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‘Serious incident’ training yet to be completed by head of parliamentary department

Courtney GouldNCA NewsWire
Labor senator Katy Gallagher led the questioning of the DPS on Monday. NCA NewsWire /Gary Ramage
Camera IconLabor senator Katy Gallagher led the questioning of the DPS on Monday. NCA NewsWire /Gary Ramage Credit: News Corp Australia

A video designed to help Parliament House staff better handle ‘serious incidents’ in the wake of the Brittany Higgins assault allegations has been viewed by less than half of the required employees.

The head of the Department of Parliamentary Services Rob Stefanic told a Senate estimates hearing the DPS had overhauled its processes after Ms Higgins went public with her story in February.

As part of that overhaul, a 13-minute training video,which was released on Friday, was developed to help assist staff with responding to serious incidents.

Asked by Labor senator Katy Gallagher, deputy secretary Cate Saunders could not say how many people had undertaken the training.

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Camera IconBrittany Higgins went public with her allegations she was raped at Parliament House in February. NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage Credit: News Corp Australia

“Training has very recently commenced. Once staff have completed the training, they will need to send an acknowledgment form to say that they've done it so that we have a record of that,” Ms Saunders said.

“But you don’t know whether anyone’s done it,” Senator Gallagher replied.

“No, I don’t know yet,” Ms Saunders responded.

“How are you going to check up on that? … Do you have a timetame that you want people trained by?” Senator Gallagher quipped back.

“Within a certain period of time — I‘m not sure, but certainly there’s a tracking system that has been implemented. So, staff are required to complete a form to say that they’ve done it, and the security branch will be closely monitoring that,” Ms Saunders said.

The estimates hearing was later told 80 out of 180 staff had viewed the video since it’s release on Friday.

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Camera IconLabor senator Katy Gallagher led the questioning of the DPS on Monday. NCA NewsWire /Gary Ramage Credit: News Corp Australia

Asked if they knew how long the video went for, Ms Saunders and Mr Stefanic revealed they had yet to complete the training.

“So, you don’t know whether it’s a 20-minute video or an hour video?” Senator Gallagher said.

“I don‘t, but I will find that out for you,” Ms Saunders responded.

Senator Gallagher pressed on: “But you're in charge of it. It just seems odd that you wouldn’t have watched the video yourself.”

Asked if anyone in the DPS executive had completed the training, the hearing was told the assistant secretary Leanne Tunningley had viewed and signed off on the video.

However, Mr Stefanic and Ms Saunders were involved in developing the protocol the video was based on.

In addition to the training, a new definition of serious incident was adopted by the department. It now considers an incident or pattern of behaviour that causes serious harm as a serious incident.

The training video into serious incidents is 13 minutes long. So far only 80 DPS staff have completed it.
Camera IconThe training video into serious incidents is 13 minutes long. So far only 80 DPS staff have completed it. Credit: News Regional Media

“It provides our security staff guidance on how they should respond. Because it's been agreed with the AFP and the Department of Finance and with Prime Minister and Cabinet, there is an agreed process that we all will follow in the event a serious incident should occur,” Mr Stefanic said.

Half a dozen staff have now been interviewed by police as part of the investigation into Ms Higgins‘ allegation that she was raped in Parliament House.

The matter is before the court.

Meanwhile, the Australian Federal Police told estimates it had also overhauled its procedures for dealing with serious incidents on Capital Hill.

AFP Deputy Commissioner Brett Pointing said a draft protocol was handed to parliament last week.

Originally published as ‘Serious incident’ training yet to be completed by head of parliamentary department

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