One of the advantages of being accused of reporting corruption in the public sector is I have a job for life. I can’t be fired, you can’t fire a whistleblower – it’s that simple.

What they can and have done is scuttled my career at the college, I will now never be promoted at any point – there will always be a reason or excuse not to. But, I can roll with that and play the long game as this is all strategy now. I can cause maximum disruption and they can’t do anything as long as my claim has merit and is not seen purely as vexatious. This is a pretty simple transaction as ethics and integrity isn’t standard practice at this organisation.

Instead, I maintain my employment at the college and take leave without pay as I wish to engage in consulting work. I win again – thank you idiots. I can now engage in high paid international consultancy work and return to paid employment at the college between projects. If the college doesn’t like it then we can always head off to the Industrial Magistrate’s Court and let the Magistrate make a ruling. This would be a poor option for the college as I have hard copies of all claims and correspondence, so I am able to substantiate all claims with hard evidence.

Naturally, as I live close to The West Australian newspaper owned by Seven West Media, the operator of the Channel Seven television network, we can let this play out in the media if they want to play rough. As I would require certain college representatives to give evidence under oath, this would not only derail their careers. At least one individual faces up to two years imprisonment under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2003 so they would be highly unlikely to expose him to that.

So maybe I was heading to Botswana, I liked my job in the Democratic Republic of Congo but that job is closing and this opportunity has come around so it is time to move on despite not wanting to leave.

However, that possibility is becoming more remote by the day, the human resources department is poorly run and not responding to phone calls or emails. I can tell this isn’t a very organised company, they are unlikely to support me when problems arise and I am pretty sure they will. It is not difficult to work out that a lack of management support will hinder staff development, an experienced worker can easily spot this before they even start. So now the Congo is finishing and Botswana is not going to be the contract I expecting to move to. Don’t think it is going to happen so time to look for the next project.

I subscribe to the theory of managing up and down the employment spectrum. But what happens if you work in an environment where managerial arrogance abounds? What do you do with a manager who refuses to listen to the workers? 

The very people who perform the daily work know exactly how the job functions, they know how to improve the workplace and provide meaningful feedback on the task requirements. If you are inflicted with a megalomaniac manager intent in creating a divisive workplace who is only interested in riding roughshod over the workers, then a combative approach is required. 

A manager unwilling to undertake a consultative approach instead insisting on a command and control approach does not deserve the respect of workers. Instead, if a manager is only interested building their personal CV at the expense of good policy and workplace culture, then that manager needs to find out that organisational behaviour and culture can also make their life miserable actually harming their future prospects. 

They soon learn to fall into line and support the workplace increasing productivity and output. The trick is to make their life miserable, whilst they prefer to make team members feel the stress, they are the ones who need to feel the pressure of the job. The role of management is to achieve goals through others, when they are pressuring the team, the team pushes back, productivity drops and they don’t meet their KPIs, this has a detrimental affect on their purpose and is readily seen by higher-level management. 

These graphics are courtesy of the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) in Western Australia. My employer (forever to be anonymous) reposted on LinkedIn where I decided to both comment and download the graphics.

Questions need to be asked, does the workforce not declare corruption because they are unaware that it is going on or because they realise corruption is occurring and choose to do nothing? From an organisational level, the leadership then needs to analyse why wrongdoing isn’t being reported.

There is protection for staff under the Public Sector Disclosure Act 2003, an Act is a law that has provisions to maintain the confidentially of the reporter. Part 3 [Protection] Section 13 deals with immunity incurs no disciplinary action (i) to be dismissed (ii) have services terminated (iii) breach of secrecy or confidentiality (iv).

This is where corruption begins – a lack of leadership. This may be due to weak management practices with Part 3 [Protection] Section 14 dealing with threats of detrimental action against the reporter. A person must not take or threaten to take detrimental action against another because of a public interest disclosure with a penalty of $24,000 fine or imprisonment of 2 years (1). Furthermore, (2) a person who attempts to commit an offence (a) or incites another person to commit an offence (b) also faces a $24,000 fine or imprisonment of 2 years. That’s not a penalty to be taken lightly.

My original comment on the LinkedIn page addressed workplace culture “The culture of the organisation is determined by the worst behaviour the leadership is willing to accept. Supporting and protecting whistleblowers sends a clear message that corruption cannot be tolerated in state government organisations”.

Further examining Part 3 [Protection] Section 15 deals with a person takes or threatens to take detrimental action commits an offence commits an act of victimisation that may be dealt with as a tort (1). That means proceedings against the perpetrator or employer may be taken in tort (2) with a tort being a civil wrong. The act of victimisation may be dealt with the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 under Section 67 Victimisation and that is something an employer would be loathe to do especially if the media is present. The costs to the organisation financially are an important consideration along with the reputational damage along with the destruction of senior management careers so they would be well advised to (apart from the obvious ethical reasons) do all they can to prevent corruption.

Everyone complains they pay too much tax in Australia, there is also a cry that we are the most taxed nation in the world – that isn’t correct either. The net effects of tax by income tell us that the top 40% of salary earners in Australia pay all the tax to run the nation whilst 60% get given money by the government.

What we do see is the top 1% pay of salary earners pay 17% of the total tax in Australia, whilst the top 20% of salary and wage earners pay 60% of the total income tax burden. What we see in Australia is 46% of the population pay no tax after deductions and offsets. That’s pretty stiff but whilst many complain they pay too much tax, who really pays the greatest proportion of tax in Australia? Generally speaking, the more money you make the greater tax liability you are required to pay due to marginal tax rates so that is fair. Due to rebates including the family rebates A and B, the vast majority of families in Australia pay no net tax. They have income tax deducted from their salaries at their marginal rate and then returned via family assistance programs, they get back the money they paid and then some.

Admittedly it wasn’t a great deal of money, it was $649.47, but credit card fraud is fraud and it is my money. As the bank processed the transaction without my permission, so they have an obligation to follow up this fraudulent transaction.

I want to make a clear statement to the bank, this type of behaviour is unacceptable. This is not the first fraud transaction registered on my account and stalling tactics of you haven’t provided the right form or signed the form is wearing thin. As I have been into the branch on multiple occasions, I have absolutely followed bank processes and used bank staff to complete forms and provide the required signatures. They know me in the branch now, this fraud case first raised in late 2018 is still going in 2020 – amazing. This excuse of being unable to locate my case is a pathetic excuse, all correspondence and documentation must be retained in the appropriate file. There needs to be a case officer and the matter should be escalated to appropriate supervisors and managers as required – lift your game.

So as interest rates are lowered again by the Reserve Bank of Australia in a bid to stimulate the economy, we are still seeing economic activity stall. Whilst Australia has 28 an unbroken run of nearly three decades, this run of constant growth appears to be coming to an end.

As the interest rate on government secured bonds fall, a demand for bonds as an asset increases. By the Reserve Bank of Australia purchasing a high volume government bonds, the intention is to push down interest rates to such a low level that banks are better off lending money to businesses and households than holding cash. The Reserve Bank of Australia is spending large quantities of newly printed cash to ease monetary policy. Government workers are not receiving pay rises, the private sector is not competing for talent with the public sector so the government is not under pressure to raise salaries and conditions to attract workers.

As an unintended consequence of the banking royal commission, tighter lending standards leading to higher levels of risk aversion made it increasingly difficult for lenders to take advantage of historically low interest rates to increase cash in the economy. Low international interest rates are designed to increase the degree of investment and speculation in the economy by private enterprise leading to economic growth. This is not happening, once official interest rates hit 0.25% then the Reserve Bank of Australia will consider more unorthodox practices – that will be quantitative easing.

Generally speaking, an increase in money supply results in higher inflation. Yet, this has not occurred so one has to question why this has occurred. The US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank have engaged in quantitative easing for what is regarded as successful outcomes. The Reserve Bank of Australia has lowered interest rates to historically low levels and this has still failed to stimulate the economy. Economic growth has stalled, unemployment has increased to over 5% and wage growth is non-existent so I think we will be headed into QE mid to late 2020.

Back for another season at the yacht club for the 2019/2020 sailing season, the Royal Perth Yacht Club opening day was a success.

This wasn’t a long race, a shortened course was used as we had the opening day presentation and welcome to country, an aboriginal welcoming ceremony and a dignitary address the members. This was a warm sunny day with a bit of breeze around to make it interesting but not a 25 knot strong wind warning. Generally, 16 to 18 knots is a decent amount of wind without getting overtaxing. Then some drinks in the pen on the boat with the crew before heading upstairs to the clubhouse where the formal function begins. Sailing attire is not only accepted but is the norm, I sail in bare feet and no footwear is required at the bar – a great casual atmosphere.

The same problem with the climate control occurred again on South African Airways aircraft on the same route, that means it is the same aircraft I flew from Perth to Johannesburg a little over a week ago.

The turbine on the tail for electrics and air-conditioning was non-operational, the cabin was uncomfortably hot just as it was flying from Perth to Johannesburg. Same problem on the same route means the problem was not resolved, they just keep running the aircraft with known maintenance defects. Will this mechanical issue prevent the aircraft from flying? Well, clearly no but it is uncomfortable for passengers and that pretty much tells us that South African Airways isn’t performing maintenance on their aircraft and they more than likely have liquidity issues so let’s see how this pans out.

As we prepare for landing, I think about my next set of problems. That is, bringing my mountain bike back into Australia. I spent hours cleaning that bike, first there was a preliminary wash with water to get it half clean. Next I rode from my room to the house of the Field Maintenance Superintendent for the next cleaning cycle, that was running water and a brush of the bike assembled. That took a few hours to do, I think about four hours – still, it is the right thing to do.

Then the wheels were removed and more washing took place, still with the hose, brush and paper towels. Then I started packing the bike up, handlebars off and the bike was dried and packed in the travel bag. The next weekend the bike was pulled out of the bag and another cleaning took place with paper towels and spray. I started with CO spray and then onto a water dispersal fluid, that took another four to five hours and the bike was repacked into the bag.

So after those hours spent cleaning the bike, what was quarantine going to say? I’m pretty sure they are going to inspect the bike, it is clear they don’t want soil brought into Australia. We have strict bio-security rules for a reason and I’m doing my best to comply with those rules. I can’t say I’m nervous, I’m not trying to hide anything so the question is now, how long am I going to be held up with inspections and how much is this going to cost me? I guess they will require further inspections, cleaning and possibly treatment. I am going to find out pretty soon I guess.