In 2006 I joined the Queensland public service, working in a specially created position to provide advice to the Minister of Local Government Sport and Recreation regarding ways of enhancing the effectiveness of private swimming pool safety.
My employment was initially for a six-month contract but was then extended to a year
At 60 years I was headed towards retirement planning and my expectation was that I may have been able to complete my working life in that role. Alas that was not the case, my 2nd contract was not renewed. Apparently, the advice I provided to the Minister was not the political option she wished to receive.
So, I looked for employment elsewhere within Brisbane and within the public service system and was successful in securing a position within a Unit within the Sport and Recreation division of Department, referred to colloquially as 'The Majors'.
The Majors Unit was responsible for the administration of the Queensland government's Sports and Recreational Grants Program and usually involved an annual allocation of funds of around $30 million.
Full a detailed explanation of that unit and period please go here.
Whistleblowing
Looking back on my life, it would be reasonable to deduce that I have been a whistleblower for most of it.
Cursed with this obsession of believing in ‘a fair go’, I guess I railed against the established system from as far back as I can remember.
My first appearance in court was when I was 23.
It was the consequence of a vehicle accident and a subsequent discussion with the attending police officer who authoritatively told me the circumstances under which the accident had occurred.
This was interesting from the perspective that me, not only being a person who was there all the time and involved in all the circumstances that led to the accident, but him, having arrived on the scene some 15 minutes later, apparently knew more about what went on - than me.
Of course, the reason for this behaviour all become abundantly clear as time progressed because, as it transpired the circumstances under which the accident occurred were interesting.
You see - my then wife’s sister was getting married, in Sarina, a small town in mid north Queensland and we were at the church. it was discovered that she had left her bouquet on the bed at the family home.
So, I had borrowed the father-in-law's car and was rushing back to collect the bundle and return, so the ceremony could commence. It would be fair to say that I was in a hurry to complete this task in as little time as possible.
On the first part of the journey when turning into a long street I encountered a vehicle that was crawling along the road at approximately 40 km/h I also observed that the vehicle tended to wander off the road and wandered back on. It was clear to me, even at that tender age, the most likely explanation was the driver of the vehicle was severely intoxicated.
After all it was 1967, and in the bush and drink-driving was probably, no actually, socially acceptable and even somewhat of a badge of honour in certain circles.
So, I attempted to pass the vehicle but each time an opportunity presented itself a vehicle was approaching from the opposite direction and to make matters worse, when we approached the Y intersection this vehicle had indicated its intention to take the same direction of travel which I also needed to take.
So, as it slowed down further and made the turn, I saw the opportunity to pass and planted my foot.
However, when alongside the vehicle, in the new street, it careered across and went in to the passenger side door of my vehicle, creating damage to both vehicles.
As it turned out, the first house on the right-hand side of that street was the property at which this particular driver lived and without even being aware that I was behind him or beside him he just decided to turn into his driveway taking me with him as he went.
So, this was the explanation that I had tendered to the police officer in attendance.
At that particular point in time, I had marvel at how the police officer come to be here and so quickly but subsequently I found out that the police officer had been called by the driver of the other vehicle and it also transpired the police officer was a personal friend of the driver and some evidence existed that had both been drinking at the local hotel subsequent to that driver undertaking his journey home.
In due course I received a regulatory fine in the mail, charging me with an offence of ‘’following a vehicle too closely in that particular street’ in which the driver of the other vehicle was a resident
I now had two circumstances which offended that sense of injustice of mine.
The first one was that the police officer in attendance was significantly biased in the performance of his duty and the second, because of my prior studies in ‘writing and interpretation of law’ I knew there was a fatal flaw in the charge because at no practical stage had I followed that vehicle more closely ‘in that particular street’.
Had the street cited in the charge been the previous street I probably could not have defended that accusation.
So, I attended court and defended myself
As an aside. I had a wager with the prosecuting Sargent, to the extent of a one-dollar casket ticket that I would be successful.
I was successful and the charge was dismissed and the prosecuting Sargent, a person I found to be a thorough honest man came good with the lottery ticket.
In 1970 while working with Pioneer Shire Council as an on-site cost clerk on projects undertaken on behalf of the Department of Main Roads for designated state highways in local government areas, I decided to undertake studies to obtain a Diploma of Public Health from the Royal Society of Health situated in London in England.
In 1972 I completed the course and obtained my public health diploma.
Naturally, during this process, because of my association with that council's only health inspector it was decided that he would canvass Council for my employment in that position if I successfully completed my diploma course.
As it was not certain that the Council would agree to the employment of the second health inspector, he encouraged me to actively lobby counsellors. particularly the Chairman of the Council and the Chairman of the Health Committee [and Yes, they were all men]
I can recall with a high degree of clarity my discussion with the Chairman of the Shire who was in political terms, a significant influential and powerful government person in the area.
The previous chairman of that Shire had been elevated to the position of Minister for Main Roads (An excellent precursor to Russell Hinze) within the Queensland government and his son was Council's current Shire clerk, the most powerful administrative position in Council and his son was at that time Finance Manager.
Plus, then being a significant member of the Country Party which, because of the regional diversity of Queensland and thanks to the electrol jerrymander, which allocated membership of parliament based on geographical space not population density, held the dominant political power of the state also
The chairmen of large and wealthy regional Shire's were significantly powerful figures within the state's power entourage.
In my discussions with the Chairman I will always remember his remarks to me, as we drew to a close, in that he would support the proposal for my employment and, he wanted to know, that the ‘Council would not interfere in the way that I wished to perform my duty’, however he went on to say that if it should ever come to pass that the performance of that duty was not in accordance with the best interest of the general community, that I would need to be required to “fall on my sword”.
He concluded with the statement that ‘and this conversation had never taken place’.
I knew what he meant because during the first years of my employment with the council I encountered the circumstances where Councils plumbing inspector had a heart attack and suddenly died, at his beach house, in another Shire, during the week - he was not on holidays or off on approved leave when the event occurred.
Being a junior (under 21) employee at the time, one of my duties was to accompany another officer of Council to collect council’s vehicle from the premises and return it to the depot.
The Council did move to employee as a Health Inspector.
In 1970 as part of the process of making plans to be married it was obligatory that I should meet the grandparents of my intended betroth, so I travelled to their farm out in the country which was jointly owned by the grandparents and her uncle.
Like all intending eligible bachelors I was intent on impressing the in-laws as to my willingness to do ‘hard yakka’ and so I become ensconced in the activities of farming.
Of particular interest was the 180 acres of sugarcane assignment that form part of the property and in particular the chemicals that were used in the production of sugarcane
There was a product at that time used in the sugarcane industry known to me as 'Aratan' (But maybe the product was called 'Shirtan') it was a mercury base fungicide used in the planting of sugarcane to protect the cut portion from rot while the root structure was being established
Although my course largely focused on the biological agents responsible for human disease, particularly the ones that were communicable, it did touch very briefly on the chemical ones.
I knew from my studies that Mercury was particularly potent mineral, particularly in its effect on the human organs and the all will brain.
So, with this knowledge, plus research into the cane growing industry throughout the Mackay area I had discovered that it was about 640,000 acres.
I also knew from my experience that Aratan was the chemical of choice in relation to fungus protection of planted cane.
Farmers could expect to get three or four production cycles from the one planted field (known as returns) but this very much depended on level of synthetic chemicals used to boost growth, before it become uneconomical and replanting was required for subsequent harvests.
Although it was not unknown at that time within the industry, this practice would almost eventually result, over many decades in soil sterility. This particular aspect was not a problem to farmers because fresh land was abundant.
For example, my former wife's uncle had approximately 1100 acres of which only 180 were assigned land for growing sugar cane and given that would take maybe some 50 years to become useless they could just clear more trees and repeat the cycle over again on new land as almost everybody only has a vision for their lifetime, this despite the inescapable fact that this practice was not sustainable but this was not of interest to anybody, living at that time.
But I digress a bit
So, with this knowledge at hand and an understanding of the catchment area for the Pioneer River and my understanding of the cumulative nature of mercury and that in the 1960s fish was an important supplementary diet for those in the low socio-economic bracket I decided to send some mullet samples from the Pioneer River to the State Health laboratories in Brisbane for analysis.
I was surprised at the response.
Within four days of dispatching a sample I received a call from a senior officer in the State Health.
To understand the significance of this let me digress a little – again.
The system of public health in Queensland in 1960 was a system based on social management that evolved from the time of the plagues in Great Britain in England then prominent in the quarantine systems to protect against disease introduced by migrants as part of the colonization process of the Empire, particularly during the 19th and 20th centuries with such diseases as plague, cholera and tuberculosis being a few of the more challenging.
A system where the responsibility of individuals within the community such as those classified as health inspectors were significant and by the 1960s these individuals had accumulated significant power and authority to, quarantine premises, seize objects and a closedown food premises with a mere issuing of a notice based upon nothing more than the inspector's opinion.
This was because these individuals were expected to exercise their authority in the best interest of the community and time was of the essence.
In return the system incorporated huge protection for these individuals for example no health inspector can be commissioned or removed from his position, without the approval of the state government’s Director-General of Health
In the 1960’s the vast majority of health inspectors were employed by local government and the principal focus was on microbial based disease and vermin/vectors control.
In the course of my training, one of the major focuses of the State Health Department was, what was known then, in the industry, as ‘house-to-house’ inspections, with each council allocated by policy, a quota by the State Health, to organise and undertake routine inspection, delivered on a monthly basis and reported quarterly to State Health.
State Health set up regional offices and also employed health inspectors to oversee performance of local government and were the link between
public health undertaken by local governments and
State Health and
the director-general
it's easy to see how those individuals who were delegated huge levels of authority in the performance of their duties and absolute protection from any political repercussions for undertaking their duties.
However, those local government employed health inspectors who do not meet the high standard would find that things would not end well for them.
So having covered the background - that this senior officer quizzed as to why I had sent the samples and informed me that this activity and did not appear on the legislated duties of health inspector. He did however stop short of issuing me with a written instruction to cease to undertake any further activities of this nature but a few weeks later I was audited as to my quota of ‘house-to-house’ inspections.
I also got a response from the government analyses laboratory telling me the sample had been misplaced. Even at that age I had an appreciation of when I have reached a dead end.