Question On Notice No. 6481 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 15 October 2020 by Mr S.K. L'estrange
Question Directed to the: Minister for Local Government; Heritage; Culture and the Arts
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
Tabled Paper No: 4016-
View tabled paper
Question
I refer to the Show Cause Notice delivered to the Town of Cambridge on 26 May 2020, in which you write “3. I suspect that the Council has failed to ensure that the workplace culture at the Town is free from intimidation of employees and undue pressure on employees. In particular a) Employees of the Town have reported criticism and belittling of employees by the Mayor;”, and I ask:
(a) Without disclosing the author of any evidence you received, how many witnesses provided evidence to you, and on what date(s), in relation to:
(i) (3)(a) above;
(b) Was any evidence received which was provided on behalf of an organisation(s)? If yes, what organisation and on what dates(s) in relation to:
(i) (3)(a) above;
(c) Prior to issuing the Show Cause Notice on 26 May 2020, did you notify the Town of Cambridge Council that you had received this evidence, and if yes, when did you notify them;
(d) Prior to issuing the Show Cause Notice on 26 May 2020, did you provide an opportunity for the Mayor and/or Councillors of the Town of Cambridge to respond to the evidence you received:
(i) If yes, who did you receive responses from and on what date(s); and
(ii) If you are unable to provide names for (i) above, how many Councillors did you receive a response from which directly related to the evidence you received; and
(e) If no to (d), how was procedural fairness provided to the Mayor and Council of the Town of Cambridge to respond to the evidence you received?
Answered on 19 November 2020
(a) I refer to Finding 2 of the Report of the Inquiry into the Town of Cambridge and paragraphs 69- 73.
Finding 02: The Town’s employees’ have been unable to properly perform their functions because of undue pressure and fear of consequences.
69. For example, a recent Facebook exchange between Mayor Shannon, Councillor Timmermanis and a Town employee raised questions about the appropriateness of the interaction between the elected members and the employee.
70. The exchange commenced after Mayor Shannon posted a link to a consultation on the design of new change rooms for Alderbury Sports Ground and made the following comment:
"The Town has been paying $1.2M in salaries per month for 90% of its staff who have been working from home but have had limited access to email so work from home is difficult – with about $400k paid to staff who are employed at closed facilities – in my humble opinion stone cladding and a Hamptons façade would make a bigger contribution to ratepayers over a longer time for a modest increase in price.”
71. An employee posted a comment detailing the work staff had been doing during the period when facilities were closed as a result of COVID pandemic restrictions.
72. Cr Timmermanis then posted a question as to whether there were statistics to
support the employee’s statements about the work being undertaken. Cr Timmermanis then posted the following comment:
“I get the Facebook feeds…they always become noticeably more active following queries about the need to look at making appropriate resource adjustments. Would be nice to get some information about the actual engagement with he activity rather than the usual and very predictable platitudes”.
73. When the employee advised Cr Timmermanis that staff were keeping statistics, Cr Timmermanis stated “Good…. I’ll ask for them”.
I table copies of this exchange. [see tabled paper no.]
I also refer to the Record of Interview of Mr John Giorgi and Authorised Persons, Wednesday 4 March 2020 and the following statements:
MR GIORGI: I think Rob Bradley - Councillor Bradley is an eccentric sort of person and I think he came in to my office and flippantly, and I took it to be flippantly, How do we get rid of planning officers," or, "those planning officers," or words to that effect and I said, "Rob, it doesn't work like that." I said, "You can't shoot the messenger." Now, I think he was -1 think he made a flippant comment. Okay.
(b) No
(c-d) No
(d)(i-ii) Not applicable
(e) Please refer to Legislative Assembly question on notice 6477