protected.

Education - Keeping them Honest
http://jolandachallita.typepad.com/education/
Our Children deserve better

Jolanda I have no doubt your storey is true.
But from inside a NSW government department let me tell you ,you can not win!
Some people who are not bad people ,not even criminal, will commit crimes to defend others who are wrong or criminal.
In my case ,now after just a few have been found to be what I said they would be found to be leaks begin.
Good but foolish public servants come to me and say I thought you had it right but you know how it is?
White wash is the color most in use and your best hope is that history may tell what our public service never does, the truth.

Belly nothing will change until people's attitudes change.

Of course we can win. You just have to be smart and persistent and most of all fellow parents, citizens and teachers need to Unite and help each other to fight against this neglect and abuse of our children. This is where the problem lies, people are too scared to come up against the Department because they have the power to ruin people’s lives. But they only ruin your life if you let them.

Early on my children suffered a lot as did my husband and I, but it was because we were honest and naive. We thought that the system was good and it was just a few bad apples and that when those in authority found out what happened there would be outrage and the children would be protected.

Of course instead our complaint was given to those that we alleged were responsible and everybody turned a blind eye and we became their targets and my children and family were stabbed in the back and dealt blow after blow year after year so that we presented distressed and with a story to tell that people find hard to believe.

Since we didn’t expect it and were not ready for it, it really hurt. When the community turned their back on my family for fear of their children being targeted it was the final blow. It is hard to explain to your children why people don’t care enough to protect them from harm.

They didn’t’ destroy us, we are instead fighting back and my children are smart and popular children who will succeed no matter what the system tries to do to them. My children are smart enough and strong enough to stand up against these bullies in the system and they expect me to fight for their right to be treated fairly.

Every time somebody says that ‘you can’t win’ it makes those who are responsible feel more powerful. We need to ruffle them, not protect them.

We need a FRESH APPROACH!

Bystander apathy is distorting the good things we value in our Aussie society.

We need Administrative Government Reform plus a 'New Form of Talk' at community ground levels.

We Need a No Wrong Door policy for business and community.

We need to cut down on the marked diffusion of numerous government authorities and their adherence to inflexible rules of process and operation and make civic engagement real again.

We need a Whole of Government and Whole of Community Approach!

http://www.miacat.com/

I strongly agree with Jolanda. I understand that some people are not able to fight the Bad Apple Mob. But those of us who can stand up and fight should do so. Otherwise we just abandon our society to the corrupt Mob.
Societies do not have to be run this way - by the corrupt and powerful few who exploit and abuse everybody else.

miacat, there is such a method, it's called democracy. ozzies aren't up to it. i think they never will be, as the government is heading towards '1984' at an increasing rate.

bad luck,huh!

Australia is not a democracy. It is not run by the people, the general public has no power and no say. We are controlled by Government officials who have the DISCRETION and POWER to play God. These people have created for themselves a lifestyle and brought in Legislation so that they don’t ever have to answer to anything or be held to account

At the height of complaint handling we have the Ombudsman and ICAC. Both these Investigatory bodies present themselves as under funded and both use this excuse to JUSTIFY HAVING DISCRETION to pick and choose what matters they will investigate. They can REFUSE TO INVESTIGATE for any reason, close a matter and refuse to ever look at it again. They have the power to cover up without question or challenge. They generally pick matters to investigate that do not involve, or will not impact, the Government or them so that it looks like they are doing something with their job.

When the Ombudsman and ICAC refused to investigate my family’s complaints, despite alarming amounts of evidence to support our allegations, we complained to the Office of the Ombudsman and Police Integrity Commission about the manner that the Ombudsman had dealt with the matter, as we believed there was happening a conspiracy to cover up as the Ombudsman, Mr. Barbour, refused to give us the explanations that we requested in our review request and for which we had documentary evidence in support and just closed the matter.

This was and is a child protection issue, it is serious corruption that includes systematic bullying, psychological and emotional abuse of children, educational neglect and includes allegations of discrimination and manipulation of test scores and documents in Education.

We were told that under the Ombudsman's Act Section 31B(2) they are PROHIBITED from investigating 'particular conduct' and that they couldn’t help me. Particular conduct is not defined in the act but it relates to bias, victimisation, bullying, vilification, fraud, corruption, misconduct and conspiracies to cover up. The Ombudsman’s decisions cannot be questioned - no matter what! Part one.

Part 2.

Over three years later, since the people that were targeting my children were not dealt with and/or removed, my children continued to be systematically targeted and victimized. I again requested fresh documents under FOI. Documents showed excessive evidence of new instances of bias, victimization and manipulation and that clearly supported my families allegations including that of a conspiracy to cover up.

I once again presented it to the Ombudsman and to ICAC and asked for the matter to be investigated and impressed on them the fact that these were children that were being targeted. Once again they refused to investigate the matter advising that the matter is closed.

It matters not to them that the targets are children and that is a serious concern!

This failure to investigate sends the message that my family didn’t and doesn’t have a case and supports the Departments presentation of me as a ‘vexatious and a troublemaker' when this is so far from the truth.

I rang the Office of the Ombudsman and Police Integrity Commission this week as, the same Ombudsman Mr Bruce Barbour, who dealt with the matter before in the year 2003 once again reviewed the Ombudsmans Office recent decision not to investigate the new allegations or the matter at all. I advised them that I had already previously complained about Mr. Barbour's handling of my family's matter and that allowing him to review the matter denied my family an impartial and unbiased decision and procedural fairness and natural justice. She said that there was nothing that they could do as Legislation prohibited them from doing anything but that I could try to write and see what happens but the Committee isn’t sitting again until the end of September.

What sort of democracy do we live in when Government officials can CHOOSE to ignore and cover up the issues and complaints of the people and the people have no rights or no power to access Justice and get protection?

This is a dictatorship - not a democracy.

PortoSalvo,

Parents are not totally disenfranchised in their children’s education. They form the largest single group on every school council in the state. They have freedom of choice as to which school they send their children too.

The bureaucracy is not capable of crushing anyone who dissents. I have my own experience of being victimised by an acting school principal who had been in the school only one week and decided to make me the scapegoat for the bad decisions of the school administration. I have given a detailed account on the “Farewell” thread on the discussion forum of www.platowa.com, so I will not repeat the details here. The advantages I had were that I was in a strong union school, I had the support of my colleagues, I had the confidence of being a highly experienced school administrator and I am stubborn. I could not allow them to get away with it. When I took my case to the Merit Protection Board, I won.

Teachers should not be paranoid. They should be strong. They have a professional obligation to take a stand. To start with, 100 per cent of them should be in the union and they should act as unionists to ensure proper legal procedures are followed in their schools.

Of course, it is much harder to take on bullies when you are young, inexperienced, on a short-term contract or in a climate where no one will support you. It is much harder now under the instant dismissal provisions of WorknotcalledChoicesanymore.

There is another aspect to whistleblowing, which is not to do with the price pad by the whistleblower, but to do with the absence of anyone to blow the whistle to. Some may wonder at the point in risking their careers when they know that those in authority will not act on the matters they reveal in any case.

Chris C , Our experience is much different to yours .
Our School Council was threatened and bludgeoned into submission by the Bureaucracy ; They were given four days to consider their options then they were crushed ; Four new schools were to be built under the "Bendigo Education Plan", the four schools had to be built at the same time , one of our existing schools had to close . Golden Square Secondary College was termed demographically challenged and was targeted for closure . The School Council resisted and 900 parents signed a petition that was sent to all the Bracks Gov't ministers involved ...........this petition received not one response .
The Bureaucrats held a series of forums ; The Forum at GSSC was salted with Galahs , these Galahs were selected by a mediator ( A Bureaucrat from Melbourne) at question time to ask or answer questions this way no threads were able to develop ........the forum was a sick joke .
The School Council continued to resist as did the Parents and Students , On the final deadline where a decision had to be made ; The School Council was threatened like this ; If you don't sign the School off , no new Schools will be built , 80 million dollars will be lost for Bendigo by you ; how sick was that ultimatum ! On that night some Councillors were crying at least three vomited , how sad is that ?

Chris,
You were very fortunate in your experience. I was also attacked by an acting principal when I tried to discuss the groups of unsupervised children who were roaming about the school. I explain the situation in detail on http://www.badapplebullies.com/investigations.htm Seven teachers spoke up in my support, but the union organiser told me immediately that there was no hope of justice and that I should "accept the things you cannot change".
I feel that the union facilitate the abuse of teachers because they passively allow them to be bullied. Their advice was correct - there was no hope of justice, I realise now, but I feel that if the union had supported me in 2000 I would not have been put into a punishment process because of allegations that have never been explained to me.
The problem we have in Queensland is that teachers and administrators are in the same union, so when you are bullied the union call it a "member versus member issue" and just advise you that you should "accept the things you cannot change" and to "move on".
Workplace bullying is not only a problem for young teachers, older men and women teachers have big problems.
I had no rights in 2000. I cannot see any way that I would have fewer rights under WorkChoices. My union told me that I had no rights.
And union members in the Queensland public service facilitated the abuse, continually "losing" my letters, "misunderstanding" my complaint, refusing to search for FOI documents, losing FOI documents, etc. etc.
It is disgusting that union members earn their wages by destroying the lives of other people in this way.
You are right when you say that there is nobody to whistle to. Queensland public servants know they must not "hear" the whistles being blown all around them. It is more than their careers are worth.

What a depressing, and yet, challenging thread here!

I have had my run in with the bureaucracy many a time, and having been part of that bureacracy, I expect a lot more of these people!

The Ombudsman in NSW reviewed a process that it was expressly prohibited by statute (ie a Court process) and dressed it up as looking a a Uni policy - subject to review.

The NSW Electoral Commisioner didn't want to do anything about an improperly enrolled person, so the Administrative Decisions Tribunal was needed to fix this up.

A Police officer was reported to the Local Area Commander and the LAC passes the letter of complaint to the officer involved who then uses the Privacy Act (PPIA) against me because the information was 'illegally' gained in my role as a bureaucrat.

We are up against it, but, let's keep trying...

PortoSalvo. The parents on the school council in each state might have access to choose whatever school they want their children to attend but the ordinary person who isn't 'in the know' and who 'doesn't have the right contacts' and/or who has been branded a 'trouble maker' for speaking out does not get to choose. There is no choice in Education in NSW.

The only school that you can choose to go to where they are obligated to accept you is your Local zoned School. For every other school you have to apply and they are the ones that choose. If the Department has defamed you and vilified you and presented you as a troublemaker then no school will accept your children.

I know this for a fact. Requests for access to out of area schools made on the basis of extenuating circumstances, two kids in the same year due to acceleration meant that they couldn't go to the same school, were refused at every school applied. Requests to accept students on compassionate grounds as student didnt' have a school to go to and was being homeschooled - refused. These were high achieving students who were polite, respectful, represented the school in sports and should have been students that the schools should have been proud of and supported as they were good role models and leaders. Instead they were treated like dirt and denied access to schools because their mother had made some complaints.

There is no real choice in education and best interest of the child does not appear to register as a concern.

Kim, I was under the impression that there was legislation that could be brought into play if bystanders and witnesses did nothing to assist in the prevention of perpetration of a crime. The only 'out', as I understood it, was that if one were placing one's own life in danger by coming to the aid of the victim.
Is this not correct?
Of course, the whistleblowers legislation is a dog's breakfast, and seeks more to punish the whistleblower than the perps.
Who said we don't have have a democracy? -Of course we do - it is government by the politicians for the politicians. Goodness me!

What a depressing, and yet, challenging thread here!

you sure are right about that 'Reality Check'.

Is it "Thugism" ?

How did this situation develop ?

This situation is a process (the Government likes to call it a culture, but it is an actual process) developed and fine tuned by our 'so called' Investigatory bodies. The aim and focus of 'these watchdogs' is to 'manage complaints' so as to minimise damage to the Government. The public is not a concern. As law abiding individuals we are worth nothing, we have no rights and therefore no means of protection.

These watchdogs use complaints as a means to create new Policies and new Legislation so that our public servants and by extension our Government never has to take responsbility for anything or be made to answer and held accountable.

Procedural fairness and naturual justice doesn't exist for the general public. So unjust and unfair.

PortoSalvo,

I am sorry that the parents and students were treated so badly at Golden Square. I think the lesson is that you should never give into bullies. You have to be smart in resisting too. Do not make the mistake of relying on formal channels. Get organised and use the media.

I understand that the new schools are to be built on the open classroom model. This is recycled madness from the 1970s which was abandoned as a failure but which is making a comeback because it seems a few of its advocates have got themselves into positions of power with the DoE. Dr Ken Rowe of ACER has said that there are 500,000 studies which show that students learn better when they are actually taught. In time, these new open plan schools with their “flexible learning spaces” will have walls built, but they will probably be called “learning partitions” to save face.

I went to the bgo site and read that teachers are banned from speaking out about education. This is not correct. The previous Liberal Government did enact a ministerial order that purported to ban teachers from speaking on education issues in order to silence them while it go on with its destruction of their profession and the Victorian education system. However, I and others continued to speak out – in the press, in person and on radio - and no one was ever punished for doing so. The Labor Government withdrew the ministerial order early in its first term, and any teacher is free to contribute to educational debate.

Dealing With the Mob,

All I can say is that there are bullies everywhere and many others who just keep their heads down. I have no way of eliminating the problem, except to state that like all social improvement the problem will go away when enough people insist on it.

From the article "In Australia, we have established a culture where the public duty is not priced highly. "

Whilst Kim comments on the inaction of Didak in regard to Christopher Wayne Hudson, he has completely ignored the actions of Brendan Keilar and Paul de Waard in regard to the same Christopher Wayne Hudson.

Mr Keilar's actions, particularly, would suggest that some byestanders do consider their 'public duty', a consideration for which Mr Keilar did, afterall pay the ultimate price.

Such glaring ommissions of what is, in regard to Christopher Wayne Hudson, relevant fact tends to expose the article as being a crock of mindless codswallop.

As for whistleblowers, well if more folk were responsible for making their own way in the world, instead of clinging to tenure and the safe haven of bureaucracy, there would be more who realised that keeping quiet about wrongful acts is not only the recipe for a sad and insignificant life but also the way to set themselves up as "victims".

The only thing I've gleaned from all the comments on this subject so far, is simply this -

No quarter shall be given to a whistleblower.

That should indicate to anyone contemplating whistleblowing, that at the very least, and despite protective laws, it's a long, long, long row to hoe.
Most of us will never live long enough to achieve a correct and righteous outcome.

I salute those who try, and applaude those who win, but even in winning, most would agree, they also loose.

So very, very sad.

I agree with the proposition here 'Evil prospers when good people do nothing'. If we as citizens do not make use of the legal and constitutional mechanisms to force the state to protect our basic rights to exist then it gives others, - banks, employers, Land Lords ect the green light to use the same mechanisms against you punatively and unjustly. Hang your head and hide and hope to avoid trouble is no guarantee in a repressive social environment. If you have been libeled as a whistleblower, troublemaker ect then today you are guilty of 'crimen exceptum' against the 'Holy Corporate Inquisition. You are in deep trouble if you dont fight because the normal rules of due process, protection of rights and entitlements have been suspended towards you. In the systems eyes you have become a bad apple worthy of death.