Parliament’s staff exodus
New boss blames departures on reluctance to accept change. Andrea Vance reports.
Nearly 30 staffers have quit Parliament’s back office since Christmas – triggering payouts totalling nearly $250,000.
Parliamentary Service provides administrative support to MPs and deals with staff, salaries and expenses. It also manages historic buildings around the Wellington precinct.
The exodus comes as the extensive review on workplace bullying and harassment, commissioned by Speaker Trevor Mallard, gets under way at Parliament. It’s understood many of those who have left worked in human resources.
Five executives – including the general manager David Stevenson – have left in the past few months, followed out the door by 23 other staff. All but one – a retirement – were resignations.
A top employment lawyer’s visits to Parliament are now so frequent that she has her own swipe card.
Chief information officer Michael Middlemiss was the first manager out, just before Christmas, leaving the post he held since 2012. He was followed by chief people officer Fleur Murray, who had worked there for four years. Also vacant are inclusion diversity and talent manager and health, safety and wellbeing manager jobs.
Stevenson’s five-year term expired on January 25, and the position was filled by Rafael Gonzalez-Montero, who was former deputy clerk of the house.
Gonzalez-Montero is restructuring the department. Staff were presented with a consultation document late last month, and proposals include the loss of three jobs. A final decision will be made this week.
He’s blaming ‘‘new CEO phenomenon’’ for the walk-outs.
‘‘Maybe one of the reasons people leave is that when there is a new chief executive, they may have a new vision and a new way of doing things, and I think it is natural for people to think ‘do I really want to get on board with this?’
‘‘A lot of people have been here for a long time, and I think maybe they are not up for change or to start again. I think it is a matter of not agreeing with what I would like to see.
‘‘I understand that staff will see it as ‘whoa, this is a big review.’ But it is just a re-jigging of the teams.’’
Gonzalez-Montero said there were no redundancy payouts, but some staff got ‘‘a payment over their contractual and statutory entitlements’’. The service was disjointed, and there was duplication in roles, he said.
He also confirmed that lawyer Megan Richards has swipe card access, but said that was not unusual. Her firm, MinterEllisonRuddWatts, has been paid fees of $132,000 in the past eight months.
It’s been a tough few years at Parliamentary Service, starting with a stinging 2014 performance review. Then, a Towards a WorldLeading Democracy report by former MPs Annette King and Eric Roy noted MPs’ ‘‘dissatisfaction’’ with the service.
‘‘There is a perception that the service is focused on ‘saying no’ and enforcing the rules, rather than looking for ways to ‘make things work’,’’ they wrote. Mallard declined to comment. Public Service Association national secretary Glenn Barclay said the union was working with Gonzalez-Montero.
‘‘This could potentially signal closer co-operation between agencies located within the Parliamentary precinct and could also complement an improvement to the workplace culture at Parliament, as currently under review,’’ Barclay said.
‘‘The PSA will continue to follow any changes closely and participate fully in consultation to promote the interests of our members.’’
Parliamentary service has just over 700 staff, with two-thirds working for MPs or political parties either at Parliament or in electorate offices. Others work in security, the Parliamentary Library, accounting, travel or admin and payroll.
‘‘I think it is a matter of not agreeing with what I would like to see.’’ Rafael Gonzalez-Montero