Staff still not being kept safe after saga
Justice fails to talk with Haumaha complainant after critical SSC report, writes Jared Savage
The Justice Ministry and Corrections failed to debrief and adequately support staff who complained about the workplace behaviour of Deputy Commissioner Wally Haumaha, according to the State Services Commission.
This meant both departments failed to meet the “keeping people safe” standard now in place for public servants.
While the new chief executive of Corrections quickly apologised to its former staff member for how her complaint was mishandled, no one from the Justice leadership team has met the affected staff member to discuss the critical SSC report released publicly three months ago.
“The SSC report makes it clear that the ministry did not meet the standards we should have in our support of our staff through what has been a difficult time for them. We have learned from that and will do things differently and better in the future,” new Justice Ministry chief executive Andrew Kibblewhite said in a statement.
“We have been working with the staff members involved and will continue to do so. As those conversations are ongoing, in the interests of their privacy, we will be making no further comment at this time.”
The staff member also declined to comment when the Herald asked if anyone from Justice had discussed the SSC report with her.
However, the two women who complained about Haumaha met with State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes on Tuesday, following his report published in December.
Hughes decided to investigate after National MP Chris Bishop asked him to look into conflicting statements by Justice, Corrections and the Police about the Haumaha saga.
Bishop said Justice’s failure to discuss the SSC findings with their employee was “deeply odd”.
“The Ministry of Justice attitude is deeply odd and continues a sorry saga where all three government agencies have let down the complainants. They deserve better.”
Justice Minister Andrew Little said it was “disappointing” when any staff member didn’t get the support they needed.
He said Andrew Kibblewhite took over as the new chief executive of the Justice Ministry in February.
“I have full confidence in his ability to deal with this matter.”
Hughes declined to comment about his meeting with the two women, or Justice’s failure to discuss the SSC report with their employee.
The SSC report — released as the Independent Police Conduct Authority found Haumaha was unprofessional and inappropriate at times — found a number of problems with how Justice and Corrections responded to three staff working on a joint project with the police.
Three women — two senior policy analysts from Justice and one from Corrections — walked out of Police National Headquarters in June 2016 and refused to return because of Haumaha.
The trio raised issues with their managers on different occasions and action was taken after a particular meeting with Haumaha in June 2016.
A decision was made for the women to leave PNHQ and continue working on the project from the Justice offices.
The project had been difficult and stressful and Haumaha was aware of rising tension within the group.
The women stressed to the SSC there were “lost opportunities” to address their concerns earlier in 2016.
“The difficulty appears to have been that — while managers were aware of some incidents and tension — the women did not feel like they appreciated the impact this was having on them,” wrote Hughes. Poor communication was a major issue identified by the SSC review.
“This culminated in a significant miscommunication concerning whether senior leadership within Police, beyond Deputy Commissioner Haumaha, would be informed about the allegation,” wrote Hughes. “The communication between the managers at Justice and Corrections also seemed to have been poor, or non-existent.”
Nearly two weeks after leaving PNHQ, there was a meeting between the women and senior management at Justice.
“But there were significant miscommunications at this meeting and, it appeared to us, that the women had been left without any sense of resolution,” wrote Hughes.
By contrast, the Justice deputy chief executive Colin Lynch saw the meeting as bringing the matter to a close.
He acknowledged the issues and observed Haumaha worked for the police, not Justice, so it was a matter for the police to deal with.
The women took this to mean the police were treating it as an employment matter, so they would not receive any updates.
“But for us the most concerning issue is that, despite what was said at the meeting, no one in the senior leadership within Police [beyond Deputy Commissioner Haumaha] was told about the women’s allegation until early August 2016,” the SSC wrote. “The women we spoke to told us that, ultimately, they were left hanging in relation to their allegation,” wrote Hughes.