Chemical regulator board chair and CEO resign after urine scandal

A horrific streak of disturbing complaints within one of Australia’s largest regulators have surfaced as its head honcho resigns.

Damning findings within Australia’s chemical regulator, including an incident of an employee urinating on their colleagues, have emerged at its board chair and CEO stand down.

Staff at all levels at the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) were found to have been subject to regular complaints of misconduct in a review commissioned by Agriculture Minister Murray Watt.

The review, released on Friday, came after allegations surfaced in a Senate inquiry suggesting an employee urinated on colleagues following a workplace Christmas party.

The incident was referred to the public service commissioner and police in February.

According to the reviewer, law firm Clayton Utz, the alleged urination was just one example of deep cultural issues within the entire organisation.

“There were clearly cultural issues with the organisation given that on average there was a formal complaint about once every 4-6 weeks for five years,” Clayton Utz said.

“There are also a significant number of complaints that refer to serious impacts for the persons involved, including numerous instances of employees having to take periods of stress leave or feeling unable to attend work due to mental health concerns.”

Lisa Croft.

Carmel Hillyard.

In addition to the complaints alone, reviewers found the Authority failed to respond appropriately to complaints, keep adequate records and respond to complaints.

The APVMA’s chair Carmel Hillyard and chief executive Lisa Croft both resigned in recent days.

The latter was already on leave ahead of an interim review being handed to government.

The agriculture minister said the report had highlighted significant and systemic internal problems.

“The number and range of issues at the APVMA have turned out to be far wider than I think any of us expected,” Senator Watt said, according to ABC News.

“Concerningly, the review found serious allegations of chemical industry capture of the APVMA, which appears to have played a key role in the organisation not performing its full regulatory responsibilities.”

The reviewer has recommended an urgent “re-evaluation of the APVMA’s engagement with industry” – an assertion Senator Watt has agreed to.

While the review determined the authority, which is responsible for approving products like weedkiller glyphosate, had not failed to register chemicals appropriately, it had been doing so at a hyper slow rate.

In some cases, it had taken decades to review chemicals.

“Of the 10 ongoing chemical reviews, eight have been in progress for over 15 years or more, with seven ongoing for nearly 20 years,” reviewers said.

Senator Watt has since commissioned former public servant Ken Matthews to conduct a fresh inquiry into the APVMA’s governance and culture.

He said initial findings concerned him enough that he feared food safety could be compromised in the future if the issues raised weren’t addressed.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt commissioned the review. Picture: Michaela Harlow

“That’s not the case at the moment and I don’t want it to ever be the case,” he said.

The Authority’s name was first tarnished in 2016 after then agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce forced its relocation from Canberra to Armidale, his electorate of New England.

The relocation was found by the reviewer to have “fundamentally changed the APVMA — if for no other reason than the APVMA had a very significant turnover of staff, including a change in CEO, associated with the relocation”.

The staff turnover, it said, would have resulted in a loss of corporate knowledge, culture, experience and “knowledge of what it is to work within the Australian Public Service (APS)”.

Senator Watt agreed the move was a major reason for the “demise of good governance” at the agency.

He has not ruled out moving its office back to Canberra.

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