Gav's Blog

I figured that I’d try to research and find some of the publicly available information about the ongoing complaints that Darryl J Dixon has been making against IAEM Oceania and its office holders. It appears that the first records in the public domain are starting to become available, so I will be trying to track them in this post.

First, please note the following:

• To the best of my knowledge, all this information is available in the public domain and based entirely on known facts.
• I will not allow supposition, rumours or attacks to be posted either by myself or by people in the comments. I will delete them.
• I will only provide information that has links to the source information for corroboration.
• It should be noted that the complaint by Dixon against IAEM Oceania was dismissed by ACAT on 15 NOV 2010.
• I was requested to make a witness statement as part of the original complaint that Dixon made against IAEM Oceania, and I did make a written statement.
• I have been involved with IAEM Oceania and the Executive members since the founding in 2007, and know a number of them both professionally and as friends. This includes both Scott Milne (Vice-President IAEM Oceania) and Kristin Hoskin (President IAEM Oceania).
• Yes, I’m also I was the webmaster for IAEM Oceania and posted the original announcement on the IAEM Oceania website. This website has since been removed as IAEM Oceania is no longer able to fund a website due to the cost of legal fees, and hence I am no longer IAEM Oceania webmaster.

Yesterday (17 NOV 2010), the President of IAEM Oceania made the following announcement to members (this link no longer works as IAEM Oceania was unable to maintain its own website due to the costs of legal fees).

Attention all Oceania Members:

On Monday (15 NOV 2010) the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT) heard and dismissed the discrimination complaints a former member raised against IAEM Oceania and its officers in late 2009.

On behalf of Vice-President Scott Milne, and myself, I would like to thank members for their patience with our limited ability to discuss these matters while they were ongoing. We also wish to thank you for the support and the words of encouragement expressed through the last year as we have continued to strive to advance Oceania’s goals. Thank you.

Kind regards

Kristin Hoskin
President, Oceania Council – IAEM
Membership & Marketing Director, Global Board – IAEM

I’ve just been for a quick search on the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal website and found the listing that contains the complaint by Darryl J Dixon against IAEM Oceania. The hearing listing can be found on this page. I have include a screen capture in the image to the right in case the ACAT website should later archive this information. As of 2011-01-27, this information is still publicly listed.

As it appears that some decisions are published, I have contacted ACAT to see if they are going to be publicly releasing the decision on Dixon’s complaint against IAEM Oceania. If it is released, I will add it here to the record. The summary hearing details are quoted below.

Discrimination List
15 November 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010 – ACAT HEARING ROOM 1
9:30 AM – DT2010/9
Hearing
BEFORE: Mr Alan Anforth, Member

• DIXON DARRYL (Applicant)
• INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EMERGENCY MANAGERS OCEANI (Respondent)
• MILNE SCOTT (Respondent)
• HOSKIN KRISTIN (Respondent)

At this point, all this does is publicly confirm that it was Darryl J Dixon that made a complaint against IAEM Oceania, Scott Milne, and Kristin Hoskin. Up until the listing of this hearing it has not been possible to confirm who the complainant was. The hearing was held on Monday 15 NOV 2010 in the Australian Captial Territory. IAEM Oceania have confirmed that the result of the hearing was a dismissal of Darryl’s complaint.

Update 2010-11-18 1342:
I have just received a confirmation via email from ACAT that a decision will not be published, as the Tribunal determined that they did not have the jurisdiction to hear the complaint. I have copied the email I received below.

Good morning,

In response to your email below, there was no decision made as the Tribunal did not have the jurisdiction to hear the complaint.

Kind regards,

Danielle Campbell
A/g Team Leader
Deputy Registrar
ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal
6207 2393

So, it appears that a discrimination complaint was made by Darryl Dixon to the ACT Discrimation Tribunal that fell outside of their jurisdiction and it was dismissed.

Update 2011-05-23:
The ACT Human Rights Commission make its decision in Dixon’s complaints against me. The key paragraph in the decision that vindicates all my actions, including the information contained on this page, is:

I appreciate that you [Dixon] have informed me you [Dixon] have suffered as a result of Mr Treadgold’s actions. However, as discussed aboive, on the basis of the material I have considered it appears that your complaints of victimisation, discrimination, and/or unlawful advertising as lacking in substance

A couple of other key points supporting my position stand out in the determination:

…I [ACT HRC] consider it plausible that Mr Treadgold’s actions, that resulted in IAEM taking action against you, which although was distressing to you, other reasons (such as Mr Treadgold’s concern for the organisation), were the essential cause of his actions. Therefore, this aspect of your complaint does not appear to raise issues of victimisation under the Act.

And further on:

Having considered the information provided Mr Treadgold’s actions, although distressing, appear to be reporting on publicly available information and also appear to be a result of his concern for the IAEM organisation, rather than because you made a complaint of discrimination.

I received an interesting attack on my professional credibility recently. I want to recount and discuss this here in broad terms, because it is part of a bigger issue that emergency managers sometimes have to deal with. In short, my ability to provide advice was questioned because I have never been involved in operational response for a disaster.

This of course, didn’t really bother me. As an emergency manager, I know that this is a good thing, after all, why would we want to have more disasters just so that people can gain more experience. Often times, experience with disasters comes down to who is unlucky enough to be there, or to be close enough to help out.

Historically, many emergency managers have come from a variety of different paths into their existing roles. A large number have come from operational roles in emergency services (police, fire, ambulance) or the military. More have come from other related roles such as natural hazards analysis at councils, or researchers into natural hazards. A number of us also come up through the volunteer ranks – we start as rescue volunteers, take a more serious interest, and turn it into a profession.

The thing is, none of these roles come with a guarantee of having previous experience in managing a disaster. The military and emergency services certainly have a fair amount of operational experience and training. Rescue volunteers have a fair amount of training. Hazards analysts and risk managers have the educational background.

This is where the Certified Emergency Manager program from the International Association of Emergency Managers comes into play. It is designed to try and create a common certification process designed around creating a common set of  requirements. These requirements are designed to try and support all the different careers paths that bring people into emergency management. These requirements include:

• Training – in both emergency management and general management
• Management Essay – to demonstrate knowledge, skills and abilities
• References
• Multi-choice Examination
• Experience – across all phases of emergency management
• Education
• Contributions to the Profession

To achieve the CEM, one has to put together a sizeable package to document these requirements, and these are then reviewed by your peers to determine if you should be certified.

Whilst I’m fairly comfortable with what I have done in emergency management over the past 12 years, I haven’t got much to be able to hold up and say, I’m experienced. As a consultant, it is potentially even more difficult as we tend not to work within an operational agency – you typically need to work within the public sector, or an NGO to get those opportunities.

This recent personal attack has been enough to spur me into action to start building my application pack and applying for my CEM. Then at least I’ll be able to demonstrate that I’ve manage to document my experience to my peers, and they agree that my experience meets the requirements laid down in the CEM Program.