Agency Professional Standards Dramatically Decline When Appearing BeforeNSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal Hearings, 25.09.2023
Since the onset of addressing and dealing with the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NSW judiciary has jumped on board facilitating ready access to its services via Audio Visual Links (AVL) for parties to attend proceedings remotely.
At the height of the pandemic all parties to judicial proceedings automatically attended remotely, with judicial members seen sitting alone in otherwise empty hearing rooms, facing large digital screens to interact with participants.
The mechanism to attend remotely was instigated to ensure adequate management and protection of individuals’ health and safety.
The NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) also embraced the AVL technologies to ensure continued access to its services.
Such a scenario resultantly saw many professionals working from home offices, still able to meet commitments without having to navigate unnecessary and avoidable public health risks.
Resultantly there are too numerous instances of ZOOM (or similar) attendees being casually dressed in open shirt collars, t-shirts, and active wear jackets, with hair noticeably unkept, giving the impression little thought has been given to the formalities of the proceedings about to be logged into.
In recent high-profile proceedings before the NCAT involving the NSW Dept of Communities & Justice, Mr Michael McIntosh Principal Solicitor within its Open Government Information & Privacy Unit (OGIPU) was seen on the screen on his back veranda patio under his pergola with children underfoot and the mute option disengaged with the cries “Daddy! Daddy!” audible to the hearing participants and public audience, leaving no question as to just how far the level of professionalism has dropped since AVL’s have become available in the courts.
Today’s proceedings saw Mr McIntosh logged into proceedings from his vehicle suggesting Justice lacks the facilities for its senior executives to attend NCAT proceedings in private and professionally when opting to login remotely. The Justice NSW proceedings concerned a request for a departmental internal policy document which the OGIPU had responded to with extremely heavy redactions. A major issue for the tribunal to determine is Justice' disclosure those redactions include the concealment of the public's personal information, information that appears to have been used in contradiction to the Privacy & Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (PPIP).
Now that the hiatus of the pandemic has subsided, more recently AVL’s are optional with the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal now insisting any party to proceedings seeking access to hearings via AVL must first make an application and secure formal approval. This 'procedure' makes the process unnecessarily labourious for Tribunal Members who surely must have more pressing issues to attend to such as publisning long-awaited decisions, some of which keep parties waiting well over 12-months.
There are concerns there are equally strict formalities for access to AVL’s in the superior NSW courts or the High Court of Australia.
Regardless, the issue of the dramatic decline in professional standards within NCAT hearings has recently become one seeing significant public ridicule of agency officers, when a legal representative of the Dept of Regional NSW (DRN) was seen on the large NCAT AVL screen chowing down on her picnic lunch whilst the opponent and presiding member exchanged legal dialogue and formal submissions.
Ms Clarinda Sheeley, the DRN’s Director Governance, Information & Privacy, was representing the agency in response to an administrative review of a valid request for government information. Such reviews are delegated to the NCAT judicial arena.
Ms Sheeley’s attendance was continually interrupted by background noise and the regular distraction of numerous other DRN staff walking and talking behind her.
It would be difficult to accept the DRN lacked a private room for the purpose or that Ms Sheeley was not able to wait until a break in the proceedings before respectfully eating in private.
“The NCAT does not hesitate to reprimand self-represented parties for any action it considers unprofessional or not up to some kind of mysterious standard, and yet we see a representative of the governmental legal profession treating formal judicial proceedings as though she’s out at recess in the school playground.
It’s disgracefully embarrassing, leaving the expectation the officer’s documents were likely dog-eared and grubby with food scraps and saucy smudges, with patterns of coffee cup rings.
As with other overly-casual attendances by executive agency personnel, it’s just another example of the contempt exhibited by NSW public servants when responding to and participating in the public’s attempts to exercise their legally enforceable rights (supposed) to access NSW government information.
The Office of the NSW Information & Privacy Commissioner recently confirmed the state’s right to information officers are not regulated which explains a great deal of the public's frustration, but the witnessed lack of professional and personal standards in formal judicial proceedings is inexcusable,” stated Telina Webb of NSW Freedom of Information who partially attended Ms Sheeley’s appearance at the hearing, also via AVL.
“As we approach the onset of a very hot summer any reasonable person would hope the current dress standards of NSW agency personnel who attend NCAT hearings via AVL do not deteriorate further to subject us to enduring bare chests, board shorts and scanty bikinis in the back of panel vans,” she added.
The subject hearing involving Ms Sheeley was the last in a long length of ongoing protracted proceedings, with the decision reserved for an undetermined time. The proceedings concerning Justice NSW are set for final hearing in October 2023.
Contact:
Clarinda Sheeley, Dept of Regional NSW - 1300 679 673 Jonathan Franklin, Solicitor, Justice NSW - (02) 9765 4084 Michael McIntosh, Principal Solicitor, Justice NSW (all OGIP Unit staff conceal their departmental contact numbers, impeding the public's access to government services)
At the height of the pandemic all parties to judicial proceedings automatically attended remotely, with judicial members seen sitting alone in otherwise empty hearing rooms, facing large digital screens to interact with participants.
The mechanism to attend remotely was instigated to ensure adequate management and protection of individuals’ health and safety.
The NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) also embraced the AVL technologies to ensure continued access to its services.
Such a scenario resultantly saw many professionals working from home offices, still able to meet commitments without having to navigate unnecessary and avoidable public health risks.
Resultantly there are too numerous instances of ZOOM (or similar) attendees being casually dressed in open shirt collars, t-shirts, and active wear jackets, with hair noticeably unkept, giving the impression little thought has been given to the formalities of the proceedings about to be logged into.
In recent high-profile proceedings before the NCAT involving the NSW Dept of Communities & Justice, Mr Michael McIntosh Principal Solicitor within its Open Government Information & Privacy Unit (OGIPU) was seen on the screen on his back veranda patio under his pergola with children underfoot and the mute option disengaged with the cries “Daddy! Daddy!” audible to the hearing participants and public audience, leaving no question as to just how far the level of professionalism has dropped since AVL’s have become available in the courts.
Today’s proceedings saw Mr McIntosh logged into proceedings from his vehicle suggesting Justice lacks the facilities for its senior executives to attend NCAT proceedings in private and professionally when opting to login remotely. The Justice NSW proceedings concerned a request for a departmental internal policy document which the OGIPU had responded to with extremely heavy redactions. A major issue for the tribunal to determine is Justice' disclosure those redactions include the concealment of the public's personal information, information that appears to have been used in contradiction to the Privacy & Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (PPIP).
Now that the hiatus of the pandemic has subsided, more recently AVL’s are optional with the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal now insisting any party to proceedings seeking access to hearings via AVL must first make an application and secure formal approval. This 'procedure' makes the process unnecessarily labourious for Tribunal Members who surely must have more pressing issues to attend to such as publisning long-awaited decisions, some of which keep parties waiting well over 12-months.
There are concerns there are equally strict formalities for access to AVL’s in the superior NSW courts or the High Court of Australia.
Regardless, the issue of the dramatic decline in professional standards within NCAT hearings has recently become one seeing significant public ridicule of agency officers, when a legal representative of the Dept of Regional NSW (DRN) was seen on the large NCAT AVL screen chowing down on her picnic lunch whilst the opponent and presiding member exchanged legal dialogue and formal submissions.
Ms Clarinda Sheeley, the DRN’s Director Governance, Information & Privacy, was representing the agency in response to an administrative review of a valid request for government information. Such reviews are delegated to the NCAT judicial arena.
Ms Sheeley’s attendance was continually interrupted by background noise and the regular distraction of numerous other DRN staff walking and talking behind her.
It would be difficult to accept the DRN lacked a private room for the purpose or that Ms Sheeley was not able to wait until a break in the proceedings before respectfully eating in private.
“The NCAT does not hesitate to reprimand self-represented parties for any action it considers unprofessional or not up to some kind of mysterious standard, and yet we see a representative of the governmental legal profession treating formal judicial proceedings as though she’s out at recess in the school playground.
It’s disgracefully embarrassing, leaving the expectation the officer’s documents were likely dog-eared and grubby with food scraps and saucy smudges, with patterns of coffee cup rings.
As with other overly-casual attendances by executive agency personnel, it’s just another example of the contempt exhibited by NSW public servants when responding to and participating in the public’s attempts to exercise their legally enforceable rights (supposed) to access NSW government information.
The Office of the NSW Information & Privacy Commissioner recently confirmed the state’s right to information officers are not regulated which explains a great deal of the public's frustration, but the witnessed lack of professional and personal standards in formal judicial proceedings is inexcusable,” stated Telina Webb of NSW Freedom of Information who partially attended Ms Sheeley’s appearance at the hearing, also via AVL.
“As we approach the onset of a very hot summer any reasonable person would hope the current dress standards of NSW agency personnel who attend NCAT hearings via AVL do not deteriorate further to subject us to enduring bare chests, board shorts and scanty bikinis in the back of panel vans,” she added.
The subject hearing involving Ms Sheeley was the last in a long length of ongoing protracted proceedings, with the decision reserved for an undetermined time. The proceedings concerning Justice NSW are set for final hearing in October 2023.
Contact:
Clarinda Sheeley, Dept of Regional NSW - 1300 679 673 Jonathan Franklin, Solicitor, Justice NSW - (02) 9765 4084 Michael McIntosh, Principal Solicitor, Justice NSW (all OGIP Unit staff conceal their departmental contact numbers, impeding the public's access to government services)