Like Brigadier Michael Arnold, Brigadier Marsh has refused to investigate my concerns about the ADF's critical shortage of Health Professionals, despite my 4 page letter to him and written directives that he must do so. Apparently he doesn't care about Australian troops, either.
I have edited out names of innocents, as before.
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Brigadier Marsh, RFD
Commander 4 Brigade
Simpson Barracks
Victoria 6th December 2010
Dear Brigadier Marsh,
I write in response to LTCOL L.A. Grime's Notice to Show Cause why I should not be suspended from duty on suspicion of committing service offences.
In addition to responding to the notice, this document is also a complaint about harassment and discrimination against Specialist Service Officers by General Service Officers generally and discrimination against me specifically by General Service Officers because I am a Specialist Service Officer. I refer you to DI(G) PERS 35-3 Management and Reporting of Unacceptable Behaviour.
I have not sought advice about the notice as it was served upon me on Tuesday evening, giving me effectively three days (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) to seek advice. I have not received one of the documents, an MP3 file, that LTCOL Grimes promised me. The time given for me to respond is manifestly unfair and in keeping with the bastardisation of Specialist Service Officers by General Service Officers that I have been complaining about for several years now.
Nevertheless, the notice is of the same extremely poor standard as previous attempts by LTCOL LA Grimes to harass me and I am confident that this will be as easy to dismiss as the kangaroo courts she organised in 2008 and 2009 and the court martial in September this year.
I will assume the missing document LTCOL Grimes has failed to supply is substantially about the same subject, that is the inability of the ADF to provide health support to Australian soldiers because of the inability of the ADF to retain doctors, nurses and dentists.
There are at least seven reasons why I cannot be reasonably suspended. I suspect if I had a reasonable amount of time or the opportunity to seek expert counsel, many more would come to light. But off the top of my head I can immediately think of the following. In no particular order, they are:
- There is insufficient reason to suspend me;
- There is no advantage gained by the ADF in suspending me;
- There is considerable disadvantage to the ADF if I were to be suspended;
- Suspending me will diminish morale amongst health personnel and other ADF members;
- There is overwhelming evidence the Defence Force Discipline Act is being misused again as part of a general campaign of harassment of SSOs and myself specifically;
- Supporting the actions of LTCOL LA Grimes will foster the current poor practice of ADF GSOs in resorting to the most extreme processes and punishments as their first or early action in dealing with situations that are better handled through inquiry, education and negotiation; and
- Suspending me from duty is not in the interests of Australia or the ADF.
Firstly, It is clear from that the issuing of this notice that LTCOL Grimes does not understand the process she is initiating. She has written in her notice that I am being investigated, and the mere fact that I am being investigated may be reasonable grounds for suspension. This is nonsense. The investigation has not resulted in any charges being laid, nor will it. It is impossible for the ADF to prosecute me because I was not a defence member at the time the alleged offences took place.
Further, the issues discussed with the media are matters of public knowledge. Everything mentioned is well known to any interested observer of defence matters. It has been well known for a long time the ADF cannot retain SSOs. There was no utterance of confidential material.
In any event, it is not open to the ADF to pursue this matter.
The process initiated is only every used when it becomes clear there is a reasonable chance of success in a prosecution. This is usually signalled by a decision to lay charges. It is not the 19th century, and the DFDA is not a plaything for struggling officers to use for personal vendettas.
Secondly, the ADF gains nothing by suspending me from duty. If the concern is that I will continue to voice my concerns to the Australian Parliament and press, suspension cannot prevent me from continuing to do so.
Thirdly, if I am suspended the ADF loses a critical individual asset. I enlisted in the ADF over thirty years ago, and have enormous experience working in countries all around the world. I am an experienced pharmacist, doctor and effective leader of health teams.
Fourth, morale amongst ADF health support personnel is already at an all-time low because of the extant situation you and your colleagues have created. ADF health support personnel are ignored and civilian contractors are given their jobs, or the health support is provided by allies. Suspending me from duty for trying to provide appropriate health support for members on operations will signal all observers that you disagree with the provision of appropriate health support to soldiers and further lower morale amongst all ADF members and health support personnel especially. My actions are strongly supported by every right-thinking soldier and officer.
Put more simply, I am trying to protect soldiers. You happily send them into hazardous operations without appropriate health support. No-one in their right mind would support your position, or act against mine. Suspending a Medical Officer for expressing concern about the current health situation is madness and will reinforce the current, unacceptable situation to the dismay of everyone affected by it.
Fifth, this notice continues a pattern of harassment carried out by LTCOL Grimes and her subordinates for the past two years. In some semblance of chronological order,
- The captain OIC of Beersheba was replaced by a staff sergeant, over the heads of the three remaining captains who were all SSOs. This is bizarre and confusing for everyone, especially the SSGT and the soldiers who know a captain outranks a SSGT by a fair bit.
- This year SSOs in 6th Health Company, 4 CSSB were denigrated and undermined by the appointment of an engineering captain from outside the company and associated corps who has no association with health support as the second in command. This has continued the discrimination directed towards SSOs by failing to appoint, train or encourage any of the very competent Nursing or Medical Officers with 6th Health Company.
- LTCOL Grimes had me charged with insubordination for asking an ROG to be elevated to the Chief of Army, which is clearly an offence under Defence Force Regulations.
- LTCOL Grimes instigated an investigation and adverse findings against me in my PAR, saying that I had carried out an unauthorised promotion of a new Nursing Officer, Lieutenant Nursing Officer, when he was in fact commissioned and appointed in the usual manner by a Major in Albury. All I did was congratulate him!
- Immediately upon arrival the same LT was posted to a private's position in a Low Dependency Unit by our OC, without discussion. Again this is very demoralising and denigrating to everyone who is aware of this bizarre, destructive behaviour.
- At the same time our OC said she was taking all of the Medical Officers out of their posted positions and teams and they would be working independently – which is a fairly good indication of how little she knows about our jobs, and how little she knows about how little she knows. I couldn't open the door to my practice without a receptionist and a nurse, and I often have another doctor, a practice manager and psychologist on site as well. Not to mention IT support, the bookkeeper and the other important team members I need to make a functional medical unit!
LTCOL Grime's behaviour is belligerent, bizarre and destructive of the fabric of the ADF. It displays hallmarks of psychopathic behaviour. It is most likely that the notice is so badly misconceived because it is wrongly motivated.
Sixth, if LTCOL Grimes was genuinely concerned about the ADF or members under her command or had any reasonable motivation for her actions she would have taken reasonable steps to gather information in order to make a good decision. I would have been interviewed about the precise nature of my concerns and asked why I had these concerns. Supporting her notice by suspending me will foster similar mismanagement and further poor decisions by your subordinates.
Seventh, suspending me from duty acknowledges publicly the ADF is discomforted by my concerns and adds credence and weight to them. If my concerns were unfounded, the matter would not be serious enough to attempt to silence me with the DFDA. It is not in the interests of Defence or Australia for my concerns to be supported or to be broadcast any more than is required to fix the problem. I acknowledge the futility of making this point – obviously if you had any regard for the interests of Defence or Australia, you would be more supportive of your SSOs, we would be able to provide health support for our troops and I wouldn't be so concerned about their welfare. I have included it for the other addressees.
Previous dealings in similar matters with your predecessor, Brigadier Michael Arnold, were handled in a particularly vile manner and I have no confidence you will behave any differently. Accordingly, I have elected to publish the Notice to Show Cause and my response to the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, the Minister for Defence and the Shadow Minister for Defence. I believe the critical shortage of SSOs in the ADF to be a Proper Reason for this disclosure. I consider these two documents can aid understanding of the reasons Australia is unable to properly support deployed ADF personnel and may be unable to meet treaty obligations and so constitute Proper Instruments. In the absence of any reasonable response by anyone in the ADF or the IGADF, I consider these offices to be Proper Persons to whom to disclose this information.
Further, I consider it possible the misuse of the DFDA and Military Justice System by senior officers such as Brigadier Arnold, Brigadier McDade and LTCOL LA Grimes to be seditious. The Australian Parliament, through the Senate, has made it very clear the MJS is not to be misused, and have allocated millions of dollars of public funds in order to stop this kind of misuse. I consider this notice to be further misuse of the DFDA and to directly undermine the Australian Parliament.
It is possible the actions of some of these officers have seriously weakened the ADF and may constitute offences under the DFDA, including, but not limited to:
DFDA Sect 15G Imperilling the success of operations
(1) A person who is a defence member or a defence civilian is guilty of an offence if: (a) the person engages in any conduct; and
(b) the conduct imperils the success of operations against the enemy.
DFDA Sect 20 Mutiny
(a) to overthrow lawful authority in the Defence Force or in an allied force; or
(b) to resist such lawful authority in such a manner as to prejudice substantially the operational efficiency of the Defence Force or of, or of a part of, an allied force.
Defence Force Regulations Reg 92 (2)
(a) making a complaint; or
(b) requesting the referral of a complaint.
It is clear from the above that you have a major problem with several of your middle and senior officers discriminating between SSOs and GSOs and harassing them. While your predecessor and the Chief of Army do not feel directives are binding upon them and have ignored my previously expressed concerns about discrimination and harassment of myself and other SSOs, I would take this opportunity to remind you that DI(G)PERS 35–3 Management and Reporting of Unacceptable Behaviour specifically states that an overarching principle of the ADF is that:
7b. Defence does not tolerate any forms of unacceptable behaviour, nor the mismanagement or disregard of complaints;
and specifically that:
7c. Commanders and managers are to take all reasonable measures to eliminate and prevent unacceptable behaviour and to manage complaints, including the appointment of a case manager;
My concerns are not trivial and are not confined to me. The conduct I refer to above has crippled the ADF, as you well know.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Julian Fidge BPharm, Grad Dip App Sc (Comp Sc), MBBS, FRACGP
Captain
Medical Officer
6th Health Company
4 Combat Service Support Battalion
cc Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade
Minister for Defence
Shadow Minister for Defence
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When questioned about why the ADF was not investigating, a spokesperson for Senator Snowdon, the Minister for Defence Science and Personnel and Veterans Affairs, wrote:
"On January 13, the Commander requested Dr Fidge provide additional information by January 31 in order to proceed with the investigation, as Dr Fidge's letter of complaint does not contain sufficient detailed information to thoroughly consider his complaints."
Brigadier Marsh continues to mismanage my complaint, which obviously contained enough information to make enquiries, as at the date of ths post. I am happy to report that 6th Health Company has a new 2IC, whom I think is a Nursing Officer. I am happy to have forced Lieutenant Colonel Grimes to have reversed that appointment and awarded it to an appropriate officer.
The reason it is has never been open to the ADF to investigate or prosecute me is quite clear - I was not a defence member at the time. A defence member is defined in the Defence Force Discipline Act as:
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(a) a member of the Permanent Navy, the Regular Army or the Permanent Air Force; or
(b) a member of the Reserves who:
(i) is rendering continuous full‑time service; or
(ii) is on duty or in uniform.
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And I was never on duty or in uniform when I wrote these letters or spoke to the press, far less rendering CFTS. But as the Senate found, many ADF officers don't think they are bound by the laws of this country.
I'll publish the Senate findings on the ADF's contempt of Parliament when I get time.
Cheers,
Julian
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