EI Inquiry: Matrix of confusion

SYDNEY – Bureaucratic language used by Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service management obscured rather than advanced the basic day-to-day jobs of staff, Commissioner Ian Callinan said yesterday.

The inquiry has heard of a “matrix style of management” with layers of hierarchy and that the managers would not necessarily have any practical knowledge or experience of quarantine protocols in live animal imports.
Callinan interrupted testimony by Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) national program manager David Ironside saying the language used masked the issues.

"I have the impression that there is a whole lot of language that's used that tends to mask or to diminish the understanding or the thrust of these things.

A lot of business-type, corporate-type language which doesn't seem to have any particular role to play in public administration," Commissioner Callinan said.

Ironside had given evidence that the station manager at Sydney's Eastern Creek quarantine centre, Greg Hankins, expressed concerns at the lack of hard copies of work instructions when he took up the appointment earlier this year.

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