Given my own experience with independent investigations commissioned by CSIRO I am very sceptical and rightly so. I am also troubled by the ‘doing something about it’ impression that Megan Clark tries to create. Perhaps the timing gives us a clue – Senate Estimates are taking place next week…

Let’s review what happened in my case.

In May 2010 I raised grievance against Chief of my former Division DIRECTLY with Dr Clark. In July 2010 my solicitor was asked by Group Executive line managing the person I complained about whether my email to Dr Clark titled ‘Formal grievance’ was in fact a formal grievance. It was another 3 months before CSIRO commissioned Aequ’us Partners to conduct the investigation which concluded that Chief of my Division (and another senior manager, Theme Leader of a CSIRO Flagship) engaged in an inappropriate conduct towards me. In the meantime, as I found out from documents released to me under FOI the two above managers prepared ‘a business case’ to make me redundant.
The taxpayer spent $25k on the Aequ’us investigation. Both managers who under CSIRO policy of ‘zero tolerance to unsafe should be sacked remain at their high-paid positions within CSIRO. To make matters worse I received legal threats from the CSIRO General Manager of HR for providing the Aequ’us investigation report to Comcare and AAT!

The other independent investigation was a result of my whistleblower complaint. I was accused of authorising expenditure in excess of what was approved by Chief of Division. I noted that my signature on the CSIRO document was forged and budget was lowered, both without my knowledge. Instead of contacting AFP as per policy CSIRO hired an HR consultant. The investigator confirmed that there was an unauthorised use of my signature. In response CSIRO stated that this was ‘a minor administrative matter’.
Cost to the taxpayer $20k.

Although not commissioned by CSIRO the Comcare investigation into breaches of OHSE cost the Australian taxpayer in excess of $300k.

To date CSIRO have spent more than $400k on fighting my claims against them in the FWA and the Federal Court of Australia (figures based on documents obtained uder FOI).

The trial is scheduled for October and one can expect additional significant cost to CSIRO.

This massive amount of money could have been spent on science I was hired to do if some CSIRO managers were not abusing their power… Megan Clark knows exactly who these managers are and does not need another CSIRO investigation.

To Administrator: the documents mentioned above as well as emails are available for publication upon request.