THE LUXURY OF TIME THAT THE PMSA AND THE CHURCHES WANT – BUT THAT OUR SCHOOLS DON’T HAVE

The PMSA posted a statement on Facebook on Thursday 22 November 2018. It was the first substantive statement to the PMSA schools community by incoming CEO Sharon Callister.

Firstly (and we have said it before), we genuinely wish Sharon well in her new role. It will be a challenging, but we hope equally rewarding role, as she seeks to rebuild trust, transparency and accountability in an organisation that has been badly broken for many many decades.

Part of the role of any newly appointed CEO is to gain perspective on the challenges and opportunities that exist within an organisation, and we can only hope that she is afforded the opportunity to gather and assess a range of views on the challenges facing the PMSA outside of the particular views that exist within the walls of Toowong Towers. Sometimes organisational perspective can be hard to gain within the confines of leadership groups, and we encourage her to speak to as many grassroots members of the community as possible to understand the true depth of concern within the community over the events of 2017, and the continuing problems that many see in the broken architecture of the PMSA. The many community members who hold these concerns aren’t poor unfortunates who are troubled by an inability to “move on” emotionally or to forgive. They are genuinely concerned for, and invested in, the future if these schools. And they are in the MAJORITY.

Challenges like these are never easy, but our involvement has been validated by the majority of the PMSA schools community and for that reason we do have a clear role to play in this debate. It is an important role (representing the mainstream views of the community), to ensure that the PMSA delivers a proper and sustainable governance structure for our schools, and to ensure that the PMSA finally takes the necessary steps to heal past wrongs.

To truly understand the depth of issues in this debate, it pays to read the extremely detailed history of Beyond PMSA statements, blog, submissions and applications on our website. The community is extremely well educated about the issues of concern and the reasons for specific reforms that are being called for. Through the involvement of many in this campaign, the community have come to understand the risks and challenges confronting PMSA schools minute detail. They know what needs to be done. They know how proper reform can be achieved. They genuinely know (and lament) why such reform is being blocked by the Presbyterian Church.

For the record:

1. Beyond PMSA have NEVER said that organisations incorporated under Letters Patent can’t operate effectively, and in some instances, transparently.We just believe (and our view is supported by respected experts and academics alike), that the structure is at the lowest end of the spectrum when it comes to trust and accountability.And for those of you who attended the Town Hall on Monday night, you would have heard one of our experts, Darren Howlin, brief us all on the results of over 2 years worth of research on this very issue. (Across more than 50,000 Australian not-for-profit and charitable organisations researched, the data demonstrated that Letters Patent ranked the lowest of ANY structure with regard to trust and transparency).Having said that however, we have ALWAYS said that the PMSA is UNIQUE, and that it is the PMSA’s uniquely dysfunctional structure which, when combined with Letters Patent, AMPLIFIES the absence of trust, transparency and accountability to levels which present unacceptable levels of RISK to our schools.Unlike most other organisations operating under Letters Patent, the PMSA has no unified, single point of accountability. The “buck stops with no-one.”Everyone ducks for cover when confronted, and no one person or body has the power to deliver solutions on important issues of governance that influence RISK in our schools.That is one of the most fundamental cornerstones of our Application to the Attorney General.It is why our Application to get rid of the PMSA’s Letters Patent is so vitally and important.

2. It’s a FACT that Letters Patent DO restrict the PMSA’s transparency in the most fundamental manner.If anyone doubts the reasons why, they are outlined exhaustively with numerous factual examples in Beyond PMSA’s 180 page Submission to Mr Richard Chesterman QC dated 15 December 2017 (available on our website: ) - which was never acknowledged or responded to (for the record).In particular, we would draw the attention of interested readers to the detailed issues and extensive case examples of conduct and failings regarding issues of transparency outlined from pages 11 to 64 of that document (quite a list), together with the extensive list of (still) unanswered stakeholder questions set out on pages 66 to 169 of that document. (Quite a list that never made the grade for a transparent response from the PMSA).Surface level governance reforms simply can’t fix those types of transparency failures.Deeper structural reforms which will drive cultural improvement are the answer, and for the extensive reasons outlined in the above submission, and in our 140 page Application to the Attorney General, Letters Patent is the cause.It’s removal is a very very very large part of the necessary solution.

3. Working tirelessly to implement reform is fine, but frankly, where a scope of reform is “imposed”, with no genuine multi-stakeholder input at the BEGINNING, you can’t suddenly expect to suddenly impregnate it with trust at the END of the process. AND YET THAT IS WHAT WE ARE ALL BEING ASKED TO GIVE OVER?It seems that the AICD reform process has unfortunately become a reverse-engineered exercise in “dogged task completion” for the PMSA and can’t ever hope to resolve genuinely held community concerns on critical issues of reform.

4. For absolute clarity, the PMSA has NEVER genuinely apologised to the Somerville House school community for the events of 2017 and it has NEVER specifically addressed the wrongs.It is irreconcilable to all that the PMSA so aggressively supported the integrity of one former staff member who was under sustained attack and scrutiny but completely laid waste the careers of wonderful strong and talented women who had done nothing wrong and then remained silent about the fact, as if to drive knife deeper into the wound.The sense of community at Somerville House (like Clayfield College a few years ago) has been changed forever.It has affected staff, students, parents and supporters.A couple of disingenuous bland statements earlier this year simply don’t cut it.As an example to students and staff, it was grossly insufficient, particularly given the Christian values that our Schools seek to espouse.It was an insulting apology without “eye contact”, and people still feel it ! Yes, let’s move on – but these schools and the former staff members concerned deserve to have a proper apology first !It MATTERS !!

5. FINALLY, and very importantly, twelve months of reform “process” without authentic community buy-in, and without delivering any tangible outcomes apart from a summary paper and some promises has been deeply damaging to TRUST.The consequence of the protraction is that our school communities can’t move on, and many are concerned about the impact that these delays are having on both enrolments and staff morale.

The PMSA and the Churches seem to be operating under the extremely misguided assumption that they have the luxury of “time” to waltz through change at their own pace.They do NOT.Perhaps the strategy of the Presbyterian Church to “wind down the clock” until the community tires enough to stop caring must come at the expense of the schools themselves??Perhaps they are prepared to wear that risk and the harm that is being created through a continued dampening market sentiment?? And that has nothing to do with Beyond PMSA and its advocacy.It has everything to do with the growing impatience of the community with the slow, incomplete and unfocused reform that this strategy is delivering to our schools.

Market sentiment MUST be restored quickly. It is irresponsible for the PMSA and the Churches to believe otherwise. Action must be taken or the responsibility for not creating clear air on these issues may become irreversible. Despite the turmoil of the last 12 months, people DON’T have faith in the current process – and that message, sadly, doesn’t seem to be cutting through….Perhaps if the message wasn’t being delivered by Beyond PMSA they may accord it more weight. We doubt it. We hope it is delivered by the Attorney-General – soon.

We. Are. Not. Going. Away !!