Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles’ chief of staff claims she was bullied out of her job. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles’ chief of staff claims she has been forced out of her job for raising bullying complaints against colleagues in his office.
While she has not directly accused Mr Marles himself of bullying, she appears to lay some blame against him for being “bullied out” of her job.
Career public servant Jo Tarnawsky called a media conference at Parliament House on Thursday (10 October) and appeared with lawyer Michael Bradley from Marque Lawyers.
At the media appearance, Ms Tarnawsky said she has not been able to step foot in Mr Marles’ office since June and has not heard from the Minister “for months”.
Instead, she is now doing temporary work in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s office, helping to “support and mentor” other senior political staff.
Ms Tarnawsky said she raised allegations with Mr Marles of bullying behaviour in the office in late April while they were both travelling back from a trip to Ukraine.
She claims Mr Marles subsequently suggested she take some weeks off work and start looking for alternative employment.
When she returned to work in June, the PM’s office informed her that she could no longer work in the Deputy PM’s office.
“No fair process has been followed,” she said.
“I continue to be employed officially as the Deputy Prime Minister’s chief of staff, but I have been prevented from doing my job.
“I know it won’t be long now before I am bullied out of this place completely … The events of the last five months have been devastating. Cut off from my job and ostracised without warning.
“I have been plagued with nightmares, flashbacks, symptoms of depression and anxiety, insomnia, panic attacks and suicidal thoughts. I had none of these symptoms before May 2024.
“The way I have been treated has been cowardly, cruel and completely unnecessary.”
Ms Tarnawsky did not take questions from the media; instead, she directed them to her lawyer, but neither of them provided details of the bullying complaints she had made.
Mr Bradley described Ms Tarnawsky as a “messenger that’s been shot”.
He didn’t expect there would be any litigation.
Also, in response to questioning, he said no allegations of bullying had been made against his client.
Ms Tarnawsky said she hoped that if she “told people the truth,” it would help her mental state and help her to cope with the situation.
“By speaking out today, perhaps it will also help others,” she said.
“What I want is for people to know the truth and for Richard Marles, as well as those who have enabled his behaviour, to be held accountable for what has happened.”
She has refused to hand over the code to a safe in her office, she said, on national security grounds, because it contained confidential documents for which she was personally responsible.
She added that she posed no security risk, as her continued work with the Prime Minister’s Office proves.
The Deputy PM, who is currently the Acting Prime Minister while Mr Albanese is overseas, was asked about the matter during Question Time later in the day and whether she had complied with the ministerial code of conduct.
He described Ms Tarnawsky as a wonderful person and someone he had known for a long time and who had been of great service to him in his work.
“Given all of that, to state the obvious, at this moment, I feel very sad that events have got to where they have,” Mr Marles said.
“The way in which I have tried to manage this, I have done so with Jo’s welfare in mind at every moment, as I would try to manage things on that basis for all of my staff.”
He added he had been working for some months with the Prime Minister’s Office to resolve the matter.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was asked about the issue during a commercial radio interview and described it as “very concerning” and Ms Tarnawsky as “incredibly brave”.
“And she’s obviously a person who is well accomplished,” the Opposition Leader said.
Speaking from the ASEAN Summit in Laos, the Prime Minister would not engage with the issue when reporters asked about it.
“I am aware of it, and I was briefed on it,” Mr Albanese said.
“The Acting Prime Minister has responded to this publicly and due to the nature of it, I don’t intend to add any further comment.”
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Riotact.
