Strange times in the Wild West

Not since we read of Richard Lewis having his car tampered with and Julien Grill and Brian Burke’s brother Terry killing people with their motor cars and avoiding any legal redress have events in government taken such a strange turn.

Last week the newspapers reported on two intriguing items, the conclusion of the James Trail saga and the decision to dismiss Nigel Lake, Deputy Clerk to the Legislative Council.

The connection between the two men arises through the Corruption and Crime Commission report on James Trail’s corrupt behaviour when he was CEO of the shires of Augusta-Margaret River and Kalamunda. The CCC sent the report of their findings to Nigel Lake in December 2013 as parliament was not sitting and Lake was the Acting Clerk to the Legislative Council. At that time he was a well respected officer of the Western Australian parliament, today there are police claims that he is a dangerous stalker and he is receiving treatment in a psychiatric clinic.

Political journalist Gareth Parker, writing in the Weekend West 22^nd August 2015, draws attention to the difference between the WA Parliament and every other workplace in Australia when he highlights the injustice of Lake being dismissed for receiving psychiatric treatment.

The WA Parliament is not bound by the laws that apply to every other workplace.

It is true that Lake has been accused of criminal offences but he has not been tried or convicted of any offence. His only “crime” to date is to receive psychiatric treatment. Barry House made the announcement that Lake had been dismissed, indicating that the termination of employment after 25 years of service was due to the Legislative Council having “lost confidence” in Lake.

Such matters are of importance to us all as citizens. The former Premier of this state, Brian Burke, clearly stated that he was creating an elite class to rule. Since then it has been recorded in parliament that he ensured “his” men were installed in public service jobs before he left office, men who would do his bidding and who would be removed if they ever failed.

When Warren Hately wrote about the former shire CEO’s court case he didn’t write very much, because Trail received a spent conviction, which means he has no criminal record and the public who employed him are not able to read a full account of what he was accused of and how his defence was presented. Although the quote that Trail couldn't remember what charges were laid suggests he may have been using a defence team from the Bond Corporation.

We do know what was in the Corruption and Crime Commission’s report into the matters surrounding the CAMMS contracts because that report is in the public domain. We know that James Trail’s appointment cost the ratepayers many hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of dollars but we have no total figure.

Of course it could be argued that we don’t need to know. Public funds were diverted for private use but as we apparently have no remedy for this there is little point in us concerning ourselves with the detail. Our councillors are paid by us to scrutinise the accounts each month but they clearly didn’t. Councillors are, on paper, “responsible for the performance of the CEO” (according to the Department of Local Government and confirmed by the current shire president Mike Smart) However, this scrutiny need not happen because if the councillors are negligent or turn a blind eye to losses from shire funds they receive no penalty at all.

The events surrounding Trail and the CAMMS IT contracts are of more significance than just this shire. The state spends our taxes on CAMMS products and services, and continue to do so even though the business ethics of CAMMS are clearly sub optimum. 

We live in a society where a company that behaves unethically is on the government “preferred supplier” list, councillors who do not take their role as community representatives seriously and monitor the CEO are not penalised or barred from office, a local government CEO has immunity from career damaging revelations, but a person needing psychiatric care is dismissed because their boss loses confidence in them after they have given 25 years service.

How does this affect the Australian psyche?