The Barnett State Government lets down those who are most vulnerable

"..“If every client went on fishing expedition (to ascertain if their private records had been accessed illegally) there would be no staff left...”. - Ms Mary Hind; employee, 'Next Step' Drug & Alcohol Government Agency.

  

By Ross B. Taylor

As a baby-boomer who was raised in the Perth suburb of Scarborough, I can always remember my parents telling me about the true Aussie principle of ‘giving the underdog a fair go’. It’s a principle my wife Katherine and I have embraced and passed onto our kids.

Yet in recent years we have seen too many examples of where the underdog and the most vulnerable in our community are given anything but a fair go by the institution that should care for them the most: Our government.

Recently, The Weekend West, senior reporter Daniel Emerson told the story of our daughter Lisa and her two year fight to expose the extensive illegal accessing of her most personal data from government files at Next Step; an arm of the WA Mental Health Commission (MHC).

Lisa, in the online article in The Weekend West told of her troubled years as a teenager following my diagnosis with terminal cancer and constant bullying at school over her red hair. She found solace in the ‘arms’ of drug dealers and the homeless. Ask any parent who has been through the drug journey with their children, and the story is the same: It’s a living hell.

During this time Lisa’s mum, Katherine and I attended regular support groups facilitated by Next Step where we were surprised to meet TV personalities, senior business figures, politicians and everyday West Australians; all seeking support and reaching out for answers. The drug world has no boundaries so the guiding principle of these meetings -and all the data collected - was that all records would be treated by the government agency in the strictest of confidence.

We have been fortunate that today, as a 32 year-old, Lisa has made a full recovery from her addition to heroin, has a part-time job that she adores, and a gorgeous almost two-year old daughter, Ember. Lisa should be seen by the MHC as a role-model for families dealing with drug addiction as to how it is possible to turn your life around.

It was at this time of great relief for us as a family after a very difficult 14 year journey, that we suspected Lisa’s most intimate files at Next Step may have been illegally accessed.

It has taken our family almost two years and the need to engage a lawyer to finally have the MHC confirm that our daughter’s records had been illegally accessed over 19 times between 2011 and 2015 by the mother of her former partner, who used her privileged position as an employee within Next Step to access the government data-base.

Government agencies, like big business, do make mistakes and sometimes a staff member does act inappropriately or in this case, illegally. But as I have learned over many years in business, the important issue is how quickly and honestly the organisation responds and addresses the wrong that has been done. And herein lays the issue that the Barnett Government faces today as a number of their agencies appear to believe the best solution when things go wrong is to simply ‘bunker down’.

It would be wrong to compare the damage that has been done to our daughter with the recent and shocking case of 22 year-old Ms Dhu who died whilst in police custody, whereas our daughter is alive and well. Importantly though, the question is why did it taken Ms Dhu’s family over two years to bring the truth to the surface? Sadly, there are many other examples where WA government agencies simply block the truth being told.

Our two-year mission to find the truth that our daughter’s files had been illegally accessed highlighted the near-impossible challenge facing people who live on the fringe of our society. So why does this happen? Because many vulnerable people have been stigmatised by our community as not even deserving the rights that we all would normally expect. Aboriginal people, migrants and the ethnic community, former drug addicts, and severely disabled people all fit into the stigmatisation classification to which I refer, and they usually don’t have the capacity to challenge a government agency.

If, as a so-called ‘prominent businessman’ with widespread contacts and the capacity to engage a lawyer, I had to resort to my daughter telling her fragile and deeply personal story to a newspaper in order to bring to the public’s attention her abuse and mistreatment, then what hope do those who do not have the capacity to fight and to stand-up to the bureaucracy really have?

Just how vulnerable people who are stigmatised was highlighted when Ms Mary Hind - the employee who illegally accessed our daughter’s files - told Daniel Emerson that... “Ms Taylor’s word cannot be relied upon because of a treatment period that including opioid replacement therapy”.  Perhaps just like we shouldn’t believe the word of a disabled person because they cannot articulate correctly?

Disturbingly, Ms Hind went on to tell Mr Emerson that she had been ‘hung out to dry’ by her department, alleging that "...if every client went on a fishing expedition (regarding the illegal accessing of their personal files) there would be no staff left”.

Our government needs disadvantaged people to eventually be able to live well and make a contribution to society. Agencies that deal in drug or alcohol and mental health issues are critical in that journey for all clients. But unless they feel safe in the knowledge that their most intimate records are treated with complete confidentiality, then the entire system is broken.

In the dying months of the Barnett Government, now should be a good time for both sides of politics to commit to making the essential cultural change that is now desperately needed within our most important government agencies.

Ross B. Taylor AM.    

T: @indorosstaylor

January 2017