Carenne staff directed not to contribute to this blog

In a letter given to Carenne Special School staff last week, Bathurst's School Education Director, Peter Harvey directed that all DET staff are not to contribute to this blog or any form of electronic media.

The letter alleges that a large volume of material has been posted to this blog about individual staff, students and parents of Carenne School with some of it being distorted or misconceived. This would indicate that the department believes a lot of this blog's contents to be true.

In the letter, Mr Harvey addressed concerns staff have publicly aired about being left to fight for themselves by the department, claiming the meeting on the 19th of July where Patrick Quinn told Carenne staff that the leaks were coming from inside the school, despite protests from Margaret Rowe and claims by Janelle Kemp that parents were responsible for the leaks.

Mr Harvey told staff in his letter that this blog is not the appropriate venue to make complaints, despite claims by the Carenne Saviours that their complaints to the principal and even Mr Harvey himself had been largely ignored.

Carenne P and C President must stand down: Saviour

One of the Carenne Saviours is calling on Carenne P&C Association President Janelle Kemp to stand down from her position following her comments at a meeting about this blog at Carenne yesterday. Janelle Kemp has been mentioned on this blog in the past for receiving transport for her son over a parent who lives some distance from the school and for having Carenne Support pay for a $6,200 walker for her son.

When DET legal official Patrick Quinn told the meeting that he believed the leaks to this blog were coming from staff at the school, Mrs Kemp said that she believed that parents were providing information to the blog and needed to be warned against using the site. Mrs Kemp said many parents were "easily influenced" by people outside of Carenne and that she believed parents, not Carenne staff were responsible for information leaks at the school.

The Carenne Saviour claims that these comments show that Mrs Kemp can not possibly remain as president of the school's P&C no matter how dysfunctional it is after making allegations against Carenne parents.

Criminal charges against Carenne executive staff will be dropped: Patrick Quinn

During his meeting with Carenne staff today, Patrick Quinn said that the charges against Lee Churches, Terry Neal and Neil Moon would be dropped within two weeks after discussions with the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Mr Quinn claims that the DPP had made a mistake and the charges would be dropped. If this turns out to be true, it would provide yet another example of how the NSW government provides no protection to whistleblowers and let their tormentors continue without consequence.

If the charges are dropped, there will be no clear finding that those involved were guilty or not guilty. A lawyer who spoke to Carenne Gate said that under the charges against the trio there is a presumption of guilt and that those charged must prove their innocence.

High level DET staff visit Carenne

In a demonstration of just how seriously the Department of Education and Training takes this blog, a team of high-level officials consisting of Director of Information Services Tim Anderson, Legal eagle Patrick Quinn, a departmental OHS officer and Peter Harvey met with Carenne and Carenne Support staff to discuss this blog.

During the meeting, claims made repeatedly by Michael Auld and Lee Churches in the past that a hacker was leaking school information were refuted with staff being told that the leaks were coming from within the school. The department's position is that only Carenne staff can possibly know what is happening to post it here.

Staff were told they needed to be security conscious with their computer as someone inside the school was accessing information, perhaps when they leave their computer unattended. Carenne whistleblower Gretel told Carenne Gate: "there is no point being security conscious, Michael Auld can override me locking the computer or he just goes in on a weekend when nobody is around and snoops."

Gretel claims Margaret Rowe became defensive when Mr Quinn said the leaks were coming from inside the school.

Staff were told that the department can do nothing about this blog because Google refuses to take it down or provide details of who is posting on here.

Some staff lamented that they had spoken to Bathurst detectives about the blog and that they felt as though they were disinterested. Mr Harvey was asked why police weren't at the meeting and told staff that it was "pointless" and that "Tony is useless."

Gretel claims that Michael Auld became agitated when the police were mentioned and asked what they were doing and said how he wanted to see the person behind the blog charged. He was told by Mr Quinn that even if there are no charges that the department would take disciplinary action against staff found to be contributing to this blog.

Perhaps if the department looked into some of the allegations on this blog instead of trying to discover who is providing the information some of the issues could be resolved.

DET heavyweights visit Carenne to discuss Carenne Gate

Yesterday afternoon, relieving School Education Director Kate White, human resources manager Peter Seligman and legal officer Patrick Quinn met with Carenne Special School staff to discuss this blog.

Prior to their arrival, Carenne Principal Neil Moon told staff to make sure they complained about the blog and the effect it is having on staff. Mr Moon also told staff that they needed to tell the high level departmental staff that they feel as though the department is ignoring staff concerns and leaving Carenne to fend for itself.

One attendee at the meeting told Carenne Gate that Mr Quinn said the legal department was close to a "breakthrough" on closing the blog down while Mr Seligman claimed that he knew no Carenne staff were on the blog or feeding authors information and that it had all came from external sources. Of course, readers of this blog would know this to be completely delusional. As I wrote a few weeks ago, Mr Moon continues to claim that his staff aren't leaking information despite Carenne staff supplying me with copies of meeting minutes and staff bulletins.

If the blog is full of lies and misinformation like Ms White, Mr Seligman and Mr Quinn claim why is it that as soon as something is posted on this blog action is taken to fix it? Why is it that Neil Moon feels the need to counter it with his own lies in the local news?

The department has been made aware of Michael Auld's leaks and use of confidential information and has decided to do nothing and its obvious to any intelligent person that "carennetruth" and her aliases is a member of the Carenne Special School executive. It doesn't take much to figure out (even without her public admissions) that "carennetruth" is Lee Churches. The department has been provided with logs indicating the IP address of "carennetruth" and her associated aliases and has done nothing.

The plain and simple fact is that if there were no problems at Carenne there would be no need to discuss it in public. Instead, because of the cover-ups, lies, abuse and corruption there is a need to hold the department and individuals responsible accountable for their actions.

Possible link between Carenne Support and DET Legal Unit found

Investigations carried out by Carenne Gate reporters have discovered a possible link between staff in the NSW DET Legal Unit and Carenne Support. The education department is providing free legal support to Carenne Support, who earns $185,000 per year from it.

The link comes from the Bathurst Historic Car Club of which Richard Baillie, a close friend of Patrick Quinn (the DET lawyer handling the case) and Terry Mahony, director of Carenne Support are directors.

While it may be coincidental, it could be the reason the department's legal unit is providing so much support to a contractor.

Proof Education Minister knowingly misled parliament as well as the shadow minister

Posted September 13th, 2009 by jules85 on Sydney Indymedia

Conclusive evidence that Verity Firth, NSW Minister for Education and Training misled parliament on 5 May 2009 in relation to a question about whistleblower Brian Carter has been obtained under Freedom of Information. The same document also indicates further misleading statements to shadow education minister Adrian Piccoli.

The document, drafted by NSW Department of Education and Training Industrial Officer Patrick Quinn on 6 March 2009 stated that the department was providing pro bono legal support to its contractor Carenne Support. Mr Quinn appeared for Carenne Support before the Industrial Relations Commission on 3 March 2009.

Concerns were raised about the department representing its contractor which earns some $15,000 per month running two Special Needs Transport Service runs into Carenne Special School. The contractor's managing director prior to 2009 was Terrence Mahony, then principal of Carenne Special School. In that role, Mr Mahony approved payment to a company of which he is a director.

Due to the company being directed by a past principal, current assistant principal and other school community members, Mr Carter, a former casual employee of the department has received no further work at Carenne Special School.

When Mr Carter inquired with shadow education minister Adrian Piccoli on this point, the minister responded that Mr Carter remained on the list of persons who may be employed by Carenne Special School. The minister reiterated this view when asked the question in parliament. Despite this claim, a brief prepared by Mr Quinn for the Minister on 6 March 2009 stated that Mr Carter's employment with the department was effectively on hold pending resolution of the case against its contractor.

Not only did the education minister knowingly mislead parliament about legal representation for Carenne Support but she also misled parliament and the shadow minister about Mr Carter's employment status with the department.

Mr Carter first became aware that he could not work at Carenne Special School on 3 July 2009, when principal Lynette Duncan refused employment citing his case against Carenne Support as the primary reason. This is currently subject to proceedings before the NSW Industrial Court.

This, along with the leaking of confidential correspondence between Mr Carter and his local Labor MP indicate that the NSW Labor Party is involved in the Carenne Gate scandal up to its neck.

I would have thought the actions of Ms Firth and Mr Martin in relation to the Carenne Gate affair would be more serious than a minister having an affair with a younger woman which resulted in John Della-Bosca's ministerial resignation but Premier Nathan Rees, aware of the actions of Ms Firth and Mr Martin refuses to take action. Both should resign from parliament immediately as their lies and deception shows they are unfit to hold any public office.

NSW DET Serious Misconduct unit does not respect confidentiality

Posted October 21st, 2009 by jules85 on Sydney Indymedia

I have two emails from Brian Carter's FOI request, clearly showing that the NSW Department of Education and Training's Employee Performance and Conduct Unit (also known as the Serious Misconduct Unit) care nothing for the confidentiality of complainants.

In January, Mr Carter made a formal statement to EPAC, requesting that his complaint be dealt with as a protected disclosure. This was refused as he was "no longer an employee of the department." This document was then circulated to a number of people inside the department, including people to whom it related.

In a draft letter written by Peter Harvey and checked by Patrick Quinn, Mr Harvey admitted to advising the department's contractor Carenne Support that a lengthy complaint document had been received. Carenne Support is independent of NSW DET and should not have been advised of departmental issues.

In an email from Grant Marley of the Serious Misconduct Unit, he advised Patrick Quinn that an anonymous complaint had been made to the ICAC claiming it may be of interest in Mr Quinn's dealings with Mr Carter's matters.

It goes to show, the NSW DET cares nothing for confidentiality and protected disclosures.

Carenne Support claims "child protection issue" in court, despite previously claiming the contrary

Posted November 1st, 2009 by jules85 on Sydney Indymedia

The organisation at the centre of the Carenne Gate affair, Carenne Support Limited changed its view on whether the transportation of a student to Lithgow return as a reward was a child protection issue or not when it raised the matter in the Industrial Relations Commission.

In a recount of the day in court, NSW Department of Education and Training Legal Officer Patrick Quinn stated that he told the commissioner:

After providing C. Cambridge with our side of events including the safety of students and the child protection issues surrounding the unauthorised transportation of a student...

This contrasts with information provided to Mick Eccleston in a telephone discussion between former Carenne Special School principal and Carenne Support Director, Terry Mahony. In his record, Mr Eccleston writes:

Mr Mahoney (sic) stated there were no child protection issues it was a staff conduct matter.

In a discussion with Peter Harvey and Mick Eccleston, Mr Harvey reiterated this view as represented in this record from Mr Eccleston:

[Mr Harvey] agreed that there were no child protection issues and that it was a matter of staff conduct.

If this is the case, why did Mr Mahony, represented by Mr Quinn go to the Industrial Relations Commission and claim that it was in fact a child protection issue?

There is also a dispute as to whether or not the transportation of a student was "unauthorised", the Carenne Saviours claim that the arrangement was implemented under Terry Mahony and Ros Luther's guidance as a reward for the student. It only became an issue when Mr Mahony was allegedly blackmailed by a number of staff in order to have Mr Carter's employment terminated.

Indymedia user jrosenberg claims that everyone at the school knew about it, meaning if it was a child protection issue why was it not reported?