Bullying

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (14:46): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Treasurer a question about workplace harassment and bullying.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: This week, I received some very disturbing figures from the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment about the number of workers compensation claims for work-related harassment and/or workplace bullying across the whole of government. I was surprised to see the number of claims made by staff within the Department of Treasury and Finance. Out of the 27 government agencies named, the department had the equal seventh worst record, only behind super departments like the Department for Education, SA Health and SAPOL. Education was by far the worst for complaints and subsequent payouts.

Between 2015 and 2020, 18 claims were made by the Department of Treasury and Finance for a total payout of $1,417,168, with an average payout of $78,731.55. My question to the Treasurer is: what action, disciplinary or otherwise, is the government taking to address this endemic problem in the Public Service, particularly after the commissioner, Erma Ranieri, told public servants recently there would be zero tolerance for this conduct—whatever zero tolerance means.

Are you concerned by those figures and, with 18 claims in your department alone, what are you and the Under Treasurer, Chief Executive of the Department of Treasury and Finance, David Reynolds, doing to tackle the issue of work-related harassment and/or workplace bullying in your department?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:48): The honourable member is right to say that I am sure he, myself and all members don't support any workplace harassment or bullying, whether it occurs within the Treasury department or anywhere in the public sector or, indeed, in the private sector or, frankly, in the parliament or even in parliamentary offices.

The sad fact of life is that bullying and/or harassment occurs in every workplace type throughout not only the state but throughout the nation. The member quotes that Treasury is the seventh worst, evidently. I am not sure how many are in the total. There are probably 15 or 20 agencies or something, I suspect, depending on how many of the smaller ones they incorporate in those. My department, as with all other departments, can do much better.

One of the areas that has been the subject of much debate over recent years and was the subject of much, I guess, disputation was SafeWork SA. It was the subject of an ICAC inquiry. New management has been incorporated into there in recent times, and there have been some ongoing issues that were inherited, frankly, in that department, as former staff members did not suit the culture of what had to be done in terms of the new approach for SafeWork SA. There were a small number of complaints there.

In the Treasury department itself, there were a small number of complaints. It is a much bigger department in terms of numbers. We have inherited from other departments in recent years. Shared Services SA has come into the Treasury department and procurement services are now part of the state Treasury department. We have certainly incorporated other sections of departments and agencies in recent years, as new responsibilities have been added to the Treasury department.

I am not sure whether those numbers also incorporate the various bodies that report to me. I can check that. I have bodies like ReturnToWorkSA, Funds SA, Super SA, HomeStart and a variety of other boards and agencies that report to me. I am not sure whether, within those particular bodies, they are incorporated within the Treasury numbers as well.

In terms of what is being done, the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment, together with the chief executives, is leading the attempt to provide comprehensive support both to chief executives and senior managers in terms of how you manage disputes within the workplace, how you try to prevent bullying and harassment and provide training and education in terms of the responsibilities.

That is an ongoing challenge for not only for the commissioner but also chief executives in terms of managing differences of opinion and disputes within worksites, which some will claim will be bullying and harassment. Ultimately, in some cases it might be proved to be bullying and harassment. In other cases it will be shown to be performance management perhaps of unsatisfactory performance by a particular officer within the department, which they may well construe as bullying and harassment, whereas an independent assessment will find occasionally it is actually managing poor performance in the workplace.

All of those can be incorporated in the sorts of figures that the honourable member has talked about. He can rest assured that I, as the minister, and the commissioner have exactly the same goal as he has, I am sure, and that is to reduce to the extent that we can the extent of bullying and harassment within any worksite, including the public sector.