Soaring number of public servants report wrongdoing under whistleblower laws
Soaring numbers of public servants have been reporting wrongdoing under the state’s whistleblower laws, with the figure three times higher now than when Annastacia Palaszczuk was first elected.
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Soaring numbers of public servants have been reporting wrongdoing under the state’s whistleblower laws, with the numbers tripling between when Annastacia Palaszczuk was first elected to last year’s election year.
Analysis of Queensland’s Public Interest Disclosures Oversight Report, prepared by the Office of the Queensland Ombudsman each year, shows more and more bureaucrats preparing Public Interest Disclosures to report corruption and other problems.
In last year’s 2020-21 election year, 1766 were made and more than 800 of them were found to have merit.
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That was compared to 585 made and 192 partly or totally substantiated in 2015-16, following the Palaszczuk Government’s election in early 2015.
The figures follow the scathing interim report by Professor Peter Coaldrake into the culture and integrity of the Palaszczuk Government, particularly in the way public servants are sanitising advice and protecting ministers, ministerial staffers are appropriating power to order around public servants and with the operation of powerful lobbyists.
Whistleblowers last year disclosed corruption, maladministration, misuse of public resources, reprisals and situations in which there was substantial and specific danger to the health of a person with a disability. But 88 per cent of disclosures – totalling 1552 PIDs – were for corruption.
And the Ombudsman said the rate of confirmation increased last year, with 615 totally substantiated and a further 206 partially substantiated.
Nearly 1000 complainants worked for state government departments, about 400 for health and hospital services, 163 from local councils, and the remainder from other areas.
PIDs can be made when a person has information about a serious wrongdoing or danger and wants to be protected against reprisal and have their identity kept confidential.
They can be disclosed to a journalist if authorities do not take action.
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli asked Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk a series of questions on a Question on Notice, including how many requests for support and protection from reprisal had been made following the making of a PID in her department.
She said her department did not report on PIDs, due to confidentiality provisions, but the Ombudsman did.
Mr Crisafulli said the continued growth of serious complaints made by whistleblowers was “just the tip of the iceberg” for an undervalued and under-siege public service.
“In the very week that a report confirmed that a cultural of fear and cover-ups was compromising our public service, the Premier refuses to answer a question about serious complaints made in her department,” he said.
“It takes the ombudsman to reveal what the Premier wants to hide.
“This is why we need a Royal Commission in Queensland.”
But a government spokesman said while the LNP might want to play politics, the Ombudsman was best placed to determine what information was released.
“The Palaszczuk government continues to encourage anyone with concerns to raise matters through the appropriate channels and that’s what is happening,” he said.
Read related topics:Integrity crisis