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All day for four or five days a week for over a year we sat in various offices across Australia, about twenty of us, give or take. The most remote Bargainer, I usually sat alone in a Cairns videoconferencing office, surrounded by papers, proposals and legal documents.
The CPSU team; the Government Panel; and the other staff nominated Reps, all sat 'round tables in either Sydney, Canberra or Melbourne, all of us viewing and talking to eachother across quite large TV screens, fingers poised above our respective Mute buttons.
We were going through a 115 page legal document word by word with a virtual tooth-comb, over and over, everyone giving vital input every step of the way. The new Enterprise Agreement for six agencies combined into the Department of Human Services, it was a task and a half. And the most painstaking and intricate process possible.
Yet also strangely intimate.
Photo of me taken whilst reading yet more blatant lies delivered daily to the Inboxes of the Staff Nominated Bargaining Representatives and the CPSU, from the warped minds of the Government Bargaining Panel. Yes, that IS a very disenchanted, even angry, expression on my face, you're correct. Circa 2010
CRS Australia
The Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service was an Australian Government body that provided professional rehabilitation and employment services to Australians with a disability (whether psychological or physical) from 1941 until 2015. In 2011, the service had over 180 offices across the country. In 2015 CRS was abolished and replaced with the more decentralised National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and Disability Employment Services (DES) networks.
My Rehab Consultant/Counselor Role
'CRS Australia was a large employer of health and human service professionals and played a significant part in the development of these services in Australia.
'Over its 60 year history, CRS was the largest and oldest vocational rehabilitation provider in Australia,' writes David O Halloran, in 'An historical overview of Australia's largest and oldest provider of vocational rehabilitation -- CRS Australia,' in WORK: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment & Rehabilitation, Vol. 19 (3), 2002
In 2010, 29 per cent of CRS clients had a mental health condition as their primary disability. CRS Australia employed approximately 1100 rehabilitation consultants from a range of allied health backgrounds, including psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, rehabilitation counsellors, and speech pathologists.
The Disability Services Act 1986 (DSA) guided the context in which CRS Australia offered rehabilitation services to clients. All up CRS Australia employed approx 2000 staff at the time of its dissolution.
In 2005, people with mental health conditions were a priority area, with strategies including:
• young people with mental health problems;
• parenting payment recipients who often comprised single mothers with depression and/or anxiety;
• mature age workers who'd been found to suffer lowered self esteem, loss of resilience, and depressed mood;
• Indigenous clients who may have been suffering from complex and comorbid conditions and drug and alcohol dependence;
• clients from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds who may have experienced depression and other mental health conditions as a result of trauma;
• people living in rural and remote areas who may have lacked access to necessary services for their needs; and
• people with comorbid conditions, including drug and alcohol dependence.
***
Work Life Balance
After decades working in Community Services from the Blue Mountains to Sydney, as variously: Coordinator of Mental Health Day Program of the Marrickville Living Skills Cottage; ACON/CSNWest's Care Service Coordination; and Coordinator of the Blue Mountains PLWHA Centre; Coordinator of Womens Cottage Domestic Violence Svce and the like, I decided to get into working as a one-on-one Counsellor full-time,which I'd realized I loved a whole lot more than the incredible stresses and intense inter-office politics of service coordination!
I moved to Canberra to be with my new partner Sally, a Gestalt Psychotherapist and mental health professional in the ACT govt mental health service.
After graduating with my first degree at the University of Canberra - a Post Grad Dip in Community Counselling - I was halfway thru my Masters of Counselling when it became obvious I needed to relocate to FNQld to care for my frail aged mother Rose in Kuranda in her last days.
My relationship with Sally had been on the rocks for quite some time, and going to Qld was looking good on many fronts.
CRS Australia agreed to transfer me interstate, and I discussed completing my Masters in Counselling degree with the Cairns office Manager prior to moving to Qld, which she initially stated she was more than happy to support me with.
However her assurances later proved entirely false, and her lie was the precursor to my putting up my hand up for the position of CRS National Bargaining Rep, due to my anger and disenchantment with CRS Australia, despite the great community service it provided.
***
As a Rehab Consultant (Level 2, APS 6) my work included:
· DEEWR Case Management
· Indigenous Cadet Programme Mentor/Coach
· Staff Coach/ Mentoring role
· Group work Facilitator:
o Anxiety Management Group
o Depression Management Group
o Workplus Group
o Vocational Planning and Information Group
· Job Capacity Assessments
· JCAc (Job Capacity Account Services) including:
o Options4Work (Vocational & social casework)
o Motivate4Work (Motivational counselling)
o Social Casework
o Well4Work (Counselling)
o CBT strategies
o Counselling
o Motivational Interviewing
o CRS CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) Management Programme
o Anxiety Management Group work
· EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) counselling
· Proficient use of DEEWR IT systems
· Comprehensive filing and case notes
· Team-building activities, working closely with Employment Team
· Advising manager on strategies re current local issues i.e. discrimination /diversity etc
· Networking, organizing in-services: external agency training sessions
Etcetera etcetera etcetera. ....
***
Moment Of Truth
I'd been sitting at the highest level of Rehab Consultant (Level 2), champing at the bit to complete my Masters, part of my personal Life Plan. I'd loved my Uni studies when in Canberra, although academic writing was a little tough on the creative writer I truly am, I actually excelled in the end, once I got my head 'round the jargon, meeting some dear soul friends along the way.
My first Uni Lecturer was a young woman who advised me that my academic writing was 'way too interesting,' and I apparently needed to 'learn to write in a more boring fashion..'!
I still haven't gotten over that comment, always gives me a chuckle! My next Lecturer took over management of the entire course for the duration, on into the Masters degree. Dr Ione Lewis, forever my inspiration and guiding star for all Counselors in Australia.
So when I moved to Qld, temporarily deferring my Masters degree was a sacrifice I decided to make for the purpose of giving time and loving care to my Mother, who I knew didn't have a lot of time left.
I later enrolled to complete the last few units of my Counselling Masters degree via distance ed, and was cleared to complete certain mandatory on-campus Units with the Social Work course at Cairns James Cook University campus, having accredited my Degree and work experience as equivalent to a Bachelor in Social Work.
All was great! I rocked up to the manager's office in Cairns CRS and suddenly it all fell apart. Something was wrong, I'll never know what, but she outright refused to clear me attending JCU on Friday afternoons for 2 hrs for 18 weeks only, for the on-campus section.
Reason cited: 'The course is not needed for you to complete your work efficiently.' Bitchy management garble for: 'Forget it, I'm not letting you out for a minute, nor letting you advance professionally or keep your qualifications updated'.
This was weird. The entire office, nay, national organization, was full of professionals with Masters degrees and the like, yet for some reason she wanted to keep me 'barefoot and pregnant' so to speak, unable to complete a much needed degree for my professional counselling registration and so on.
Not only was it weird, it was frustrating as hell. But no matter that I brought the Union in on the issue, even given that the expectation for Managers to support staff requests for any needed uni courses for professional registration etc, was an integral part of the current Workplace Agreement. She dug her heels in and decided to become my enemy.
Never a good idea.
She suddenly left for Long Service Leave for seven months and the conversation was effectively over.
Whilst I wondered how to next approach the Mexican stand-off without losing my job, the Department of Human Services Amalgamation of six agencies including CRS came up.
I swiftly saw my opportunity to get this problem fixed within a new Enterprise Agreement, as well as support the entire organization into much fairer outcomes. Kind of my thing. The personal, the political, and the entire shebang.
***
On the other side of the Bargaining Table from us sat these people, pictured above - the Government Bargaining Panel for DHS. Cute as buttons, and smiling, smiling, ever smiling. The worst group of liars, thieves, manipulators and veiled threateners I'd ever met. I hope they don't mind my saying so.
(This, or course, was a few years before I started my studies to enhance my mystical intuitive abilities, and met the worst of the worst in spiritual teachers - those lying power hungry - inflated egos of the American 'spiritual' celebs. But I digress).
My Life Work + My Calling
If I were to sum up my Life's Work and Calling, I'd say I've always loved working with the poor and the dispossessed, the marginalized and the oppressed, drawn to raising the hearts of the traumatized and the unloved - giving them a helping hand - and often much-needed funds, to get them back on their feet again.`
And now I'd add that I've been called here in this time to expose the corruption of those who see themselves as OverLords.
The strange thing I've experienced in the last few years has been enemies advising me to 'remember where I came from' and 'not trying raising myself above my allotted station in life' (a la Lynda Hill Sabian Symbols toxic crappage).
Not sure what they think they're saying, as my family lineage is high nobility, the Dragon Line, going way back, so if they're wanting me to 'remember' some life in the gutter they're sadly mistaken. Friedrich Von Schiller is a direct ancestor of mine, champion of the oppressed and jailed for it. We're pretty closely related, on so many levels.
The thing is, my driving philosophy has always been Equality. My mother was poverty stricken middle class, so at least I was able to freely nourish my mind as a child with her blessing. 'Remembering who I am' only serves to make me breathe flames of fire on the b!tches spouting such tripe.
Over and over I've virtually tripped over corrupt Execs - in the corporate world, the community services world, and the so-called 'spiritual' world. Corruption springs up everywhere and I'm called to expose and end it.
I'm not perfect, as everyone knows by now (my enemies love to expose all my flaws and imperfections - carry on, slatterns - I'm kind of used to your abuse by now), but either let me do my work, my divine calling - or wear the coals of fire that will rain down upon the heads of any trying to block, malign or otherwise slander me, thereby stop the urgently needed work.
***
The Enterprise Agreement Bargaining Process
The signed Agreement states that it covers: (a) the Secretary of the Department of Human Services ("the department"), for and on behalf of the Commonwealth of Australia as the employer; (b) all persons employed by the department, with the exception of: (i) Senior Executive Service employees; (ii) employees who are parties to current Australian Workplace Agreements; (iii) employees with the classification of Medical Officer 2, Medical Officer 3, Medical Officer 4 or Medical Officer 5; and (iv) Australian Hearing employees; and (c) the following employee organisations which were bargaining representatives for this Agreement: (i) the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU); and (ii) the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA).
THE SIX AGENCIES:
CENTRELINK
MEDICARE
CRS AUSTRALIA (COMMONWEALTH REHABILITATION SERVICE)
CHILD SUPPORT AGENCY
DEPT OF HUMAN SERVICES
HEARING AUSTRALIA
***
Being A Bargaining Rep
'A Bargaining Representative is the contact point between employees and employers. Their main role is to negotiate the details of the agreement
while bargaining 'in good faith'.
- Fair Work Australia
I was voted by half of my workplace team to act as their Staff Nominated Bargaining Representative for CRS Australia in the amalgamation of 6 agencies into the one Department of Human Services:
'The integration of Centrelink into DHS, along with CRS AUSTRALIA, Medicare and Child Support was part of a five year program of service delivery transformation, intended to give Australians better access to social, health and welfare services and achieve policy outcomes while delivering services more efficiently,' wrote the Ombudsman in a report dated 2014.
***
Collective Bargaining for an Enterprise Agreement - a legal document of 115 pages - was to begin. Twelve of my team of twenty-four staff in Cairns voted for me to represent them as an Independent Bargainer in the process, which lasted a year.
The other twelve staff were staunch anti-union, anti-bargaining, anti-long-distance-vision, anti-safe-workplace-provisions, anti-intelligence, and anti-me.
I've written about the process in my trilogy yet to be published so I won't elaborate much more on that, except that CRS became highly toxic once they got rid of all those I was supporting in the Bargaining arena, by not renewing their contracts, 'til only the true arseholes were left in the office, barricading the doors from those who were actually trying to help them, if they but knew.
***
Ingratitude + Punishment
To say the CRS Office Anti-Unionists heavily benefited from all that I and the rest of the Bargainers achieved is a massive understatement. Yet they were one and all ungrateful and unrepentant for their abusive manner to the calmly intelligent union members working hard and putting our own lives on the line on their behalf. I never heard one word of thanks, quite the opposite in fact.
A bit of a trend in my life, sad to say.
Personally speaking, punishment and ostracism was pretty much all I got for saving their bacon. Ahh Julian and Edward, I know thy troubles well.
***
The Daily Vibe
Over the course of that extremely intensive year of Bargaining, I learnt a lot about not only my colleagues in Cairns, but also the DHS Government Bargaining team. The worst bunch of compulsive liars and sociopaths I'd met thus far.
***
The CPSU
In comparison to the low-life antics of the DHS Government team, the Community and Public Sector Union worked in a highly professional and calm manner. One of the most reputable Unions I've come across, I've nothing negative to say about them whatsoever, only glowing praise. Their objectivity, clarity and calm demeanor whilst standing in the line of fire was the greatest thing I'd ever seen. On top of that, theirs were some brilliant minds, highly intelligent.
Yes the Union does have it's own in-built form of hierarchy, but I'd have to say the process of election is fair and makes a lot of sense. At first they queried my being nominated to Bargain as an Independent Rep, when they, the great Union, were present to ostensibly do so for me - for us all.
I asked them to wait and see. Over time it would all make sense.
And this proved very true, as we worked extremely well together - me from my upstairs video-conferencing office in Cairns and they from any state they happened to be working from at the time. Legally constrained from discussing certain things with each other, I prayed to the Heavens for enhanced telepathic abilities to better read their minds when we were in the Bargaining Room making crucial decisions!
I wasn't always successful I have to admit, but in the end my intuition made such a sudden quantum leap, nothing would ever be the same, for both the Department and myself.
Despite the later fallout in my life - veiled death threats, cars trying to run me off the road during that year, very real threats to my job and livelihood and the rest of the nastiness - I have absolutely no regrets at all about participating in the Bargaining process.
It was unforgettable and gave me the capacity to address many workplace inconsistencies and injustices alongside a practiced and highly experienced Union - the CPSU.
Lisa Newman,
Deputy National President of the CPSU at the time
'Newman said there was a lot of anger among CPSU members towards the federal government's bargaining policy, which dictates that public servants will have to "fund their own pay increase through productivity gains" which means attacks on staffing, and "ripping entitlements" away. "It's a zero per cent with cuts offer,” Newman explained.'
- Susan Price, 'Unionists build solidarity with CFMEU and CPSU'
Lisa's statement quoted above can easily be applied across the board to most workplace bargaining at that time. Similar nasty little discrepancies from the Government Management Team certainly applied to our unique DHS Bargaining experience.
A word or two about Lisa. I learnt a thing or two from her. I watched over the Videoconferencing screen from here in Qld and noticed that whenever she entered the Bargaining room and quietly spoke above the hysterics of the government bargaining side, ignoring their snide comments and innuendo, the atmosphere went still. Dead quiet. She held a kind of innate quiet power.
I deeply appreciated the entire CPSU Bargaining team, a diversely talented group of usually four women, they all held that special reserved and restrained vibe. No-one could match them. Skilled and seasoned, they were exemplary.
Dinner with Julia Gillard at the CPSU National Leadership Conference, Darling Harbor Sydney 2012
I'm pretty sure they quickly appreciated my unexpected presence in the Bargaining room, of that I have no doubt. I mean, Post-Bargaining they invited me to their week-long National Leadership Conference held at Darling Harbor in Sydney; offered me the QLD Rep role which I accepted; gave me a Study Grant; and a couple of other roles in their organisation, so yes, we were on damn fine terms with eachother!
CPSU National Leadership Conference Darling Harbor Sept 2012.
It went for about a week I think.
That's me on the far right of pic with v short hair.
***
Industrial Tribunals
The Fair Work Commission (FWC), until 2013 known as Fair Work Australia (FWA), is the Australian Industrial relations tribunal created by the Fair Work Act 2009 as part of the Rudd Government's reforms to industrial relations in Australia.
During the Bargaining I had occasion to participate in a few Industrial Tribunals in FWA, as we legally held the lying Department to account.
In the first Tribunal, I participated as per usual via video-conferencing from faraway Cairns, and as a TV camera panned 'round the court showing the Live proceedings internally to us participants, I noticed I was the only one in the entire packed FWA courtroom on a large TV screen above everyone's heads.
A little disconcerting! But I had to hold it together, and each time the Magistrate rolled 'round to me when it was time for comment from all participants, I managed to say something fairly intelligent, I feel!
I was in the perfect position to see all the litigants - the CPSU, a few Bargainers - and a whole crowd of DHS Senior Executive Staff right below my screen, taking up rows of seats.
They glanced surreptitiously up at me, frowning, turning to eachother, "What the fvck is SHE doing here, and ABOVE our heads, FFS," I imagined I saw them saying, so irate were their expressions!
Yes, it angered the corrupt Exec no end that I was so high above them, virtually unreachable, unperturbed and at deep serene peace within myself - and given so much airtime by the Magistrate.
They wanted to strangle me, I could feel the love.
"Who the hell does she think she is?' I clearly heard their loud thoughts.
Oh yes, if looks could kill, I'd have died a thousand deaths that day.
To this end, the next time I signed my name against another Tribunal Procedure against the DHS Senior Exec's, they ensured I was THERE!
Tribunal Number Two
As I boarded the plane, a stewardess approached me and insisted I was to sit in First Class. I protested, a little worried - we didn't spend funds on such things in the Bargaining Team. But she was persistent and said I had no choice, my seat had been transferred to First Class and I had no option but to sit there. Although I smelled a rat, I relented and went and sat there, wondering who had paid for the upgrade.
I walked through the curtain to the other world and was treated like a queen, regaled with delicious morsels, champagne, soft pillows and the like. I knew something was up and sat there in my first class seat wondering at their highly unsubtle tactic. Clearly a few someone's on the DHS Senior Exec were trying to manipulate my actions within the Tribunal. Give me a taste of The Good Life and get me to cross the floor!
They clearly had no idea I couldn't be bought!
When I left the plane, I was met by one of the big suits of DHS. He placed an unwanted and uninvited arm 'round my shoulder and asked me how I'd enjoyed First Class! I replied that I was well aware what the Senior Execs were up to.
At the same time I felt a little exultant, realizing that my participation as the only DHS Staff Member (out of 75,000 staff!) in the Tribunals, and signing off on the legal complaints against the Department Exec was so unsettling to them that they'd gone to such great lengths to persuade me to shift allegiance.
Never going to happen, kids ....
Not For Sale!
***
Then there was Kathryn ... and her cruel RoboDebt debacle
Kathryn Campbell. Who could ever forget her? My first impression was a woman either stoned, drunk, or heavily tranquilised, slurring her speech and robotically repeating some kind of script. I imagined she wore an invisible little earpiece with a curled white plastic cord attached, a la Agent Smith of The Matrix, as someone secretly instructed her what to say, which she dutifully repeated.
Highly repetitive, her statements were pure management doubletalk. Each time I saw or spoke with her my suspicions were yet again stirred - that she was a marionette, a mere puppet, her strings invisibly jerked by some other source. The orders for the DHS Mgt team to lie to our faces came from her. And whoever held her leash.
I found out she was some kind of ex-army and this kind of made sense, yet not. She had no nous, no personality, dead inside and out. A real walking zombie. I wondered if others saw what I could see.
And she was CEO of the Department of Human Services. Sad but true.
Kathryn revisiting her army days
The whole Bargaining experience really opened the door to my understanding of my abilities to see what lay within others. Don't worry, I also learnt a lot about myself. I always do.
I was shocked that this lying, slurring, tranquilized and empty-souled creature made over $780,000 per year, and quibbled with us for hours days and weeks about frontline staff working their guts out for a mere $50 to $60,000 per year. She justified her high wage by the responsibilities it implied.
The Australia Day Thing
I had occasion for another run-in with The Thing a few years later. The upshot of my yearlong battle for Workers Comp had been that the Department must pay all costs to internally transfer me interstate to another DHS workplace, and I was living and working on the NSW Central Coast.
The new year rolled 'round and we were given orders from the TOP to celebrate Australia Day with a Morning Tea and Luncheon in our office. I made it clear to my new colleagues, a rather autonomous CRS branch, that I viewed Australia Day as Invasion Day and supported the Indigenous view. And therefore I wouldn't be attending the Australia Day Morning Tea or Luncheon, nor celebrating.
To be honest, I really wasn't expecting the flurry of emails, recriminations and manipulative tactics that followed from Kathryn.
I stated again, even more strongly, my position on the matter, and confirmed that under no circumstances would I celebrate the Day, no matter what, but I'd stay in the workplace and continue seeing my clients.
Well. What do you know, but suddenly The Thing itself was coming to our particular workplace in Gosford on Australia Day to celebrate Morning Tea and Lunch with us all. We were all expected to attend with the CEO Kathryn Campbell, there was no way out of it.
Such a privilege, we were told! No other workplace in the whole of Australia was getting the benefit of the gracious presence of her Highness but ours! I was cornered. But I knew her game, I saw through her and out the other side.
On Australia Day, I suddenly felt pretty ill and was forced to stay home. What can you do?
***
Game Over, Kathryn
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are.”
― H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy
Kathryn Campbell, the $900,000 per year DHS CEO and head of the devastating RoboDebt Debacle
stating she doesn't know what RoboDebt is.
I Must Be Psychic ...
It's funny, last night I suddenly thought about her out of the blue, no reason, and had a look online to see what she was up to. Nothing much. Usual gobbledygook garbage flowing from her mouth.
Then woke today to see these headlines:
Not quite as great as the day I heard Lynn Andrews was dead, but pretty close! More of the same please!
More on Kathryn's great downfall from Paul Karp, Daniel Hurst and Amy Remeikis of The Guardian. (I'm not quite ready to give The Tacky Guardian a second chance, but this article gets their toe back in my door):
Senior Department of Defence official Kathryn Campbell has been suspended without pay in the wake of the royal commission report into robodebt.
The Canberra Times reported, and Guardian Australia has independently confirmed, that Campbell was suspended without pay, effective Monday 10 July – three days after the royal commission report was tabled.
The royal commission report said Campbell, a former head of the Department of Human Services, had been “responsible for a department that had established, implemented and maintained an unlawful program”.
But Campbell “did nothing of substance” when exposed to information that brought to light the illegality of income averaging, the report said, and “failed to act” when presented with opportunities to obtain legal advice.
On Thursday the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, told ABC Radio he would not “comment on individual cases in detail” because of “processes in place” but confirmed Campbell had been suspended without pay.
Albanese said the royal commission was “very clear about failings” in the Morrison government and the bureaucracy. “It’s appropriate that there be a response to that.”
The Department of Defence has previously declined to comment on Campbell’s future as a senior adviser on Aukus projects.
The Albanese government appointed Campbell to a $900,000-a-year job in June 2022 to oversee Aukus, maintaining the top-tier salary package she earned as chief of the foreign affairs department, despite her no longer managing any people in the new role.
Questioned about that appointment at Senate estimates in May, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said that evidence at the royal commission had been “quite substantial” and gone “beyond what we might have envisaged”.
Independent MPs had called on Campbell to consider her future following the robodebt reports findings, while the government came under pressure to act.
Asked about the fate of public servants including Campbell after the royal commission report was released, Albanese said: “Agency heads are of course empowered to take immediate action, pending further investigations, and I am very confident that they will.”
The royal commission report found Campbell knew of both the intended use of income averaging in the RoboDebt program and advice from the Department of Social Services that legislative change was needed, but did nothing to change the policy proposal that went to government.
It found she did so because she knew Scott Morrison wanted to “pursue the proposal and that the government could not achieve the savings” that were promised without income averaging.
Campbell has not responded to media requests for comment after the royal commission report, but at the hearings Campbell defended her handling of the matter and said she had assumed the scheme was lawful despite earlier advice raising serious questions.
During questioning at the royal commission, Campbell said: “I have never been in a department that sought to mislead. And I have never been involved in an operation that has sought to mislead the government.”
The report said: “In oral evidence, Ms Campbell accepted that the NPP [new policy proposal] was apt to mislead cabinet.
“She contended that her failure to eliminate its misleading effect was an ‘oversight’. That would be an extraordinary oversight for someone of Ms Campbell’s seniority and experience.”
Commissioner Catherine Holmes concluded that “the weight of the evidence instead leads to the conclusion that Ms Campbell knew of the misleading effect of the NPP but chose to stay silent”.
In a sealed chapter the robodebt royal commission made referrals for possible civil action and criminal prosecution to the Australian federal police, the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the heads of agencies who employ public servants, the Australian Public Service Commission and professional conduct bodies for lawyers.
A panel including the secretaries of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Attorney General’s Department and APS commissioner Gordon de Brouwer will develop advice for government on how to respond to adverse findings about public servants.
Stephen Sedgwick has been appointed independent reviewer by the APSC to determine whether any individuals referred have breached the APS code of conduct.
***
So much joy. Bad things DO sometimes happen to bad people!
I just needed a little evidence like this to get a little bit of hope back.
Can I have some more please??
***
The Aftermath
After completing the Bargaining with two rather spectacular wins against the Government side - one win largely due to my personal efforts - I came across the Australian psychic world, a law unto itself.... I connected with them largely hoping for support with my blossoming psychic abilities. Big mistake.
Along the way I met Niki Stewart, who promoted herself as a psychic. I remember now, how insistent she was that I worked for Centrelink, which she hated with a passion.
I wasn't working for Centrelink!
Over and over I tried to correct her misunderstanding about my work in CRS Australia, a completely different organization than Centrelink. Reflecting back on this, on her stubborn resistance to hearing the truth about me, I feel her hatred of Centrelink played a large role in her sick vendetta against me over the years.
Unless she's just a very sick and ignorant woman. Stupidity is everywhere and I seemed to keep tripping over it. It's the way of the fungal-infected world.
DHS shuts down CRS
A couple of years after the Bargaining ended, CRS Australia was shut down by DHS - done and dusted, goodbye and sayonara - to the organization that was such a thorn in their side, mainly due to our professional staff and the higher wages that go with uni degrees.
I saw the closure of CRS coming a hundred miles off, but no-one else in my organization seemed to, despite all my warnings. I was seconded to a Call Centre, my worst nightmare, which I left after a period of time working as a Team Leader.
I supervised a great team of around twenty good folks that I loved, in Disability and Aged Care work, but the workplace culture was everything I despised - close surveillance of all staff was de rigueur and something I was highly allergic to - I couldn't get out of there fast enough.
Besides, the management team didn't really deal with me leading all the workers out on Union Strikes rather than pushing the management line of not engaging in Union activities, which they'd instructed us Team Leaders to push to our teams.
I'd long ago seen the writing on the wall about my work as a silenced and politically muzzled Public Servant, something I failed at miserably (being silenced, that is).
After the year of Bargaining - exhausting in itself - and the following year of Workers Comp claims due to management harassment, I was bone-tired. So with a long distance vision of going fulltime into Psychic Counselling, I'd used the time and wages productively to get a few good spiritual courses under my belt, to train me a little more and also give me credibility and good standing in the field. Hahaha...
***
Ironic
The real irony is that I spent so long building ethical workplace practices into a solid legal document at great personal cost, and am now working in a field which seems to have almost zero accountability, with weird judgements made by ignorant fools like Niki and co, and strange decisions made by addicts, stoners, and complete morons who know nothing about me.
Time to hold the World in your heart and embrace it
The Wheel turns full circle and I find myself once more relying on managers with integrity in the psychic mediumship industry because God knows there's little else to protect the ethical Psychic these days.
Ethics in the Psychic industry are few and far between, as anyone who's noticed my posts on the high number of death threats I and others receive, and the manipulative messages of Youtube Tarot readers and Tarot websites et al. A pretty sick field right now.
And why am I in this rather compromised position, you ask? Because my enemies ensured my personal business and website were all hacked to pieces, shadowbanned and blocked.
After my great initial successes with both my Facebook Spiritual Business page of 125, 000 followers and about 10,000 comments per post; and my first ever so painstakingly created Psychic Mediumship + Spiritual Counseling website that garnered a fair bit of interest and a number of new clients, plus multiple comments on all my blog posts: those psychopathic enemies of mine suddenly decided to shut me down. Jealousy? Hatred? Psychosis? I can only guess at their inexplicable motives for their insane behaviors towards me.
They went to work and hacked and blocked and ripped it all down. Then they ensured my reputation was slandered and maligned, and my personal business ruined.
And thus I'm now forced to work for others.
I love the work. That keeps me there. And I've found a good ethical employer, so that helps ...
But nothing else has changed much in this world as yet. I'll have more to say on this.
***
What happened with my Masters in Counselling?
Oh and did I ever get to complete my Masters in Counselling after we tightened up the new Enterprise Agreement so Managers couldn't wiggle out of it through random loopholes so easily ? No I didn't. She fought tooth and nail against my doing my Masters, another complete psycho.
Her latest excuse being all the time I'd 'taken off work' doing the Bargaining now meant there was absolutely NO WAY I could ever expect to be released to do my Uni degree for a couple of hours on Fridays at JCU. Oh yes darling. A lovely piece of work on her part. One of the reasons I got my Workers Comp Claim going. Post-Bargaining really wasn't very pretty for me in so many ways.
Management payback for all my hard work in the Bargaining Room kicked in hard.
Fair Play was never a thing for DHS Senior Exec's.
For more on all this, read my yet to be published trilogy -
release dates coming later this year.
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