Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also commend the member for Fremantle on the previous motion. I had originally wanted to speak on that matter. Unfortunately I was too late for the list, but I have spoken on it twice in the past.

Tonight I would like to raise a very serious matter affecting one of my constituents. This constituent was employed in the health system and was sacked for engaging in trade union activities, legal risks and indemnity, bullying and harassment. She suffered financial loss and emotional hurt. The process of conciliation was entered into but failed. The matter was taken to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, HREOC, where the finding was in favour of my constituent—that her employment was terminated in the main because of her trade union activities. It was also found that the discontinuation of her employment constituted an exclusion which impaired her equality of opportunity in employment and constituted discrimination in employment for the purposes of section 31(b) of the HREOC Act.

My constituent was awarded $7,000 for emotional hurt and $69,185 for loss of salary and superannuation. It was also recommended that the employer write a personal apology to my constituent. The employer refused to pay one single cent and even refused to make a personal apology. I have no doubt that if this constituent had been a blue-collar worker, a member of a trade union affiliated with the ALP or had been mistreated by ‘big business’ then the Labor Party would be in an uproar. How dare an employer deliberately sack someone because they were fighting for the rights of workers? However, these principles appear to be ruthlessly discarded, because in this case the sacked worker is a doctor and the employer is the Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service.

My constituent Dr Julie Copeman was working to improve the health of Aboriginal men, women and children, which is exactly the sort of service disadvantaged people have been crying out for and exactly the sort of service this government pays lip service to. Yet, when it comes to the crunch, Labor governments—which, I might add, fund the Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service—have continued funding this organisation after it refused to follow the recommendations of HREOC.

Dr Copeman spent around $100,000 pursuing her case to get justice, so even with the payout she would be seriously out of pocket. Interestingly, I am informed that another person treated similarly received a six-figure payout. That person was, like Dr Copeman, an excellent and committed staff member. That person deserved her payout, but so does Dr Copeman. The officer who received the payout is Aboriginal; Dr Copeman is not. Justice has been denied to her by the Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service and Labor governments. Apparently saying sorry and paying compensation is a matter of supreme importance in some cases but not in others. Where is the principle of the Labor government? But this is not just a matter of principle for a travesty of justice; this is also a matter of law.

Firstly how can it be tenable for a recommendation from HREOC to be totally ignored with no repercussions? Secondly, is it not the case that adherence to the provisions of HREOC legislation was obligatory in order to receive funding from state and federal governments? Therefore, not only has Dr Copeman been denied justice and suffered financially but there are also significant questions as to the legality of the funding of the Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service. I call upon the Prime Minister and the Premier of Western Australia to take immediate action to rectify this situation and to reinstate the rule of law which has so perniciously been excised by the Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service.