The Australian Border Force is under pressure to conduct a root-and-branch overhaul of its culture, following revelations of “alarming” levels of sexual harassment and bullying, the existence of a “boys’ club” mentality, and fears that new trainees were “cowboys” who were “too keen to use weapons”.
On Friday, Guardian Australia revealed that a 2017 review, known as the May report, had found deeply entrenched cultural failings in the ABF, which were driving bias and discrimination against women, diverse employees, people with a disability and older workers.
Female ABF members reported “alarming experiences of past and present sexual harassment and inappropriate comments”, and one in 10 said sexual harassment was a barrier to career progression. Sexual harassment was particularly bad at Sydney and Brisbane airports.
The deputy national president of the Community and Public Sector Union, Lisa Newman, said the report outlined “unacceptable hostility towards women” which was part of a much broader unresolved cultural problem in the ABF.
“An unhealthy workplace culture has been not just allowed but encouraged to develop, posing a real risk to the welfare of staff and the effective operations of the department,” Newman told Guardian Australia.
“ABF bosses have received plenty of reports and surveys about these problems but they’ve done little if anything to address them,” she said.
“We believe these issues deserve a root-and-branch review to identify, develop and implement strategies that ensure a workplace culture in which it’s an individual’s capacity and not their gender, race or religion that determines their career path.”
Newman called for ABF management to work with the CPSU and its members to address the problems, as well as a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.
“It’s little wonder that ABF officers feel undervalued and undermined by their bosses when they’re still waiting for a final resolution five years after this ugly dispute over pay and working conditions began.”
The report, which examined five sites and involved interviews with 700 employees, revealed concerns that the newly merged agency was recruiting trainees who were “cowboys, too aggressive and too keen to use weapons”.
The ABF commissioner, Michael Outram, released a statement earlier this month outlining the steps taken since the completion of the May report’s completion in 2017.
That included holding a series of meetings with staff, establishing a cultural taskforce and launching a “speak safe” initiative to give officers a forum to discuss problems openly.
“Unfortunately, over recent years, our staff have let us know that we are not immune to the issues of workplace bullying and sexual harassment, which are also far too prevalent in our society today. Social norms are shifting and we must too,” Outram said at the time.
About half the women surveyed viewed the ABF either as a boys’ club or an agency that paid only lip service to creating an inclusive workplace. Many did not feel safe raising problems with their supervisors.
The May report was commissioned by the former ABF commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg, before his sacking in May last year. Quaedvlieg said he had been shocked by stories heard during tours of frontline ABF sites, particularly at major airports. He said he had heard one low-ranking female ABF officer say that her superiors had warned her not to “give the boys blow jobs in the meal room’” during her break.
“I used to walk round the big airports and talk to the staff one-on-one without being chaperoned by supervisors,” he told Guardian Australia. “They’d tell me these stories, and I got a very strong sense of déjà vu because I’d seen this before in policing organisations.
“To me, it rung true, but I wanted to ground it in an independent review and a rigorous methodology. When the interim results came through, it pretty much confirmed both the existence and level that I anticipated. Obviously it was disappointing, but it was enough for me to say ‘OK, let’s get this fixed’.”
Quaedvlieg was sacked for failing to disclose his relationship with a woman who he helped get a job at Sydney airport.
Labor’s shadow immigration minister, Shayne Neumann, said the opposition held serious concerns about the environment that had been created at ABF.
“Labor expects the multimillion dollar review into the Department of Home Affairs announced in the 2018-19 budget would investigate any concerning issues being faced within the Australian Border Force,” he said.
