Ex-Dreamworld safety boss quits Geelong job
DREAMWORLD’S former chief safety operations manager has resigned from his post at Geelong’s St John of God months after moving to Victoria to become the hospital’s OHS manager.
Mark Thompson was Dreamworld’s safety compliance manager when four people were killed while riding the popular Thunder River Rapids ride.
On October 25, 2016, the ride flipped, resulting in the deaths of Cindy Low, 42, Kate Goodchild, 32, her brother Luke Dorsett, 35, and his partner, Roozi Araghi, 38.
Mr Thompson was hired by St John of God in Geelong as the private hospital’s safety compliance manager in April this year and took leave to give evidence at the June inquest hearing into the Dreamworld tragedy.
Mr Thompson worked at Dreamworld for 18 months and led the safety team for about seven months before the tragedy.
When the Addy revealed in June that Mr Thompson had moved to St John of God, the hospital refused to disclose whether it was aware of its then OHS manager’s history with Dreamworld.
On Thursday a St John of God spokesman confirmed Mr Thompson’s resignation and defended the hospital’s recruitment checks.
He said Mr Thompson was not asked to leave following revelations of his time at Dreamworld and confirmed no staff had made any complaints regarding Mr Thompson’s employment.
“He (Mr Thompson) resigned of his own free will,” the spokesman said.
“St John of God Health Care carries out comprehen- sive pre-employment checks of all candidates to ensure they meet the inherent requirements of the job prior to any offer of employment.”
The spokesman said Mr Thompson finished at the hospital last week “to pursue other opportunities” and confirmed the hospital was currently seeking a qualified person to fill the role.
“We wish Mark all the very best,” the spokesman said.
At June’s inquest hearing Mr Thompson was grilled by a succession of lawyers acting for families of the victims about a lengthy list of safety shortcomings.
He was shown minutes of an engineering management team meeting advising expenditure was $125,000 over budget in the year to date, profits were down and “cutbacks were now being enforced”.
A September 2016 email from Mr Thompson to WHSQ said the park was having “great difficulty” finding a “competent person” to inspect its “Big Nine” thrill rides, including the Thunder River Rapids ride.
The inquest heard there had been no action since 2010 on a policy to ensure records were kept as compliance evidence.
Mr Thompson told the inquest the park had a “very archaic” health and safety record system and he was never told to do ride risk assessments.