Editorial

The Black-Eyed Susan - Symbol of Justice

Considered to originate from a ballad written by English poet John Gray (1685 - 1732), the song Black-Eyed Susan tells the melancholy story of a broken-hearted, lovesick and perhaps even jilted young woman, farewelling her beloved sailor as his ship prepares to depart to far-off India and a possible war. He is likely never to return.
It is a story of promises made, hopes ignited, and of futures dreamed. But ending only in a harsh reality of dissapointment and heartache, forever changing the imaginations and naive expectations of something initially completley real, tangible, within reach, and imminent.

The flower itself is known for its ancient medicinal applications by the American Cherokee and Forest Potawatomis. In the gentrified Victorian era flowers were often used to subtley express feelings and effectively communicate without the need to speak aloud, particularly evident in the giving of flowers to express romantic emotions, as gestures of compassion and empathy in times of grief, and to show appreciation to a dear friend or caring neighbor. In the 21st Century nothing has changed. Standing proud and tall, its golden face and shining eyes turned upwards, in addition to its recorded native medicinal applications the Black-Eyed Susan rises to represent justice, encouragement and motivation. Little wonder then why it has been embraced by NSW Freedom of Information to represent the growing list of Victims of the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal, NCAT. In this instance however, the flower does not stand tall and straight, its brilliant face and twinkling eyes have dimmed, its shoulders bent, no longer stretching upwards towards a life-giving sun and quenching rain. Its face is lowered, the once-glorious petals are wilted and falling, the flower is dying, its shadow a cross indicative of the inevitability of its foreseeable demise. This new image has compelling relevance. It has searing reverence. To those members of the public who seek audience with the NCAT, naively expecting King Somomon's wisdom and impartiality, but who find instead a great many Members of ex-agency-employ who openly side with compatriots, allowing Agency personnel to ignore legislated protocols and oft times trample the public's fundamental rights, those members of the public see a justice system that is broken and stacked in favour of Agencies. The NCAT's dislosure "it stands in the shoes of the decision-maker" has given the game away. It makes clear it does not stand in the shoes of the public before it. Understandably, the public also see a system that does not bring qualified, knowledgeable, wrong-doing Agency personnel to any account whatsoever. Indeed, the NCAT Act 2013 is written in a way that the NCAT itself does not take any action whatseover, it must be initiated by the public, by those very indiviuals who have suffered that wrong-doing. Responsibility for account is placed squarely in the hands of those who have already suffered. Case after case sees the NCAT make clear to pleading victims, NCAT does not deal with misconduct. And Agency personnel know this full well. In comparison to the manner in which NCAT Members favour and grant huge allowances to Agency personnel, the general public regularly leave the NCAT bar table agast at the lack of equity, with reputations irreparably damaged, suffering extreme distress and anxiety, and at times severely financially penalised for daring to bring matters before it for adjudication. In the current legislative climate, it is far too easy for any government agency or judiciary to purposely victimise and criminalise members of the public for attempting to exercise fundamental legally enforceable (alleged) rights, in this context it is simply the right to access NSW government information. There is no law-breaking, no misconduct, only requests to access NSW government information. Until the NSW justice system acknowledges its long list of failures to the public, takes responsibility for the numerous documented gross miscarriages of justice, and listens to the public it is set up to serve and protect in order to facilitate crucially relevant change, the dying Black-Eyed Susan will continue to stand as representative for the public, the Victims of NCAT.