Review into the treatment of women at the Australian Defence Force ...

Chapter 10: Minimising Risk, Managing Incidents and Ensuring the Safety of the Workplace – Recommendations 22-31Nevertheless, these checks are only a short term solution that depend on individuals’ skills, and thecontinued smooth functioning of the system. A mandated annual quality assurance mechanism wouldoffer more stability in the longer term.ConclusionThe intent of Recommendation 25 appears to have been met. At the completion of the Audit, ADFA waswaiting for a fact sheet from DSPR around which it could base its strategic organisational response tothe Unacceptable Behaviour survey (conducted in September 2012). DSPR is a small organisation witha large body of work to complete. If it is unable to provide a formal fact sheet in a timely way, ADFAshould draw from the entire report provided to it, and especially the executive summary, in order to givesome feedback to staff and undergraduates, and to develop a response to issues of concern. Regularadministrations of the survey and meaningful follow ups are necessary in order for ADFA to be able tocreate benchmarks, measure progress and ensure effective organisational responses.ADFA and DSPR have developed a series of surveys and research proposals with the aim of collectinga wider range of comparable data across Defence and external to it. They have done this with minimalresources and without the authority to compel outside parties’ involvement. The Audit commends ADFAand DSPR on these efforts.The new complaints and incidents systems viewed by the Audit in early 2013 satisfy the intent ofRecommendation 27. The systems have met the intent of the recommendations as well as possiblewithin privacy constraints. Improvements have been driven by better education, a series of COMDT’sDirectives outlining aspects of the discipline regime, and a reorganisation of ADFA’s resources. Thesechanges have meant that ADFA has had the knowledge and capacity to collect information and organiseits systems in a more transparent and usable way.Better clarity of information and processes to provide reports to the COMDT and other senior staff arepromising developments. These processes were only months old at the completion of the Audit andshould be monitored for effectiveness and any necessary adjustments should be made.The design of the new incidents management systems provides for some level of internal checking, buta formal annual quality assurance mechanism is still required for the longer term integrity of the system.1 DSPR was known as DSPPR until recently. Most reports cited are attributed to DSPPR, but the new name is used in the text.2 Directorate of Strategic People Policy Research, Australian Defence Force Academy 2011 Unacceptable Behaviour Survey,DSPPR Report 5/2011, Department of Defence (2011), p 2.3 Australian Human Rights Commission, Report on the Review into the Treatment of Women at the Australian Defence ForceAcademy, 2011, p 32. At http://www.humanrights.gov.au/defencereview/index.html (viewed 13 February 2013).4 Directorate of Strategic People Policy Research, Australian Defence Force Academy 2012 Unacceptable Behaviour SurveyReport, DSPPR Report 18/2012 Department of Defence (2012), p 122.5 MAJGEN J Rosenfeld, ‘Australian Defence Human Research Ethics Committee (ADHREC) Protocol 675-12 – ADFA 2012Unacceptable Behaviour Survey’, 19 September 2012, provided to the Audit by Dr N Miller 28 September 2012.6 Directorate of Strategic People Policy Research, Australian Defence Force Academy 2012 Unacceptable Behaviour SurveyReport, DSPPR Report 18/2012, Department of Defence.7 Meeting with DSPR, 19 February 2013.8 For example ‘sexual stories or offensive jokes’ shared ‘among friends joking outside of the workplace’ may not be thought ofas unacceptable but may be recorded as such in the 2011 survey. Directorate of Strategic People Policy Research, AustralianDefence Force Academy 2012 Unacceptable Behaviour Survey Report, DSPPR Report 18/2012, Department of Defence (2012),p 121.9 The categories are:• work-related harassment• person-related harassment• physical-related harassment• bullying114