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- 1 June 2007
Mrs Val Kerrison, Former TAFE Employee, Discrimination Complaint
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Speakers - Stoner Mr Andrew
Business - Private Members Statements
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Page: 668
Mr ANDREW STONER (Oxley—Leader of The Nationals) [10.40 a.m.]: Six and a half years ago, on 2 November 2000, I outlined in this place a serious injustice suffered by my constituent Mrs Val Kerrison, a former Kempsey TAFE employee. It is almost beyond belief that Mrs Kerrison still has had no justice from the Carr-Iemma Labor Government. In 1994 she complained about discriminatory action by another TAFE teacher. Specifically it was alleged that this teacher would not allow newly enrolled Aboriginal students into classes of predominantly white students.
The complaint was proved, but management took no action against the other teacher; rather, despite good performance reports, out of the blue TAFE management decided to refer Mrs Kerrison to HealthQuest for medical assessments to ascertain her fitness for continued employment. HealthQuest found subsequently that she had a personality disorder and she was promptly railroaded out of TAFE with no compensation and no medical retirement pension—just hastily and summarily dismissed. That was appalling treatment of a whistleblower whose complaints were found to be justified. All of that was done without Mrs Kerrison having the opportunity to be informed of any information used against her or to mount any form of defence.
Mrs Kerrison can specify at least 30 occasions on which decisions were made and information was used without her having the opportunity to respond. This was done behind closed doors and in secret. In short, she has been blatantly and clearly denied natural justice and procedural fairness by the Department of Education and Training ever since 1994. For some 13 years Mrs Kerrison has been pitting herself, a mere minnow, against the might of the government, including TAFE lawyers and the Crown Solicitor's Office. Her case is well documented on the Whistleblowers Documents Exposed web site, www.wbde.org . The web site also outlines cases of other very shabby treatment of whistleblowers. The case is currently in court where Val Kerrison is completely outgunned by the resources of government, which of course are resources contributed by taxpayers.
Today I call on the Premier and the Auditor-General to intervene in this matter because Mrs Kerrison clearly has been denied procedural fairness and natural justice. Her life has been irretrievably and adversely affected by the actions of TAFE management and the continuing actions of the Government in fighting these matters. The fact that she has been denied procedural fairness and natural justice renders the actions and evidence of the department null and void; hence there is no need for an order of the court to set the matter aside. I therefore call on the Premier and the Auditor-General to instruct the Crown Solicitor to cease action against Mrs Kerrison and arrange for her legal entitlements to be paid.
I also ask the Attorney General and the Minister for Education and Training to respond in writing to me in relation to this matter so that I can advise Mrs Kerrison of any action they propose to take in order to effect long overdue justice. I ask this specifically because six and a half years ago when I took up this matter there was no response from the Government. Its only response outside the Parliament has been to use the massive resources of government to fight against Mrs Kerrison's case. I urge the Ministers I have mentioned to respond to me in writing so I can advise Mrs Kerrison in relation to her pursuit of justice.
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