Patmalar Ambikapathy Speech delivered in support of a rally for action to stop the bullies in Tasmania, after then Tasmanian Discrimination commissioner Jocelynn Scutt went public about being bullied.
WE ARE gathered together here today because of our concern and dismay at what has been disclosed so far by our very distinguished Anti-Discrimination Commissioner about the bullying, harassment, intimidation and other unconscionable behaviour that she has been subjected to.
She is well known and well regarded throughout Australia for her contribution to human rights in her work as a lawyer and activist from the 70s.
Her books and papers are read at universities from Canberra, Cambridge, Calcutta, California and Cape Town and she is quoted at meetings and forums all over the world. We have been extremely fortunate to have had her here, as she has given five years of unstinting, dedicated service to Tasmania, over and above the call of duty and the work that she was contracted to do.
What has occurred to her is unacceptable by any yardstick, and if we take a uniquely Tasmanian look at this disgraceful conduct that she has been subjected to, we will see that it breaches what we have stated as citizens we want.
The late Premier Jim Bacon called for a community consultation that resulted in the Tasmania Together document. It is in reality a plan or blueprint for Tasmania’s future and reflects the aspirations, hopes and expectations of our peoples, that politicians and bureaucrats ignore at their peril. The plan is not perfect but the goals for our government and system of democracy in that blueprint call for an open and accountable system of government in Tasmania.
Our democratic system of government here is supposed to be based on the Westminster system that embodies the Rule of Law that we are all expected to abide by. We have rules of conduct that we all need to follow and this covers ordinary citizens like you and me as well as politicians and state service employees. Of course we would like to believe that the majority in public service espouse values of good governance, but I fear a few cheat and break the accepted rules. They become bullies and these few may intimidate many, thus entrenching bullying within the system .
If we are to have a form of governance that is democratic in its nature, we must all share in the responsibility of being vigilant about what is happening in our institutions, especially our independent ones and support them against such attacks. We need to ensure that our high expectations are being respected by those in whom we have placed our trust and whose wages we pay with our taxes. This means that if we are told that there are abuses in the system, we must demand that some action is taken to remedy this so that they are not forgotten or remain hidden and not accessible to redress.
When I was the first Commissioner for Children in Tasmania, the Solicitor General informed me that no one was above the law and this presumably means that everyone has to be law abiding, and perhaps this is a salutary reminder to all those who have indulged in abusive conduct in the anti-discrimination system and who thus far not been made accountable to anyone.
We need to know that people cannot get away with this type of conduct anymore, just because it happens in Tasmania. Our news is now broadcast not just interstate but overseas, as we all have access to many modes of information from newspapers to the internet.
When I was engaged in conversation in a café last week, with a tourist who had come to our state, he was incredulous about the report in the Mercury that our Anti Discrimination Commissioner had resigned because she had been bullied!
We need to be mindful of the fact that our reputation is not all that we would wish it to be, no matter what spin is put on it by those who would seek to lull us into a false sense of security, that all is well on this island. It is not, and we need to get our democratic act together and not tolerate hypocritical pretence.
We are loosing a distinguished Australian as we have let her down so much, that she will not contemplate a second term of appointment here. What we need to do to ensure this type of conduct does not happen again is to demand action to deal with the bullies involved here, and all others who seek to subvert due processes and natural justice, for self serving reasons and not for reasons that are anything to do with the public interest.
In my humble view, too many such incidents have occurred recently against those who lawfully operate within the system, and who seek to faithfully discharge their duties in the independent manner that Parliament intended them to.
Unless we demand an end to such abuses within the system so that the best interests of the public are served , we will rapidly lose what credibility we have as a decent democracy. Lack of action now could raise suspicions that some of us may just wish to operate in the feudalistic high handed manner, not unlike what it must have been like in the past, in a penal colony.
We must not revert to being an island where human suffering is expected and tolerated, as though not everyone is considered as deserving of equal respect and worth. It is a view that is tainted with the belief that some of us are deemed to be more deserving than others, and some must put up and shut up with the injustice.
This is a breach of basic human rights that we all have, and as such, I strongly urge you to challenge that attitude today. It is dangerously un-Australian, is not a fair go and does not amount at all, to what we said we wanted in the Tasmania Together plan.
Says Isla MacGregor, Contact for Dissent Network Australia: The latest dissenters in the Pulp Mill debate are truly the “tip of the iceberg”. Patmalar Ambikapathy’s speech was given at the Whistleblowers Tas “STOP THE BULLIES” rally a couple of years ago after Jocelyn Scutt went public about being bullied herself. The 90s were Tasmania’s record whistleblower years. As to be expected the sham Public Interest Disclosure Act introduced in 2004 has achieved nothing and considering the publicity on whistleblower cases from the nineties to date it’s no wonder whistleblowers have become an increasingly threatened species in our “penal colony”.
Whistleblowers have consistently been focusing on systemic failures within the legal system, Government administration, accountability and transparency. These issues are the umbrella under which all other issues rest in a democracy. The potential for a social movement for Transparency in Tasmania has never been more urgent. But are there any takers?
