- Robert Bibo resigned from the Australian Capital Territory State Emergency Service (ACTSES) in February 2022 after being accused of inappropriate behavior.
- The Commissioner of the ACT Emergency Services Agency (ESA), Georgeina Whelan, AM, CSC and Bar showed a lack of respect by calling him ‘Bob’, despite knowing his name is Robert.
- Robert was accused of inappropriate behavior after he told the Commissioner not to call him ‘Bob’ at an online meeting on 14 February 2022.
Background
Robert Bibo joined the ACTSES in early 2019 and soon after finishing training assisted with the national response to the fires of 2019-2020. On 10 December 2020 he was appointed Commander of the Rivers SES Unit. He was awarded the National Emergency Medal, the ACT Emergency Medal, the NSW Premier’s Bushfire Emergency Citation and an ACTSES Certificate of Appreciation for his contribution to the bushfire emergency response.
Robert has never been known as ‘Bob’, not by family or any SES volunteers. On those occasions when someone being met for the first time has called him Bob, Robert has politely told them his name is Robert, as appropriate (we’ll talk about the Police later). Robert has not treated the Commissioner any differently in telling her his name.
The Commissioner and Robert have met more than once in the 33 months of his membership. The Commissioner and Anthony Draheim, Chief Officer of the SES have visited the Rivers Unit on training nights. Usually annually, this is an opportunity for the members to be thanked for their contribution to the community.
Robert has always been recorded in ESA documentation and official organisation charts as Robert Bibo. The minutes of regular Chief Officer and Commanders meeting, which he presumes are seen by the Commissioner as a way of being informed, have always recorded him as Robert Bibo. The name badge sewn on his SES tunic is Robert.
Robert introduced to the Rivers Unit the motto “a communitate et communitatis” – from the community and for the community.
What Happened
My engagement at the meeting can be summarised as: arriving late, listening to a speaker’s last words, commenting on something said by the speaker, telling the speaker not to call me ‘Bob’, saying my name is Robert, quitting the online link.
On 14 February 2022 at 18:00 I joined an MS Teams Meeting of the SES Volunteers Association, some of the seven SES Unit Commanders, the Commissioner and I think some staff of the ESA. The Commissioner had trouble getting her laptop display repeated on to the large screen in the ESA meeting room and the Teams meeting was abandoned at about 18:20 for a new Webex meeting.
I did not receive the Webex invitation until after the meeting had started. Text messages between AM and RB will show the delay was caused by the convener of the Webex meeting not using the correct email address.
When I joined the meeting, the Commissioner was speaking and soon finished. My name ‘Robert Bibo’ was displayed on the screen in the ESA meeting room. I did not hear anything the Commissioner said before I joined the meeting.
Believing the Commissioner was inviting discussion on the topics she was speaking about, I commented and asked a question. The Commissioner replied with, “[something I don’t remember], Bob”.
It felt like being hit over the head with a sledgehammer. Calling me ‘Bob’ was an appalling lack of respect.
- Despite being previously corrected by me and being present when I have corrected others, the Commissioner called me ‘Bob’. And my name was on the screen in front of her.
- Despite being a Commander of an SES Unit for over 12 months the Commissioner called me ‘Bob’. And my name was on the screen in front of her.
- How could the Commissioner of the ESA not think she needs to be respectful to an emergency service volunteer and simply read a name from the screen in front of her?
‘Bob’ could be a nickname. Here are some other nicknames: four-eyes, ‘ranga (as in red-haired), slope, retard, nigger. If the Commissioner does not know when it is appropriate to use a nickname, or how to identify an appropriate nickname, the Commissioner lacks the professionalism to hold a leadership position.
When you do not use a person’s name(s) you dehumanise them. What actions against them can you justify? History and current events have some extreme examples of disrespect.
Eleven days after the meeting the SES Chief Officer, Anthony Draheim sent me an email with the words ‘allegation of inappropriate behaviour’ in the subject field. Could the Chief Officer believe that me telling the Commissioner not to call me ‘Bob’, is inappropriate?
The allegation cannot be based on anything that happened at the meeting before I joined the meeting. Nor can the allegation be based on me contributing to a topic the Commissioner had herself raised. Perhaps it is a case of how I said it?
I was angered by an appalling lack of respect and said, “Do not call me Bob,” in my angry voice, as an unexpected response. When someone treats you like a piece of shit, I think some anger is understandable. The Commissioner’s actions were the cause of my anger.
It seems the Commissioner could be accused of inappropriate behaviour, on the basis she chose to ignore my name displayed on the screen in front of her, whereas my action was not deliberate, but the unexpected response of someone in shock and disbelief.
The Commissioner holds a leadership position; professionalism is expected, not an abuse of power. How could an agency of the ACT Government justify seeking to punish an employee on the basis of the head of the agency showing a lack of respect to that employee?
I informed the SES of my resignation on 27 February 2022. I could have had an enjoyable and valued time helping the community, but for a lack of respect shown by the Commissioner and supported by the Chief Officer.
It is only because of the ordinary members of the SES that my time with the SES has been enjoyable.
ACT Police
My engagement with the ACT Police has been at missing person searches, evidence searches and door knocks during the fires.
When officers of the SRG are briefing SES searchers about a missing person, whose life may be at risk, and say “Bob, take your team to search area two,” when is the appropriate time to say, “Oh, by the way, I prefer Robert?”
When working with the SRG the SES has one job. Nothing else matters.
Politics at Play
Idiom: say or do things for political reasons instead of doing what is right or best for others.
The Commissioner’s actions appear deliberate, however if a genuine mistake was made, why not just apologise? Why would the Chief Officer not defend my right to be addressed by my name and advise the Commissioner to apologise?
If you assign a cost to an apparent criticism of the boss and denying a common courtesy to one person, the former has the highest cost. We can assume a subordinate might have little influence over a superior. Cost would not be relevant to the obsequious servant.
Gender might have some relevance in deciding on an accusation of inappropriate behaviour (female Commissioner, male Chief Office, male volunteer), but how would be speculation. Let’s look at how the meeting came about for anything else.
In early 2022 the ACT government announced that Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) would be provided to schools: two tests per student for four weeks, (later extended for another four weeks with altered arrangements). Providing the RAT involved ACT government employees and volunteers from the ESA.
Volunteers from the SES, Rural Fire Service and Community Fire Units (CFU) were asked to assist in packing the RATs for distribution to schools. This request raised a number of issues, two being:
- Asking volunteers to perform four weeks unpaid work expects their employers to carry the cost of the work, or the volunteer (and self-employed) if taking unpaid leave, even though the work that was within the responsibility of the Health (medical supply) and Education (school supply) Departments.
- Volunteers might not be available to respond to the SES core responsibilities for storm and water damage.
SES volunteers generally have no objection to helping the community wherever asked, but the four-week duration and lack of obvious emergency caused a disconnect between the request and what volunteers believed could be legitimately expected.
Concerns were raised within the Commander’s group and discussions progressed to include the Volunteers Association, the Chief Officer and then to involve the Commissioner, as the proper involvement of stakeholders and to consider relevant information.
A concern among some SES volunteers was the view that the ESA was treating volunteers as an on-call unpaid labour force. The industry had been exporting RATs since early 2021 and supplies could have been already organised.
Essentially, the ESA seems to have no clear definition of how far the role of the SES extends and what is the best service to provide to the community: in practice, what is expected from volunteers and how the volunteers are trained and supported to provide that service.
The ESA’s position is clearly not that the right thing to do is to alienate emergency service volunteers by treating them as ‘slave labour’. Though I have heard it said more than once that the CFU have a ‘special demographic’, meaning old people with nothing better to do.
Failing to define what is expected from SES volunteers (hence the concern about what was expected) and giving them training and support to provide the appropriate service to the community does not help the community to prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies.
At the meeting the Commissioner mentioned the ACT Government’s decision to supply RATs to schools at a time they were in short supply. My comment in reply was my observation that it seemed odd that a government decision would result in an emergency requiring the deployment of the SES (unlike storms and floods which aren’t government decisions). My question was about waiting for an improvement in supply, i.e., to support the supply of RATs to schools, why not wait for the supply situation to improve.
The Commissioner’s response in not using my name could just be an embarrassing mistake, or is is an incompetence in reading a name from a screen. However, the accusation of inappropriate behaviour is deliberate and therefore malicious.
Expected Outcome
What is the expected outcome of a document with the title ‘Accusation of Inappropriate Behaviour’ reporting Robert told the Commissioner of the ESA his name?
The Commissioner has no power to punish me. As a volunteer there is no pay or position to be affected. There is no power to affect whether or not I volunteer to help the community. The only effect is to make me decide I cannot be part of an organisation that exhibits malice and Nazi-like behaviour. A deliberate refusal to use my name is Nazi-like in the sense that it dehumanises me for a personal characteristic. Which brings us back to the police.
There are two things that stand-out in my experience when the SES has supported police. First, every operation begins and ends with police thanking volunteers: police have always appreciated how volunteer support helps them with outcomes. Second, every operation has mental health as an issue somewhere in the narrative. Most often this is weighted towards a missing person, but volunteers can be impacted.
The ESA has a peer support network to help volunteers with distressing experiences. The Commissioner cannot be ignorant of the ESA’s responsibility in this space.
I don’t believe in ignoring a person’s name and then attacking them for stating their name is consistent with proper mental health support and a good example of how a person in a leadership position should show appreciation for the work of an emergency service volunteer. The only outcome I can see are offensive and absurd Nazi-like actions to dehumanise someone helping the community.
What Makes a Good Commander?
I have now had (in the third week of May 2022) a conversation with the new Commander of the Rivers Unit of the ACTSES who is faced with the same question I confronted in December 2019, “Am I going to be a good Commander?”
There is no handy reference book on being a Commander of an ACTSES unit. The training for team leader is more about how to delegate tasks than actual leadership. (The competency is PUAOPE015 – Conduct briefings and debriefings. And the official description of responsibilities is bureaucratic fluff.) When I became Commander, I received from the previous office-holder hand-over notes and an offer of advice if needed. It was left to me to define how to lead a single work group of a larger organisation.
Here are some of the things I found useful. It is not an exhaustive list, but the more significant ones I can think of.
The Commander must recognise the team-based volunteer foundation of the Unit. The simplest statement of the role reflects the ‘servant of others’ principle. Say to yourself, “My job is to help you do your best to help the community.” This means, amongst other things: a) telling the volunteers their contribution is valued, b) dealing with the administration that detracts from or supports operational capability, and c) asking how your decisions support the volunteers. The Commander is in charge and must exercise authority confidently, with humility and ethically.
Encourage members to do what they are good at. Do the things you are good at, (I wrote reference documents that continue to be used). Do not expect members to do more than they are comfortable with. Be yourself.
Lesson Learned
There are two things to learn from my experience, politics exists in organisations and so does under-performance. The politics can be summarised as ‘Do not upset the person in the big office’. The under-performance can be seen in the fact that someone thought it a good idea to claim in an official document saying your name is inappropriate behaviour.
The situation has not been managed very well. The facts should have been obvious from a critical look at the available information. An alternative outcome could have been envisioned: one person apologises for being disrespectful and one person apologises for being angered. There was clearly no attempt to identify the real issues to be resolved and the best outcome to be obtained.
The Chief Officer seems to have prioritised the rule above before a competent response to the absurd claim of inappropriate behaviour for saying your name. Any Chief Officer of the SES who does not protect even one SES volunteer deserves no agency with the entire SES.
Under-performance can be seen in the distribution of the National Emergency Medal and ACT Emergency Medal. The official awards ceremony was held on 28 March 2022 (here). Eighty-seven days later, despite being told (from mid-May on) by multiple sources the medals were being mailed, I had not received the medals awarded to me. Paid emergency services staff trained in the Australasian Inter-Service Incident Management System (AIIMS) couldn’t apply their skills to the simple task of going to the post office.
The ESA has some professional and dedicated staff. The enthusiasm and community-mindedness of those staff and volunteers I met after joining the SES that suggested I’d have an enjoyable and valuable contribution to the community in the coming years. It is only because of one of those persons my medals were personally delivered, for which I thank them.
There were no minutes of the February 14 meeting circulated, if ever they were produced. The only notes I made record without further detail: 1) a personal opinion about the government’s decision [on the Covid-19 response] would not be provided, 2) ESA volunteers would not be used to clean up the rubbish left at Exhibition Park in Canberra by the people who had camped there to attend the Convoy to Canberra on 12 February 2022, 3) ACT Government had delayed making decisions until after the NSW Government had announced decisions so that the ACT’s Covid-19 response would be consistent with that of NSW, and 4) the decision to supply RATs to schools came at a time the tests were in short supply.
Clearly, I wasn’t paying attention to the rule by asking about the supply of RATs, but then, as an emergency services volunteer, I recognise that the community sits in a much bigger office than any paid public servant, hence the Latin – from the community and for the community.
Robert Bibo
a communitate et communitatis