Welcome

This website provides information in support of Brett O’Donnell’s 2019 campaign to represent the people of South Australia in the Senate of the Australian Parliament.

If elected, I aim to identify and respond to individual cases of abuse and neglect that are currently creating serious harm in the South Australian community. Systemic abuse is rife and the extent of unnecessary suffering demands a response that supports early intervention with urgency. There is a pressing need for greater enforceability of common sense health and safety responses to all wellbeing risks in our community, informed by the directions of treating health professionals, and the accounts of first responders and witnesses.

Whilst some may consider such an approach unconventional, I consider the current pathways involving resource stretched law enforcement and health and safety agencies, complex legal processes combining with considerable financial risks as creating an environment permissive of predators and neglect. Untimely responses have become normalised and deeply entrenched, frequently occurring years later in Royal Commissions, inquiries, inquests or other retrospective investigations

I believe there is broad community support for enforceable laws to prevent further injury when inflicted repeatedly following clear identification by first responders, witnesses and health professionals. Whilst recognising that some instances of serious harm and injury will be of a complexity ill-suited to such a direct approach, there remains a frightening amount of instances where victims and perpetrators have been clearly identifiable and often brought into sharper focus through the occurrence of further serious injury, stonewalling, cover ups and failures of due process and procedure. Legal complexity, non-disclosure agreements and financial compensation frequently do not prevent future harm. Whilst many parliamentarians recently disparaged doctors in response to the passing of the Medevac legislation, I intend to support treating doctors and health professionals in truly caring and protecting their patients.

HOW THIS WILL WORK

Following a disclosure and clear consent to investigate being received from the injured individual/s or their guardian/s, my office will contact other involved parties excepting the alleged perpetrator/s and the individual/s and/or organisation/s responsible for the environment in which the alleged abuse and/or neglect is occurring. Investigations will focus on verifying serious injury and harm, cause and effect and the steps taken by individuals and/or organisations to seek help, intervene and to actively mitigate the risk of re-occurrence.

It is my intention to contact alleged perpetrators and involved organisations after verifying serious injury, and identification and communications to the alleged perpetrator/s and organisation/s regarding the serious health and safety risks. My initial contact with alleged perpetrators and/or organisations will not identify any individuals but request clear details regarding past behaviour, or policies and procedures in the case of organisations, around the circumstances of the complaint. It is my hope that through private and informal advocacy that I can protect South Australians from harm in a timely manner but appreciate that some responses may need to be detailed publicly especially whenever harm and injury continues to occur. This process ideally will not overlap with any formal legal action but foresee instances where such proceedings may have commenced but a compelling case is made for intervention. For example, a respondent wilfully extending legal proceedings in unanticipated ways, challenging a complainants' financial capacity to continue pursuing justice in court. Similarly, I expect that any investigation by my office will occur following investigations, or the refusal to investigate, by law enforcement and health and safety agencies - except in extraordinary circumstances.

Whilst my initial focus will be on incidents of serious and repeated physical and/or psychological harm, I will undoubtedly have contact with some incidents of abuse that may have a complexity ill-suited to my intervention. I expect that deciding whether or not to directly engage with some complaints will be challenging but will seek to practically support individuals in other ways. There is much debate about the most effective way to encourage the timely disclosures of abuse, whether that be through the establishment of a dedicated whistleblowing agency, a bill of rights, expansion of mandatory reporting to include all vulnerable people or the offering of financial rewards - to name a few. I strongly feel that the disclosure process must support accessibility in the first instance where possible, to balance the ledger against perpetrators who routinely refuse to engage in any discussion around allegations despite the seriousness of the incidents or injuries sustained. It is high time that the refusal of any individual or organisation to engage in good faith, informal mediation or communications aimed at stopping serious harm in our community be viewed as the catalyst for a more enforceable process - not civil action and significant financial risks. There are a number of South Australians who feel very alone in responding to harmful behaviour occurring in our community right now and supporting these South Australians will be my main focus.

Over the course of six years, I hope to bring about a focus upon this systemic failure, change the conversation by the major parties and create legislation that will strengthen in law everyone's right to be safe from clearly identified harm. I will endeavour to consult broadly and whilst I have a clear vision of how I will initially represent South Australians, I intend for this to be an organic process that is informed and adapts to the input of victims, survivors and their advocates to make our community safer. I feel too many parliamentarians are beholden to ideology, donors and their own 'expertise' rather than truly representing their constituents. The majority of Australians are repulsed by innumerable failures to protect vulnerable members of our community and we need to more directly address systemic abuse with an emphasis on early intervention and accessibility, accompanied with legal enforceability if injury and harm continues.

If elected, I will:

*Be an advocate & voice for South Australian survivors and victims of abuse and neglect, and their supporters. Whilst I intend to participate in parliamentary processes, I consider my primary duties to be directly engaging with more current substantiated incidents of abuse and neglect reported to my office and will prioritise engaging with such incidents over my six year term, particularly in family violence settings or when involving harm to our children, elders, veterans, disabled or ill South Australians.

*Donate over 10% of my net wage to organisations that support and care for South Australians ($90k over 6 years). If elected, during the 2019/2020 financial year, I intend to donate $5k to Women's Safety Services SA; $5k to SA based members of Australian Men’s Shed Association and $5k to Keith & District Memorial Community Hospital.

*Accept no financial donations. My campaign is self-funded and whilst not intending to ask for assistance, I hope to obtain support in the form of services from individuals and organisations in assisting with scrutineer roles, erecting signs at polling booths on polling day and such. If elected, I expect to be representing South Australians in financial hardship or in dispute with organisations with significant financial backing and wish to eliminate the influence of money on any outcome as much as possible. If there is a conflict of interest or the perception of a conflict of interest interfering with my ability to investigate any complaint, I intend to refer the matter to the constituents local MP or an SA based senator to pursue further.

*Offer in-principle support on Appropriation and Supply bills before the Senate to either of the major parties if they command a clear majority in the House of Representatives. Whilst frustrated by the instability that has characterised the last ten years in our nation’s parliament, I intend to respect and support the wishes of the majority of Australians in supporting the supply motions of the government of the day.

PERSONAL BACKGROUND

Our current Prime Minister loves to emphasise how he is an everyday bloke but I'm an actual everyday bloke, of the 45 year old father of two variety. Born in 1973 in the Northern Community Hospital in Prospect, I grew up largely in the north eastern suburbs of Adelaide and during my primary school years, in Mount Gambier. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Flinders University in 1996 and over the next two decades, was employed primarily in a range of customer service and administrative roles in diverse sectors such as Energy, Education, Telecommunications and various Government Services. Recently, I have been enjoying my role as carer to my youngest child around part time casual labouring work - also enabling my defacto partner of 10 years, Vanessa, to further pursue her career. I also have alternate career in the arts with a diverse resume including various roles on amateur and professional films, DJ work and over 30 years’ experience drumming in various bands - most recently in Blackpenny who performed as part of the 2019 Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Prior to commencing our political careers, our current PM and myself were both sacked but unlike our current Prime Minister, I wish to be more open about these circumstances. I have been sacked twice in my life; the catalyst for my first dismissal in 1999 appeared to be obeying a request from my supervisor to forward him an offensive email that my sister had sent me. I had been an employee for 15 months in work area that had an unhealthy email culture evident at all levels of the organisation. The catalyst for my more recent dismissal in 2015 was to not follow the orders of my supervisors, and to directly challenge harmful behaviour that I had repeatedly experienced and witnessed over 6 years in the workplace. In 2015, this unsafe behaviour escalated to an unprecedented level involving not only the serial perpetrator and their work unit but union staff and the most senior levels of the organisation in a coordinated and unethical attack conducted over many months. As a result of witnessing harmful behaviour by union staff, I resigned from my role as delegate and as a union member prior to my dismissal but this seemed only to provoke further victimisation of myself and another colleague by the union. However, to be clear, I do not intend to speak to matters from my past nor identify any individuals or organisations - I consider some recent uses of parliamentary privilege regarding personal disputes involving parliamentarians as unjust and self-serving. My focus is on creating a safer Australian community for our children and future generations.

During the last decade, our nation’s parliament has frequently appeared obsessed with internal leadership conflict, personal scandals and juvenile debates. Many parliamentarians, including our current Prime Minister, routinely vilify minority and vulnerable groups yet somehow simultaneously proclaim that they stand for a fair go. Just as I could no longer keep walking past inappropriate conduct in my former workplace, nor can I keep walking past the inaction of successive governments in truly supporting in law the early intervention into clearly identified incidents of serious harm. The weight and cost of trauma spreading throughout our community and future generations demands that we all do something. I am simply an everyday person wanting to gauge community support for a parliamentarian with a focus on more timely engagement with incidents of repeated abuse and neglect.

authorised by Brett O'Donnell 126 Muller road, Greenacres SA 5086