And while government is flirting with disaster by willfully ignoring the CITES requirements, it is simultaneously engaging the Public Service Union on another front. That's for the administrative leave given to Forester Daniel Chi - for daring to confiscate plants from a family that had a direct line to the Prime Minister.
He was placed on leave - which is usually for the purpose of investigation of a complaint of wrongdoing - but the PSU says that the way the letter was put to him, it was made clear that it was punitive:
Jackie Willoughby - PSU
"Where as administrative leave exist in the regulation, the manner in which it was applied is wrong, absolutely wrong."
Calbert Barber - PSU Industrial Relations Officer
"However the wording of Mr. Chi's letter suggest that it's punitive because they are saying he is being placed on administrative leave because of the infraction and they were specific. Essentially it is a minor misconduct being unprofessional to the public, so I don't know why they chose that route but even the administrative leave itself does not meet the rigors of the regulation, it's amazing and the letter itself, is not even worth the paper it's written on but it's just the continued political interference that started from that supposed phone call to Mr. Chi."
Jackie Willoughby
"This CEO was obviously setup because for him to have written a letter in the fashion that he did and to list out what the issues are, that is travesty man. The prime minister ought not call any public officer, there's a chain of command. When you review my regulations, it tells me exactly who I am subjected to. For you to bypass everybody and to go all the way to the bottom and then feel emotional because somebody according to you, sets the phone down on you, noticed I said somebody because it's not Mr. Chi and that is what the public service is suffering from. Tomorrow Mr. Chi is to report to work, when Mr. Chi reports to work, we will determine how this thing goes."
We'll let you know what, if anything happens when Forester Chi returns to work tomorrow.
