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You might have seen the news recently where the National Council of St Vincent De Paul Australia suspended or stood aside the board of NSW due to a culture of bullying. I welcome this and have contacted the National Council who have established an Investigative Unit.
Today I spoke to Donna in Canberra who said in an email last month that I would be heard…after all that my husband and I had suffered at the hands of paid senior staff in NSW . Donna said a lot of people were very emotional about this issue…..that there is a long list of complaints and that my being emotional would not be looked down upon as she herself became emotional when she read my email.
This powerlessness is not helped by the likes of journalists like David Marr and Joel Gibson who knew of our issues with Vinnies and declined to write anything about it. David Marr however wrote a story on Saturday about the President and other people involved….at a much higher level than a mere centre manager of course.
I guess that is also where the feeling of powerlessness comes from…when one has a story about social injustice and nobody wants to hear it or act on it ….when it is deemed not important enough to act upon. After my complaint was virtually ignored last year I sent emails to the Human Resources Manager and the person who said I was “disbelieved” and told them I was not happy with the finding and wanted to take it further…I never heard from them again.
Well, they will be hearing from me again.
