ACT Speaker Joy Burch has warned against further attempts by the ACT Opposition to refer the problems within Canberra's health system to a board of inquiry, after their second motion in as many months failed.
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Canberra Liberals health spokeswoman Vicki Dunne filed private members motion on Wednesday calling on the Barr government to reverse its opposition to a territory-level royal commission into workplace culture problems in the health system, 10 days after Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris announced an independent review of the sector.
Ms Burch said while it was within her powers to shut down the motion as it was similar to one put forward in August and could amount to unnecessary repetition, she would let debate proceed.
"I am allowing this motion today but I do not want to see this motion come back or other motions for inquiries under the Inquiries Act in this calendar year unless there are exceptional circumstances," Ms Burch said.
Mrs Dunne said there were exceptional circumstances for reviving the motion and a board of inquiry was the best legal instrument at the ACT's disposal to fix the problems with bullying and harassment in the health system.
"[What professional bodies have said about the need for review] has changed since the August motion. The AMA has come out and said enough really is enough and said in the context of sunshine is the best disinfectant, the minister's proposal for a private closed-door review just doesn't cut it because there is no sunshine behind closed doors," Mrs Dunne said.
But Labor and the Greens voted down it down, saying the independent review - the terms of which will be revealed this week - would both uncover and repair issues in the system, without forcing staff to lawyer up.
Ms Fitzharris said she wasn't interested in a "trial by media", although she was still considering holding public hearings.
"The independent review I've proposed will be one of learning and healing. It will not be a witchhunt or a mechanism to publicly scrutinise a small sector of the workforce," Ms Fitzharris said.
"A board of inquiry is in no one's interests. It will not seek to heal and learn, it will be as the Healthcare Consumers Association have said 'steeped in blame culture'
'People have expressed serious concern to me at a judicial process, of whether they would need lawyers, whether they can even afford lawyers. People shouldn't need lawyers to participate in this process but that is what the Canberra Liberals want to see.
"This process should not see people defamed because of spurious claims made about them by their colleagues or former colleagues and they have no avenue to address that other than to seek legal representation.
"The full force of a judicial inquiry is not warranted and has the potential to cause serious and unnecessary harm including quite significant mental health harm to staff and to our health system. I do not want a process that causes more stress to our healthcare workers."
ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury said the inquiry proposed by the government was enough to address the issues and that ACT Health was headed in the right direction.
He also noted the support for the board of inquiry was not unanimous within the Canberra medical sector and would not be the "positive, unifying experience" the health system needed.
However, Mrs Dunne pointed to the experience of a worker she called Frank, who was currently off work getting psychological treatment for the bullying he allegedly experienced from management.
She described management as a "vitriolic gang wearing Frank down" and that a tough resilient man who'd faced life-threatening situations in his previous job had been reduced to a "shaking mess" by the ACT Health bureaucracy.
"Minister Fitzharris is afraid the people named in a board of inquiry will be caused enormous professional and personal harm. If Frank's story exposes those people for what they really are - bullies - then a board of inquiry has been a success," Mrs Dunne said.
