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Worst offender
SA education dept has the most workplace harassment cases .
About $ 40 million of South Australian taxpayer funds have been spent on public servant workplace harassment payouts over the past five years .
The figures — obtained by political party SA-BEST and released by the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment — showed 841 public servants received payouts , including 24 for sexual harassment between 2015 to 2020 .
According to the data , the Education Department reported the most harassment cases , totalling 253 which equated to almost $ 13 million over the five-year period .
Of that total , 10 of those claims were for sexual harassment with the payout totalling $ 374,781 . This averages to $ 29,211.65 per person .
SA Health had the second highest number of sexual harassment cases , with seven claims made . Within the department , a total of 227 workplace harassment claims were made .
This was followed by SA Police with 72 cases , the Human Services Department with 61 and the Corrections Department with 44 claims .
The figures also suggested that $ 701,079 was spent on the 24 sexual harassment claims across the entire state government
SA-Best MLC Frank Pangallo said he had asked the Treasurer Rob Lucas to investigate the matter .
“ These statistics are extremely disturbing and further proof much more needs to be done to stamp out all forms of harassment in the workplace ,” he said .
“ They also confirm what SA-BEST has long suspected and feared – that workplace bullying and harassment is rife in the Department for Education .
“ One of my concerns is that if principals and teachers are harassing their own , what chance have we of teaching our children about the insidious nature of harassment and the damage it can cause .”
Fellow MLC Connie Bonaros said all South Australians should be alarmed by the statistics .
“ If the government was doing more to tackle harassment and bullying of public servants , that money could be redirected to fund critical public health services and other crucial support services cut by this heartless government ,” she said . ■
Photo : William West / AFP
Climate strike support
Greta supports Aussie school climate protesters .
Greta Thunberg tweeted her support for Australian schoolchildren who ditched class to rally against the nation ’ s climate policies .
There was a sense of anger and defiance among the thousands of school kids who rallied in the rain outside Sydney ’ s Town Hall on May 21 as part of the nationwide School Strike 4 Climate .
One of the organisers of the Sydney event said kids don ’ t see the point in trying hard in class while the federal Government ignores their call to move to renewable energy .
Natasha Abhayawickrama , 16 , said they walked out of school because they believed creating a “ disruption ” was the only way their voices would be heard .
“ We don ’ t understand the point of working so hard in school when we ’ re graduating to a future which is just going to be full of extreme environmental event after extreme environmental event ,” she said .
Natasha , from Sydney ’ s northwest , claimed moving to renewable energies in place of fossil fuels would be cheaper and create more jobs .
“ We won ’ t stop protesting until they see the climate crisis for what it is , a crisis ,” she said . “ We ’ ve tried writing letters , protests after school , on weekends but simply we ’ ve just seen that we can ’ t make an impact if we don ’ t strike when people are paying attention . We have to create a distraction , create a disturbance in order to get attention .” ■
6 | educationreview . com . au