Raverty under pressure – detailing the latest silencing strategy

“…my New Zealand General Manager told me in a one-on-one meeting, acting as judge, jury and executioner, that this publication of ‘confidential CSIRO information’ contravenes my terms of employment and as a consequence I am to be removed from my current position of Sustainability Coordinator for the pulp and paper section of Ensis, consigned to a ‘back room’ and that my file is to be marked ‘Never to be Promoted’…”

On April 21 I had further communication with Dr Warwick Raverty, a public whistleblower on the major Tasmanian pulp mill proposal. Dr Raverty is employed by CSIRO although he is currently seconded to CSIRO’s Trans-Tasman unincorporated forestry joint venture, Ensis. During secondment, Dr Raverty remains a CSIRO employee. Dr Raverty’s General Manager is an employee of Scion, formerly the Forest Research Institute of New Zealand another government body.

Throughout his whistle-blowing attacks on the Tasmanian Labour Government and the Pulp Mill proponents, Gunns Limited, Dr Raverty has constantly stressed in media interviews that he is speaking as a private individual (he had 20 years experience in the pulp industry before joining CSIRO in 2000) and has been very complimentary about how CSIRO’s Office of the Chief Executive have allowed him to express his personal expert views without sanction.

“I am however getting what I see as completely illegal pressure and bullying from the other side of the Tasman,” Dr Raverty said. “My Scion General Manager subjected me to what was effectively a ‘kangaroo court’, or perhaps it was a ‘kiwi court’, I couldn’t really tell, last Wednesday. This action was totally illegal under my CSIRO conditions of employment, but apparently it isn’t in New Zealand.

“I was accused of breaching CSIRO confidentiality by this Scion man because I ‘whistle-blew’ the fact that the Gunns Pulp Mill Project Manager had contacted CSIRO and attempted to intimidate a Government official (an offense against the (Australian) Crimes Act as I understand it) into preventing me from making a public address when I spoke to the 400 people in Launceston. An hour or so earlier, I had in fact been contacted by a CSIRO colleague by phone, while on annual leave, who begged me to cancel the address, ‘or there would be very serious consequences for me’.

“My CSIRO colleague also begged me, in the same phone call, not to make the attempted intimidation public. Because I had been told that Gunns is well known on the streets of Tasmania as being a corporate bully, with a PhD in subtle intimidation of critics, but Ph Ds in little else of consequence to pulp mills, I decided to make the attempted intimidation by Gunns public on 26 March.

“Almost a month later, my New Zealand General Manager told me in a one-on-one meeting, acting as judge, jury and executioner, that this publication of ‘confidential CSIRO information’ contravenes my terms of employment and as a consequence I am to be removed from my current position of Sustainability Coordinator for the pulp and paper section of Ensis, consigned to a ‘back room’ and that my file is to be marked ‘Never to be Promoted’.

“I am para-phrasing what my General Manager said, but when I used those precise words to him in response, my General manger did not refute my para-phrase.

“Rest assured that I will use what remain of Australia’s industrial relations laws to fight this man tooth and nail. I have a Queen’s Council very willing to act pro bono on my behalf, so we will see where CSIRO stands on this issue.

“CSIRO has a mission statement that includes the words ‘to…..provide social and environmental benefit to Australia’. Now while I was not acting on behalf of CSIRO while I was on annual leave, I believe that I was contributing to the great Australian tradition of Volunteers and using my scientific expertise to provide both social and environmental benefit to 100,000 people in the Tamar Valley, whose health and quality of life will be put at severe risk if the Pulp Mill Assessment Act 2007, or Gunns’ Dream Act 2007 as the Leader of the Upper House in Tasmania calls it, takes its expected shonky course.

“If an Australian judge determines that I have technically breached one of the conditions of my employment in order to protect the health of 100,000 of my fellow citizens, I will willingly and happily go to jail for the offense. Nelson Mandela will be sitting right beside me in spirit keeping me company!”, Dr Raverty said.

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