Life a misery for the staff of Ronan Lee MP
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While Australian Story glossed over bullying by Merri Rose during her stint in the Beattie Government, new claims have emerged of mistreatment of electorate office staff by several other Queensland Labor MPs, including by newly-defected Greens MP Ronan Lee, which have been ignored by the Queensland ALP and Queensland Parliament. A number of former electorate office staff have approached Crikey to give their accounts of the misery they endured at the hands of Labor MPs wholly out of their depth or turned egomaniacs by their ascension to Parliament. In one case, two staff members claim they were removed from Lee’s office on full pay following their witnessing of a dispute in his electorate office. One of the staffers claims Lee subsequently tried to prevent her from giving evidence in relation to the dispute. Police were sufficiently concerned about Lee’s alleged harassment of the staffer that they escorted the woman to court. After five months, Queensland Parliament decided it was unsafe for the women to return to Lee’s office. One received a payout and a letter of commendation from Queensland Parliament stating that she had not contributed to the events leading to the cessation of her employment. Her colleague was moved to the electorate office of now-Health Minister Stephen Robertson. Another former employee of Lee who worked for him has claimed Lee frequently engaged in extreme verbal abuse of her and other staff, always making sure to do so only when no else would witness it. According to the staff member, Lee asked her to lie in order to provide him with excuses for missing constituent meetings or other political engagements, and repeatedly blamed his staff for missing them. Lee would call the staff member on weekends and deliver tirades that reduced her to tears. She knows of other staff who endured similar treatment. Lee’s office underwent heavy staff turnover in 2007 partly, several sources say, due to his tendency to commence relationships with young female staff members. After going through more than half a dozen employees in 2007 in Lee’s office, Queensland Parliament turned to a temp agency to provide his staff. However, Lee is by no means the only MP to make their staffers’ lives a misery. Other former and current staffers have told Crikey:
This is in addition to numerous electorate offices who have received compensation settlements from Queensland Parliament or been forced to take extended sick leave due to the bullying and harassment – sometimes s-xual harassment — of MPs and fellow staff members. Electorate offices are tough workplaces. They are routinely exposed to marginalised people, citizens who need help, sometimes with mental health problems. It turns out, however, that some MPs fall into that category as well. Crikey repeatedly contacted Ronan Lee’s office for comment, but he did not respond. The Clerk of the Queensland Parliament said that there was a policy of not commenting on any human resources matter. Premier Bligh’s office did not return Crikey’s calls.
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17 Comments
So if the police had to protect a court witness because the MP was trying to interfere with that witness - who covered it up? The parliament, the police minister, the premier or the MP? This is more than a scandal its a crisis! Queensland’s back to the era of Joh B or didn’t it move on?
This is typical of anyone who crosses the ALP, suddenly all the dirt comes out. If you saw the Australian Story on Mary Rose I think they played down the real story, how the ALP ditches those who cross them, and hangs them out to dry.
Good journalism would find dirt like this across the QLD ALP before the member leaves the ALP, when you now have to question the motives of the complainers.
I don’t think Conservative member’s staff are so under the thumb as the ALP staffers are. The ALP gets people in with promises of jobs so they toe the line, as show in the Mary Rose case. What a shock the ALP got staff for Lee from a temp agency and not from the party for once.
Joe…you’ve highlighted many failings from a skewed parliamentary administration to an amateur production from our so-called serious media. Both are devoid of astute professional operators as they limp along on dumbed-down and untrained personel unable to accomplish their purpose. It possibly suits a bunch of mediocre parliamentary performers locked in for life pensions in biased governance. As for the ABC its up to the Corporation to figure out what happened there. Put the two together it offers little hope for Australians looking to a well-oiled, tranparent democracy.
Thanks, Crikey for broaching an apparent taboo subject, certainly for the mainstream media. It appears that the new Queensland PM, Bligh`s policy is to continue Beatty`s cover-up, ignore or attack-the-victim agenda. There can be little doubt that this is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg, and similar abuses of workers` rights occur in other States and federally. The main point is that staff have no recourse for their complaints, that other employees have in other sections of the economy. It is high time for a system reform including an ombudsman, and the formation of a parliamentary workers` union. What about that, ACTU?
Questions should also be asked about the treatment of the staff of one other MP. Since she came to office in the 2006 state election three staff members have left due to verbal abuse.
Oh please, if Crikey was going to print an article that was unsubstantiated then Lee could sue. Clearly there are people prepared to go on the record otherwise no sane editor would print, esp after the fiasco with Stephen Maybe being sued by a Victorian politician. It’s too small to cope if a decent law suit was bought against it. If it is incorrect, then let Lee sue. It isn’t like MP’s are short of a quid. I’m sure the Greens could rustle up some pro-bono lawyers among their followers.
Use some logic, Sam. You’re implying something about the reporters motivation but clearly you don’t have anyone willing to put it on the record because you won’t say what it is. Crikey on the other hand are clearly willing to put their money where their mouth is. Their job is to report on all politics in Oz; and they frequently report on the grubby inside stories in all the state parliaments. Does this mean that they shouldn’t report on Troy Buswell, or the long line of misdemeanour’s in the NSW’s ALP? It’s pretty demeaning from a Qlder’s perspective that ppl seem to argue that keane, as a Canberra reporter shouldn’t report on a ‘backwater’ like Qld. Anyone with any knowledge of politics in Australia knows how important COAG is at the moment, and how important state govts are as a result. This story says as much about the ALP Govt in Qld as it does Lee.
It seems to me the person with the motivation is the Green’s supporter who has just discover, courtesy of Crikey, that all that glitters is not gold.
Besides, the ALP obviously didn’t leak this as it is hardly been in their best interests, judging from the anti-Bligh spin in the story. All of this occurred under their watch, so why would they want it to come out? It’s a failure of duty on their part and doesn’t speak well about the Labor Party’s view of industrial fairness for the workers under their control.
Parliamentary service in Queensland sounds like a stint on a southern US of A cotton farm circa the slavery era! The weather in the deep north might be sunny one day and perfect the next but the labor market close to government sounds like its in real strife. Staff used like boxes of tissues and human rights yesterday’s hearing the hired help at the disposal of MPs is certainly getting the rough end of the pineapple. So what happened during the former Premier’s watch? He reckons he revolutionized a ‘rocks and crops economy’ but he left it struggling with civil rights. Maybe while his moonlighting in the city of angels he can trade himself up for a John Quincy Adams. I hear he’s been sprung over there in LA whistling that old Beach Boys number ‘Cotton Fields Back Home”. Next time he’s here we should ask him for a rendition.
Sam…what a stupid comment. A handful of ‘former staff who are also ALP members”. He was a labor MP who lost interest in that party’s policies (!!) and of course the witnesses would likely have been (note past tense) party sympathisers if they were working in his office. Tthey’re expected if not ordered to be. That’s the flaming problem with these jobs. They’re dressed up as parliamentary positions for party abuse. Any journo with a conscience whose approached by desperate individuals done over by an MP isn’t going to analyse the weather when there’s a ghastly sick tale to tell. Why would Keane have an axe to grind - he’s well removed from backwater politics but as I say - he’s got a conscience. Missing on Ronan and too many screwballs in the Qld parliament
The people involved in all of this need to ask for an Inquiry or contact Slater and Gordon to do a class action case. Wouldn’t the Qld parliament qualify as a key employer? I thought Nochoices was voted out in the last election. Unbelievable stuff.
Electorate staff technically report to the Speaker, you should get in touch with Mike Reynolds; but don’t be surprised at the response - Malcolm Weatherup of the Townsville Bulletin refers to him as Captain Snooze.
Well, all I can say is there was a procession of staff for a certain NSW cross bencher but it was a tough gig, no duobt about it. Are these staffers just whining wimps or really victims? Verbal abuse? That’s a pretty subjective allegation and pretty weak smear. Try driving in Sydney traffic for “verbal abuse”, especially as a cyclist.
After 18-months of working for a Qld MP my job was made redundant by a the wife of a party member. My MP preferred to work with her than me and despite endless attempts by the HR section to appeal to her better nature my MPs decision was final. During the discussions between the Clerk, Speaker, MP and HR section the workplace became a nightmare because I was ‘iced’ out. In defence of the staff in HR they were immensely kind and sympathetic and offered counselling and mediation but no one can overturn an MPs decision. In other areas of employment it couldn’t happen, the Workplace Ombudsman would be able to arbitrate. I did get a reference and the Clerk did explain that MPs are elected by their constituents so it’s probably not a place of employment for anyone other than members of political parties. They should be advertised by the political party and not the parliament because most of the work relates to party activities. And there’s no point in being a member of the QPSU because it couldn’t even represent me at the mediations despite 18-months of union fees. It fully explained the phrase ’ politics is a dirty game’.
Premiers, parliaments and MPs who don’t return media calls are in a white-knuckled, crisis-driven, shred anything-you-can-see mode. Oh dear…the federal ALP and the Greens will be pushing panic buttons this weekend over this. You can guarantee it goes straight to Rudd….and ricochet’s back.
I would assume that across the spectrum a great many members of Australia’s relatively noxious political class behave badly under pressures of office. Your article is sleazy journalism and smacks of a focused bias against Ronan Lee the Greens ‘defector’ . We need crikey to remain focused on anaysis of ideas and issues and not to stoop to coverage of marital woes, failed office romances and the full gamut of antisocial behaviours our great leaders indulge in . If you feel you must can you at least give us some kind of comprehensive tick list across the board so I can feel more fully informed?
cheers
The silence from Anna Bligh over her Party’s abuse of staff with the help of the Queensland Parliament is deafening. This human resource nightmare at the heart of government has failed to excite even Rudd and Gillard. The national disgrace of such harsh and unsafe work conditions in too many MP electorate offices is demanding of parties and parliaments to resolve pronto. When the Queensland Parliament’s duty of care to its workers is much like that of a Beijing bordello it’s time to call an inquiry. Obscenely degrading payouts like CEO terminations sewn up with silence agreements to oppress systemic employee abuse surely is criminal. If not we need to know why not. In NSW that state’s parliament is singing from the same hymn sheet as Gillian Sneddon puts her house on the market to fund her claim for compensation for going to work for pedophile MP Milton Orkopoulos. She’s being assassinated for assisting police. Here again a parliament and party is supporting the activities of a miscreant MP who landed in jail. Surely the millions outlaid on compensation could be better spent on fixing the problem via training and accountability measures and a bit more. With the Queensland and NSW ALP and parliaments propping up Rose, Lee and Orkopoulos like star league players we need to hear from Bligh, Rees, Gillard, Rudd and Turnbull as to why political parties value these misfits more highly than other Australians.
Sam Long makes an extremely interesting point. Why is this Canberra correspondent focusing so much on a Qld MP. There is definitely something going on here, judging my Bernard’s former articles (the photo of the feotus in the wallet!!!!). This is personal, anger-fuelled, unsubstantiated writing of the likes seen in the Daily Telegraph or the Sunday Mail. Crikey, you really should get control of this and not allow personal grievances to masquerade as serious journalism.
Bernard, honestly…what are you doing? You have no credible sources do you, a handful of former staff who are also ALP members. You have no evidence do you? You have made a swag of unprovable claims, he did things when no one could witness them…seriously…what do you have apart from an axe to grind? Bernard, I suspect you have an interest or relationship in this your not telling us about. Why not come clean and tell us your interest in this? You have one, otherwise a Canberra commentator would not be focussing so much on Ronan Lee. What’s your connection to Ronan Lee?