Victoria’s IBAC has once again damned the Andrews government less than proper practices, to say the least, with the release of the Operation Daintree report, covering the awarding of $3.4 million by the government to the Health Workers Union (HWU) in 2018.
The money, awarded in two tranches, was ostensibly intended for the union to hire outsource training in dealing with violent and aggressive users of health services and hospitals.
But most of the money was never used for this purpose, presumably because COVID intervened, and the training that was delivered was assessed by its trainees to be shoddy and useless, with no expertise, according to the report.
The report notes that public servants awarding the money had major reservations about giving such grants to the HWU (formerly known as the Health Services Union, Number One — the HWU is a name used to cover its past history), which has a long past of corruption and incompetence. The HWU was the union run by Kathy Jackson, who became a whistleblower to the Tony Abbott-led Trade Union Royal Commission.
She later pled guilty to numerous charges of misuse of union funds.
Jackson was replaced by Diana Asmar, the current head, with the late Kimberley Kitching hired as general manager. Kitching was later found to have sat a number of workplace entry certificate tests on behalf of union organisers, allegedly on the orders of Asmar.
Charges against Kitching were recommended but never pursued.
Following this, the union reported deficits that required it to sell its own headquarters, in circumstances still to be fully explained.
Asmar is associated with the Bill Shorten-AWU-aligned faction within Victoria, “the Shorts”, as it were.
Shorten himself has been on a media blitz over the past day or so, talking about an overhaul of the NDIS, and rooting out corruption. What an incredible coincidence.
The Daintree report has 17 recommendations arising from the matter, all of which are concerned with executive procedure, the scope of the parliamentary integrity commission, lobbying and other concerns.
There are no recommendations for further specific action as regards the HWU, or the fate of the payments made by the government to the union.
Thanks for keeping us up-to-date on this issue. It is really important to do as you are quite properly doing and that is to call out impropriety wherever it occurs and no matter who is responsible for it. Please keep doing this.
Apologies Guy, I meant to acknowledge you personally in my post.
This comments section is not Rundle’s personal email, and surely thanks for the article should extend to all those who contributed to its publication, not just the journalist?
Well, SSR, I often address my comments in response to an article, directly to the person attributed with writing the article. How am I (or you, or any other reader, for that matter) expected to know who else (if in fact there was, ‘anyone else’) involved in writing the article. I would have thought that if others were involved then their contribution would be acknowledged. So, SSR, with the greatest of respect, I think that my comments are not, in any way at all, ‘out of order’.
It’s not that your comment is out of order and I never used that phrase. It’s just a little weird to pretend you are having a personal conversation – on first name terms too! – with a journalist, when you are in fact posting to a public forum and the journalist might not even be reading the comments. You don’t need to know anything special, just recognise you are not in personal direct communication with the person named in the by-line (at least not until the journalist starts posting comments under the article). It’s not hard. Also, it’s easy enough to see the article was published by Crikey so you could thank Crikey if you feel so inclined. That would obviously cover all involved at every level. They do not need to be named in every article, that would be absurd. It is bleeding obvious that each article in Crikey depends in some way, directly or not, on all sorts of people, from those who own it and the editors to all the support and technical staff and so on. Does this really need explaining for you to grasp it?
Yes Sargent Major Rat!! Aye, Aye, Sir!!
I will say no more or you will probably have me charged with insubordination.
Thanks anyway for the (patronizing and condescending) lecture sarge! Keep an eye out for my future posts and you will see just how much notice I will have taken of your gratuitous ‘advice’.
(I am sure that if Guy is upset or offended by my posts then he will let me know. He seems to regularly respond to others who post comments.)
Oh dear. No need to get hysterical. Perhaps a little lie down and you’ll feel better and get things in perspective?
Ohh… thanks for that reassurance, Sargent Rat. I was beside myself with worry. I …, I…, (gasp), will try to get things into perspective as you so kindly suggest. I don’t know how I could have gotten by without your indispensable advice and help. You are really a great guy (I presume that you are a ‘guy’? One can never be too sure these days!). I was overwhelmed with absolute distress and hysteria before I read your soothing and demulcent comments. I can’t tell you how much better I feel now.
Boring mate. Pack it in please.
I could not agree more John. Send a similar message to the instigator, Mr Rat.
This stinks, and Andrews is only making the stink worse: no laws were broken, he insists, running the same infamous defence used by the Morrison Gang for all their rorts and scandals. As though siphoning off public money for his mates by such grossly unethical methods is all right, so long as it does not end up in court, it’s just business as usual. Though of course that’s the problem – it is business as usual. The laws need sorting out.
I support your comments on this occasion though SSR. Well said!
Gee, Andrews must deliver a lengthy blessing to the Victorian Libs before he settles down to his Weeties every morning.
indeed. I have a lot of respect for Andrews and his defence of LGBT kids from the relentless attacks by conservatives. However, some of the governance failures are screaming for accountability.. Rather than focusing on that, the Coalition is trying to look up girls’ clothing whenever they use the toilets on the off chance they may be trans
Well, the people obsessed with trans people existing aren’t going to fix any of this outrageous abuse of government.
Even a rudimentary tender process would have ruled out the HWU as a suitable supplier of the services wanted, but public servants are effectively stood over by a Labor heavy and a cash-strapped union, which donates to the Labor party, gets a sack full of cash. And this all hapens right before an election. But don’t worry, it’s not “corruption”, at least not by the definition IBAC has to work with under the legislation.
BTW, anyone notice the similarities between Dan Andrews and Scott Morrison? Such total one-man bands they would inspire Leo Sayer. They’re always the smartest guy in the room, ride roughshod over due process and established protocols, hate scrutiny, and are aggressive and bullying when asked to justify themselves.
Yes, WW, Dan must gives thanks for the lack of an effective opposition, but hopefully there’s some solid local independents to give him some sort of a contest in four years time.
They are very similar, and ran/run administrations that operate akin to mafia organisations. Centralised control, transactional in nature and supported by a supine army that are showered with just enough riches to keep them saying the same thing. The localised facebook/TikTok based communications strategy of the Andrews government is impressive if deeply cynical.
The supply of riches is very fast becoming a problem though. The mob will turn fast
Abhor corruption but fail to see similarities between Scott Morrison and Dan Andrews. Not sure that Scott Morrison was ever the smartest guy in the room, camnot think of a single positive contribution made by him.