Minder took gripes to PM
Messenger grilled on Lambie letter
SENATOR Jacqui Lambie’s former minder has told an unfair dismissal hearing he felt he had no choice but to “blow the whistle” and take his workplace concerns to then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
On Thursday, the Federal Court in Melbourne heard Rob Messenger sent his Public Interest Disclosure to Mr Turnbull, the Senate President and the Attorney-General in March, 2017.
The court heard it was sent soon after Mr Messenger helped a junior employee in his office write a statutory declaration outlining serious allegations against Senator L am bie including that she was “unstable”.
He attached that statutory declaration to his letter.
“Where was your statutory declaration?” Senator Lambie’s lawyer Nick Harrington asked.
Mr Messenger replied he had “gone one better” and contacted the prime minister.
The former staffer told Commonwealth lawyer Jenny Firkin he considered Mr Turnbull to be his internal supervisor. Ms Firkin suggested Mr Messenger had ignored proper workplace complaint reporting processes and had done so to discredit and embarrass his boss.
“You knew these allegations would damage her reputation and likely influence her future career as a politician,” Ms Firkin said.
In his P ID letter to Canberra, Mr Messenger accused Senator L am bie of corruption, misconduct in her public office and bullying.
“You were bringing your work relationship with Senator Lambie to a point of destruction weren’t you?”
Mr Harrington said. A return letter from Canberra instructed Mr Messenger to report workplace bullying to another office rather than copying in the PM.
“The PM’s office was not inviting you to keep him in the loop were they ?” Mr Harrington said.
He accused Mr Messenger of having contempt for his boss—reading to the court an email in which he “ridiculed” Senator Lambie for her “cringe-worthy mispronunciation” of words.
“Your opinion was poisoned by the contempt you had for her ,” he said.
“No, I felt sorry for her, she was battling some major demons ,” Mr Messenger replied.
Six hours after Mr Messenger sent his PID to Canberra, Senator Lambie emailed Mr Messenger saying there had been a breakdown in employer-employee trust.