“Jon Stanhope appeared to see the world as both binary and polar. All that is good in the world was embodied by the Labor party, and all that is bad by the Liberals.
For most people this is a ludicrously narrow spectrum. Both Labor and Liberal sit side by side in a very small part of the political compass.
The problem with a narrow polar view is it means anyone voicing an objection to any portion of public policy must be an evil Liberal.
One suspects this is the root cause of the famous chiefly tantrums. It created a dangerous bunker mentality whereby Jon Stanhope and his noble staff in their minds faced off against the army of darkness when in reality they were players on a much more complex board.
The economy grew under his leadership, but it grew as a result of the expansion of the Commonwealth Public Service and the Australian National University.
For all his bold talk on human rights Canberra is now a harder place to live for the young and poor than when he came to office.”
Johnboy, RiotAct, 11 May 2011
Jon Stanhope’s departure from ACT Politics ended a reign in which he oversaw the silencing of the Territory’s most senior Indigenous public servant at the time and to date only First Nations Commissioner for Revenue. As the member for Ginninderra, Stanhope was appointed ACT Chief Minister on 5 November 2001 and resigned on 12 May 2011 to be replaced by Katy Gallagher. His claims to immortality include two disasters – the devastating bushfires of 2003 and the ACT Human Rights Act enacted in 2004.
BlakandBlack has published a detailed timeline of the corruption underpinning the #Justice4Mullins movement. Several characters come to the fore as central to the systematic and deliberate silencing of Mullins. What may be overlooked however, and needs to be made abundantly clear, is the knowledge that the Chief Minister Jon Stanhope had of these events.
It is uncertain whether or not the now infamous letter penned by Angel Marina on 9 May 2002 to then Chief Executive Howard Ronaldson was communicated to Chief Minister Jon Stanhope. However, Stanhope must have been aware of the Terms of Reference drafted in early 2003 to review the Rates and Land Taxes section within the Revenue Manage Branch. What is also certain is that Stanhope was aware that Angel Marina specifically was under investigation. How do we know this? Because Mullins, in his capacity as ACT Commissioner for Revenue wrote a Public Interest Disclosure to the Chief Minister dated 27 June 2003. This letter (henceforth referred to as the #MullinsPID) is referenced almost exactly two years later in a response to Mullins from the ACT Ombudsman dated 26 June 2005.
The importance of the #MullinsPID in the pursuit of #Justice4Mullins cannot be understated. It is this very letter from Mullins to Stanhope, a copy of which was sought through Freedom of Information on 11 April 2013 that resulted in Mullins seeking a direction from the ACT Administrative Civil and Appeals Tribunal in October of that same year. The original of the #MullinsPID should have been held within ACT files. It’s disappearance along with other documents speaks loudly one of two things – very poor records management within the ACT Government or deliberate efforts to cover-up corruption.
As already stated, whether Ronaldson informed Stanhope of the letter he received form Marina on 9 May 2002 detailing the author’s racism is uncertain. However, within the #MullinsPID was mention of this letter including racist excerpts along with a copy attached as an annexure. What is also mentioned is that Marina has outlined Mullins qualifications correctly. This revelation is huge given that Marina went on to lodge his own PID supposedly on 19 December 2003 in which a very different set of qualifications are outlined and used as a means to fit-up the victim for dismissal.
Mullins outlines in his PID some of the intimidatory acts Marina carried out upon him, his family and colleagues. Mullins states that he fears for the safety of his family and requests that Stanhope in his capacity as Attorney-General, refer Marina to the Director of Public Prosecutions for attempting to influence a statutory office holder.
Also outlined in the #MullinsPID is the Acumen (aka Alliance) Special Audit with reference to the Terms of Reference and the fact the Angel Marina had been under investigation as part of this process since 16 October 2002. A copy of the ToR, which had been signed by Deputy Chief Executive Tu Pham, was attached to the #MullinsPID. Mullins also notes that Marina was informed a month earlier on 9 September 2002 of the impending audit and allegations made against him, resulting in physical and verbal threats made against Mullins and his family with subsequent acts of intimidation carried out on his family and wife.
Mullins expresses concerns regarding the advice being provided by Manager Louise Fitzgerald to the Chief Executive, so much that he notes that he has written to her to formally remind her of her responsibilities within her role on 24 March 2003.
Once Mullins had received the initial report, Marina harassed other staff in the Revenue Management Branch with five people lodging grievances. Tu Pham and Mike Harris jointly informed Mullins of the grievances on 2 April 2003. As the subject of internal investigation, Marina was ineligible to lodge a grievance. Another complainant was also under disciplinary action and hence ineligible to proceed. Mullins had already sought legal advice by this time, which supported his position that the grievance actions were an abuse of process.
Perhaps Stanhope would have dealt with Marina, had it not been for the final 1 1/2 pages of the #MullinsPID, which outlines fraud and corruption within the ACT Government. The missing $130,000,000 alluded to in Marina’s letter to Ronaldson of 9 May 2002 is provided greater context in light of the concerns raised in the #MullinsPID. But perhaps the most disturbing part of the entire document is this statement by the then Government Solicitor Philip Mitchell to Mullins on the last page of the #MullinsPID:
“… the Chief Minister and I have already had discussion about you, and your naïve instance on the Government adhering to the Rule of Law; it just doesn’t happen … racial and commercial equality in the ACT are just not seriously on anyone’s agenda.”
One could argue that what actually transpired in the exchange is conjecture; but given that the prosecution of Mullins in 2017 turned upon the existence and veracity of this document and the steadfast testimony of the Ombudsman that their letter was genuine, the reader must assume that indeed Jon Stanhope would have received the #MullinsPID. Even more so, the writer notes that he is sending it directly to the Chief Minister because Pham was trying to suppress its existence! The exposure of corruption threatened to destroy Stanhope’s leadership. But what is most distasteful is that the ACT Human Rights Act is built upon a web of lies about equality, civil rights to protection from intimidation, degradation, protection of family but most of all the elimination of racism.
Stanhope knew. He knew everything. As a Chief Minister and Attorney General who studied law at the Australian National University, he would have had a good understanding of the implications of what was contained in the #MullinsPID. The ACT Assembly has only seen two ALP lawyers elected – Terry Connolly and Jon Stanhope. Stanhope himself indicates that this was probably part of his impetus for convening a Committee of Inquiry to investigate the value of establishing a Human Rights Act in the ACT.
Stanhope let an innocent man be pilloried to save his own political hide. His façade of honesty and integrity are a farce. There was no Minister in the ACT for Indigenous Affairs prior to November 2004, but the concerns of racism would have fallen under the portfolio of Community Affairs. Stanhope lumbered the ACT with an ineffective piece of window dressing rather than deal with the real issue of racism and corruption within his own public service. And with it he condemned his most senior Indigenous employee. The readers can judge for themselves what Jon Stanhope’s true political ideology was, from his own words after departing the ACT Parliament:
“And lastly if our aspiration is, as I believe we would all claim, for a fair and just society, then we all have a role to play in achieving it. We can’t all leave it to someone else. And we shouldn’t reach for an easy excuse.”
“Who’s afraid of human rights?” Jon Stanhope, Papers on Parliament, February 2002
ACT Chief Minister
13 November 2001 – 12 May 2011
ACT Attorney General
13 November 2001 – 19 April 2006
ACT Minister for Community Affairs
13 November 2001 – 3 November 2004
ACT Minister for Indigenous Affairs
4 November 2004 – 12 May 2011
ACT Treasurer
20 April 2006 – 9 November 2008
ACT Minister for Land and Property Services
30 November 2009 – 12 May 2011
STANHOPE KNEW ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT LED TO THE DESTRUCTION OF MULLINS.
#BLACKLIVESMATTER
#JUSTICE4MULLINS
