NSW water department slammed for bizarre laughing yoga session amid flood crisis

At the height of last week’s devastating flood disaster, a group of water bureaucrats stood around laughing as part of a bizarre therapy session paid for by taxpayers.

A group of water bureaucrats who spent taxpayers’ money learning to laugh away their anxiety at the height of last week’s deadly floods have been told it was not funny at all.

One of the group of 160 who dialled in for a zoom meeting on March 10 — just days after the bodies of a mother and son were pulled from a flooded Sydney creek — said the laughter session was “bizarrely inappropriate”.

Laughter Yoga Australia CEO Merv Neal during one of his therapy sessions.

The laughing session was organised by Water Infrastructure NSW, which paid Merv Neal, who runs Laughter Yoga workshops, $550 for the 15-minute session sandwiched between a “business planning breakout session” and a “wrap up and close out” of the staff zoom meeting.

“How would you feel if you are in the middle of Lismore and the water agency is using taxpayer money, which should go on flood relief, to make bureaucrats laugh,” One Nation MP Mark Latham said.

“This is a parallel universe in which bureaucracy is operating.”

Mr Latham said the person who alerted him to the session said they “sat there thinking ‘why are they teaching us to have a laugh when we are involved in a water agency where the last possible laughing matter we can consider is work with people losing their homes’.

“Laughter may or may not improve your mental and physical health but the last possible laughing matter is the flood emergency and the people who need cheering up are not the bureaucrats.

“The people who need cheering up at taxpayer expense are the people who have lost loved ones or their homes and businesses (or who) were standing on their roofs watching their possessions float away.”

An invitation to the laughing zoom course.

One Nation MP Mark Latham. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

On Monday night, the CEO of Water Sector NSW Jim Bentley conceded the laughing session was wrong.

“I have been clear with my Senior Executive team that this laughing yoga session should not have happened and must not be repeated,’’ Mr Bentley said.

“Whilst the wellbeing of our staff is important it was insensitive to carry out a laughter exercise, even for only a few minutes, while other people are suffering because of the flood crisis.’’

NSW Lands and Water Minister Kevin Anderson said the laughing sessions did not pass the “pub test”.

“While mental health and well being is very important, we need to be sensitive to the fact that we are in very challenging situations where people have lost their lives, their homes and their livelihoods and sensitivity needs to be exercised,” Mr Anderson said.

“Perhaps in this case it might not have passed the pub test with most people.”

Mr Neal said his sessions were not about laughing at something but using laughter to manage stress and anxiety.

Previous clients of Merv Neal engaging in laughter exercises.

Laughter Yoga Australia CEO Merv Neal.

On his website he describes himself as “Australia‘s leading gelotologist’’.

“Yep, it’s a real word. Gelotology is the study of laughter and its effects on the body,”. Mr Neal said. “It is also about how to connect teams when they have been separated while working from home.”

He said his group had been called in after other critical incidents, including the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand, where he did a half-day workshop for the owners whose businesses had been destroyed in the quake.

“We have a national group of people and when there are critical incidents, I get a call asking if we can get someone to help with the community,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Planning and Environment, which includes Water Infrastructure NSW, said its Water Group section “provides technical advice and financial support to water utilities and has been working closely with them during the floods”, adding the session was organised in late 2021.