Brian Rudman: Sacking messenger will not fix Corrections gender issues

One minute the Corrections Department is crying out for more probation officers, particularly the experienced, useful sort, the next they're firing one for exposing an unacceptable work practice.

This week long-suspended Onehunga probation officer Josie Bullock finally got her marching orders.

Her heinous crime? Being repeatedly guilty of the "serious misconduct" of complaining "without authorisation" to the media about institutionalised sexism in her workplace.

Like many of my fellow bleeding hearts, I've been mutely watching this farce unfold over the last four months hoping that sanity would prevail without me having to take sides. Call me a coward, but when the rednecks and Act politicians leaped forward to take up her cause, who would want to risk being seen in the same company?

Then again, as we head into Year Seven of the glorious reign of Helen the Just, who would have thought that under her stewardship, a woman working for her Government could still be sacked for demanding equal rights with her male work colleagues?

Of course the Corrections Department is sheltering behind the claim that Ms Bullock's crime was to break the departmental code of conduct that forbids staff from talking directly to mischief-makers like me. Which is true, but it's not as though she has been disclosing offenders' records or personal business. All she's been complaining about is the sexism.

The department agrees, saying that her repeated comments have "reflected badly" on the department. But instead of rushing to remove the blemish that reflects badly on it, Corrections have instead stomped on the messenger.

It all began last December when Ms Bullock attended a farewell to prisoners in the probation service office in Panmure.

She sat in the front row and refused to give up her place to a Maori man, as per archaic Maori - and it seems, Corrections Department - custom. A complaint was made. Ms Bullock, in her defence, said such sexism set a bad example to male offenders and could give them "a belief of superiority" over women.

She found it particularly degrading that a 10-year-old boy sat at the front while she was being told to go the back.

She also complained about the inappropriateness of prayers being part of ceremonies in a secular Government department.

Corrections, while conceding it will review its procedures, says that isn't the real issue. Maybe not to them, but it is to most New Zealanders, particularly those who warmed to the theme of National Party leader Don Brash's divisive Orewa speech.

It's not as though the department has not been forewarned of concerns within. I'm told that a few years back, the department held a conference of women managers to celebrate the achievements of women in the organisation and when they got there, they found themselves being led into the meeting by a Maori warrior, then having to listen to a series of speeches by men. There was much grumbling at the time.

There was a similar complaint to Ms Bullock's in March 2002, which was cited in Parliament in July this year by Act MP Stephen Franks. Then, another female probation officer went through the proper channels, complaining of similar discrimination. Nothing came of it.

So Ms Bullock's protest doesn't come out of the blue. Sacking the messenger will not make it go away.

First of all, Corrections needs to dust off the human rights chapter of its employment policy. Heaven knows, in this age of conflicting rights, how many "rights" are listed there. But in this instance, the starting point should be that in a Government department, gender equity rights are as important as ethnicity equity rights.

In the Bullock case, the venue where the clash took place was a Government office. It was not on a marae, nor was it labelled a hui. In such circumstances, the tikanga should have been that of the department and of the wider community.

If Maori women are happy to continue being treated in their own culture in ways that the rest of us see as sexist, that's their privilege. Helen Clark has encountered this in the past and tearfully conceded that when in Rome you do as they do.

But in a Government organisation, secular, non-sexist, non-racist tikanga should prevail. That's what Josie Bullock's fighting for, and she's right.