In November 2000 a mob of local people in the Queensland Department of Education and the Queensland Labor party seemed to have agreed that they were going to destroy me - to destroy my health and to drive me out of work into an impoverished retirement.
I now realise that this sort of thing is common practice in Queensland.
The local Queensland Teachers' Union organiser advised me that there was no hope of justice - that the Education Queensland Grievance process did not work.
He told me that he had never known a classroom teacher's Grievance to be upheld.
He advised me to "accept the things you cannot change", because teachers who "fought it" were mentally and physically destroyed.
Several other QTU officers told me that this was good advice, "based on many years of experience of dealing with Education Queensland".
So in November 2000 I had to make a choice.
I could either remain loyal to the Labor party - as I had sworn to do when I joined the party - and passively allow this Education Department / Labor party mob to drive me into ill health and out of work.
Or I could fight.
And I decided to fight.
I thought, in 2000, that if I kept on repeating the facts - first to officers of the Queensland Teachers Union, then to the staff welfare officer in the Cairns District Office, the Cairns District Director, the Director-General of Education, the Minister of Education, the Queensland Premier, my Local Member, the Queensland Ombudsman, the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission, the Director-Generals of many other Queensland Government Departments - eventually I would find someone in Queensland who had the integrity to "hear" the truth.
I was sure that there would be at least one person in Queensland with integrity.
This is the story of my fight for justice - my true story of Dealing With The Mob.
I believe that there is a public interest in publishing my story.
In 2000 I was advised that the Grievance process did not work.
And this is what I told Anna Bligh when I met her in June 2002.
I expected Anna Bligh to deal with the situation.
It seemed to be her responsibility, as the Minister of Education
But my experience suggests to me that nothing has changed.
The Education Queensland Grievance process still does not work.
The CMC / Education Queensland 'investigation process' seems to be a sham.
My experience suggests to me that the problem is with the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission ( CMC ) 'devolution strategy'.
The Queensland CMC 'devolve' investigations - they allow Queensland public service departments to investigate themselves.
And, naturally, these public servants 'find no evidence' of their own misconduct.
My experience suggests to me that the CMC 'devolution strategy' is ruining the lives of many Queenslanders.
And I believe that I can use my own experience to demonstrate exactly how the CMC 'devolution strategy' fails.
With my true story of Dealing With the Mob.
December 2000
Rachel Hunter was appointed Queensland's Public Service Commissioner.
23 June 2002
I attended the Cairns Community Cabinet Meeting.
After the Cabinet meeting we were invited to speak to the Ministers.
I sat down at a table with Anna Bligh, Minister of Education, and Jim Varghese, Director-General of Education.
I told them that, when Queensland classroom teachers were bullied, the immediate advice of the Queensland Teachers' Union was that there was no hope of justice and to "accept the things you cannot change" because the Education Queensland Grievance process did not work.
Jim Varghese seemed to know nothing at all about me or about the disclosure that I had sent to him on 31 August 2001.
But Anna Bligh seemed to know all about the situation.
This was odd, because Anna Bligh had no way of knowing that I would be speaking to her - I had sat down on an impulse.
This suggested to me that the acting principal who had bullied me had already 'groomed' Anna Bligh.
I knew that the acting principal had discussed me with Judy Spence - presumably at Labor party social events in Cairns - so there was every possibility that the acting principal had also discussed me with Anna Bligh.
Anna Bligh suggested that the situation was a problem with an individual QTU organiser.
I told her that this was not correct.
I told her that I had spoken to several other QTU organisers in the QTU Head Office. They had all agreed with the advice that I had been given. They had all said that, "based on many years of experience with the department", this advice was the best advice that I could be given. I told her that the organisers had all used the same words.
Jim Varghese asked me what I had been told would happen to a bullied teacher who did not "accept the things you cannot change".
I told him that the QTU had advised me that teachers who "fought it" were mentally and / or physically destroyed.
November 2003
Rachel Hunter was appointed Director-General of the Department of Justice and Attorney-General.
28 January 2005: Greg Sorensen, Deputy Information Commissioner, was dealing with my Freedom of Information application.
Greg Sorenson wrote to Jason Davies, Education Queensland Freedom of Information officer, concerning my Freedom of Information application ( 2703 B 34 ).
Monday 31 January 2005
1:11 PM Anne Lindon of the Office of the Information Commissioner emailed Lemm Ex, Education Queensland Discrimination Solicitor ( 2703 C 177 )
She advised him that she would discuss my FOI application with Greg Sorensen the next day.
Monday 7 February 2005
Julie-Ann McCullough resigned from her position as president of the QTU.
She had been offered a job in the Queensland public service as Acting Director-Community Renewal in the Department of Housing.
In the next edition of the Queensland Teachers Union Journal, published three days later, Julie-Ann McCullough is photographed standing beside the acting principal of Lynch-Mob State College. Historical link preserved from the original page.
This is the last photograph of Julie-Ann McCullough as president of the QTU.
Tuesday 8 February 2005
9.36 AM Jason Davies, Education Queensland FOI officer, emailed Kathryn Mahoney, his supervisor, to advise her that my application to the Information Commissioner for an External Review had been accepted, presumably by Greg Sorensen (2703 C 159 ).
But I have not received these Freedom of Information documents to this day, 8 August 2010, because -
Queensland Cabinet Ministers meet in Charleville and laugh about Freedom of Information.
Monday 14 February 2005
The Queensland Cabinet held a Community Cabinet meeting in Charleville.
Public Works and Housing Minister Robert Schwarten ridiculed The Courier-Mail for publishing an article about Freedom of Information. Historical link preserved from the original page.
Freedom of Information is all they're talking about in the Charleville pubs today, " Robert Schwarten mocked, to the delight of his laughing Cabinet colleagues.
Supposedly independent Queensland public service FOI officers routinely show documents requested under the FOI laws to Queensland government ministers and their staff before the documents are approved for release.
Police Minister Judy Spence, for example, is tipped off by the Police Commissioner, Bob Atkinson, about embarassing freedom of information requests.
Hypocrites make no secret of hilarity, State Affairs with Malcom Cole, The Courier-Mail, 19 Feb 2005. Historical link preserved from the original page.
Deliberately kept in dark, William De Maria, The Courier-Mail: 8 March 2005 Historical link preserved from the original page.
24 February 2005: Cathi Taylor is appointed Information Commissioner. She immediately sacks Greg Sorensen.
A selection panel selects Cathi Taylor to be the new Queensland Information Commissioner.
Rachel Hunter, director-general of the Justice Department, was the chairwoman of the selection panel.
Rachel Hunter is a personal friend of Cathi Taylor.
Cathi Taylor is married to Education Queensland director-general Ken Smith.
She is a former member of the Labor party.
She had previously worked in the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
She is a social worker trained bureaucrat with no FOI appeal experience.
Rachel Hunter's boss, Attorney-General Rod Welford, had appointed Rachel Hunter to head the selection panel and he endorsed Ms Taylor's appointment.
Leo Keliher, director-general of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, was Cathi Taylor's leading referee.
And he was also the most senior public servant on the selection panel.
Cathi Taylor's other referees were Professor Glyn Davis and Simone Webbe, both former or acting directors-general of Peter Beattie's department.
Lesley Clark, Labor Member for Barron River and c hairperson of the Queensland Parliament's Legal, Constitutional and Administrative Review Committee was a member of the selection committee.
Former Borbidge Government crown solicitor Barry Dunphy - now a partner with national law firm Clayton Utz - and deputy public service commissioner David Douglas were also on the selection panel.
There was no Opposition representative on the selection panel.
On her first day in the job, Cathi Taylor sacked Greg Sorensen, deputy Information Commissioner and Queensland's most experienced Freedom of Information officer.
Greg Sorensen was perceived to be an independent and fearless deputy Information Commissioner.
FOI officers said that Cathi Taylor's appointment made a mockery of the Queensland public service 'merit selection' system.
Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said that the sacking had "realised our worst fears about a political takeover of the Office of the Information Commissioner".
This government has to stop appointing people for political reasons just to control the flow of information.
The government's... now disassembling every accountability mechanism that underpins a transparent government in Queensland.
Premier Peter Beattie said that the appointment of Cathi Taylor as Queensland's Information Commissioner was "done, finished and over", and would not be reversed.
Mr Beattie said that he would tolerate no further dissent.
He would, however, allow greater scrutiny of Cathi Taylor's work, through the Parliament's Legal, Constitutional and Administrative Review Committee.
Lesley Clark, Labor Member for Barron River, was, of course, the Chairperson of the Queensland Parliament's Legal, Constitutional and Administrative Review Committee.
And she was a member of the panel that had selected Cathi Taylor.
The Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission ( CMC ) also seem to have reported to Lesley Clark at that time - in her role as Chairperson of the Queensland Parliament's Legal, Constitutional and Administrative Review Committee.
And so I never received these Freedom of Information documents.
And two years later, on 3 February 2006, the Verifact Investigator noted, during a conversation with Kim Newman of Education Queensland:
Advised that 2361-2421 files will not be released.
( 340/5/1295 document number concealed but seems to be 969 ).
And three more years later, on 9 March 2009 - twelve days before the Queensland State election - the Queensland Information Commissioner advised me that the Office of the Information Commissioner had once again refused to ask the Department of Education to search for these documents - these documents that I have been requesting since September 2003 under 'Freedom of Information'.
Who made this decision to refuse to release these 2361 - 2421 files of FOI documents?
On what grounds?
On what date?
New FOI boss sacks deputy, Hedley Thomas, The Courier-Mail: 2 March 2010 Historical link preserved from the original page.
Job row engulfs Beattie Chief, Hedley Thomas, The Courier-Mail: 3 March 2005 Historical link preserved from the original page.
Call to sack Information Commissioner, AAP, NEWS.com.au: 5 March 2005
Nationals demand FOI chief be axed, The Sunday Mail, 6 March 2005
Information appointment untenable, Editorial, The Courier-Mail: 7 March 2005 Historical link preserved from the original page.
Deliberately kept in dark, William De Maria, The Courier-Mail: 8 March 2005 Historical link preserved from the original page.
FOI boss pledges to avoid conflicts, Malcom Cole and Ryan Heffernan, The Courier-Mail: 9 March 2005 Historical link preserved from the original page.
Crash course for FOI chief, Hedley Thomas, The Courier-Mail: 11 March 2005 Historical link preserved from the original page.
FOI boss gets more scrutiny, Malcom Cole and Hedley Thomas, The Courier-Mail: 19 March 2005. Historical link preserved from the original page.
A preamble for the Queensland Constitution? November 2004: http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/committees/documents/lcarc/reports/LCAR046.pdf Historical link preserved from the original page.
September 2006
Rachel Hunter was appointed Director-General of the Department of Education, Training and the Arts.
Australia Day 2008
Lemm Ex, Manager, Central Screening Unit, Corporate and Executive Services Division, Department of Child Safety, was given an Australia Day Award: http://www.cabinet.qld.gov.au/MMS/StatementDisplaySingle.aspx? id=56176 Historical link preserved from the original page.
2009
Lemm Ex was appointed Principal Privacy Officer in the Office of the Information Commissioner, Queensland.
Australia Day 2009
Lesley McFarlane, Queensland Teachers Union research officer, became a Member of the Order of Australia (AM): http://city-south-news.whereilive.com.au:80/news/story/long-time-educator-awarded/ Historical link preserved from the original page.
Nicolas Ede, now working as a senior advisor, corporate services at Queensland Health, was also given an Australia Day Award: http://www.health.qld.gov.au/news/health_matters/2009/hm_feb09_web.pdf Historical link preserved from the original page.
26 March 2009
Rachel Hunter was appointed Director-General of the Department of Justice and Attorney-General.
4 September 2009
I emailed my submission to Anna Bligh's Green Paper on Corruption in Queensland to The Premier's office.
16 September 2009
Rachel Hunter announced that she would retire as Director-General of the Department of Justice and Attorney-General.
She had been in the job for just five months.
31 October 2009
7.07 AM: My website server contacted me.
There had been a complaint about my website.
Somebody was trying to have the website 'taken down'.
3 November 2009
01.26 AM: It was now two months since I had made my submission to the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Many other submissions had been published.
My submission had not been published.
I emailed the Department of Premier and Cabinet, asking if they intended to publish my submission.
10.38 AM: The Department of Premier and Cabinet emailed to advise me that my submission would be published that week.
22.43 PM: The Acting Principal who had bullied me was looking at my website.
She seemed to be in the process of communicating with the QTU solicitor.
4 November 2009
11.35 AM: The QTU solicitors had been looking at my website.
I emailed them to explain my complaint.
Please note that I am a member of the QTU and that I have often asked the QTU for legal advice in dealing with the situation".