The article ‘DPI witch-hunt’ over interview’ details the treatment of former DPI agronomist Paul Parker by the NSW government after he spoke out over budget cuts. It also tells of the two private investigators who visited The Young Witness office demanding information. 

A full exerpt of the story by Heath Aston which appeared on Sunday, February 17, 2013 is below.

A public servant of 45 years’ experience was subjected to a grilling by private investigators and hauled in front of the head of a state government department - for talking to a rural newspaper about government budget cuts.

Details of the “witch-hunt’’ of Paul Parker, an agricultural expert from Young, in south-west NSW, have emerged amid criticism of the O’Farrell government’s increasingly strenuous attempts to clamp down on the flow of potentially embarrassing information through freedom-of-information laws.

Mr Parker, pictured, worked for the Department of Primary Industries in Young for 37 years before quitting in disgust last month. He was given a “severe reprimand’’ for his frank assessment in June last year that jobs would be lost in agricultural support positions as a result of a $30 million funding cut.

He told The Young Witness - a newspaper with a weekly circulation of 2400 copies - that the cuts indicated jobs would be lost.

He was correct, with 300 jobs from NSW Agriculture, 13 Catchment Management Authorities and 14 Livestock Health & Pest Authorities to be cut when those agencies are rolled into the new Local Land Services under the Primary Industries Minister, Katrina Hodgkinson, this year.

What appeared to anger the department more was Mr Parker’s assertion that ‘“NSW Treasury lives in an ivory tower in Sydney.’’

He was summoned to the office of Mark Patterson AO - the government’s third most senior bureaucrat whose office is on the 49th floor of the ivory-coloured MLC Centre in Martin Place - to explain his comments. Mr Patterson had commissioned a report by private investigators Wise Workplace into Mr Parker.

Two investigators Craig Sams and Jo Kamira - both former officers of the Australian Federal Police - were sent from Canberra, to grill Mr Parker.

In his report, Mr Sams recommended Mr Parker be referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption for accepting free newspapers from The Young Witness. Mr Parker told Fairfax Media he was allowed a free copy of the newspaper for the decades he contributed photographs of local sport.

Ms Kamira, the principal at Wise Workplace, said she was unable to comment on individual cases.

Mr Parker said: “The whole thing felt like a witch-hunt for some innocuous comments to a local newspaper. You can’t have free speech when you’re working for the government, you’re tied down.’’

He was found to have contravened three parts of the Public Sector Employment and Management Act but was not dismissed. He quit on January 28 and decided to speak out.

Edwina Mason, the editor of The Young Witness, said the two investigators hired by the government came into the newspaper office demanding information but refusing to hand over identification.

“To enlist private investigators to devote large tracts of time to investigating a story in a regional newspaper is the sort of thing taxpayers are paying for. The sort of money the Department of Primary Industries could be using to retain a good agronomist,’’ she said.

The Labor MLC Mick Veitch, a resident of Young, will ask Ms Hodgkinson on notice how much the investigation cost.

The minister declined to comment but a spokesman for the department, Brett Fifield, said procedure was followed to give Mr Parker justice and was not “heavy handed’’.

“This was about conducting an arm’s-length investigation and giving Mr Parker the opportunity to explain whether he had made the comments attributed to him.’’

 LATE BREAKING NEWS: Yesterday in State Parliament Labor MLC and Shadow Minister for Regional and Rural Affairs Mick Veitch asked NSW Roads minister Duncan Gay on behalf of Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner how much the DPI investigation cost. 

Shadow Minister for Primary Industries Steve Whan also asked whether it was current government practise to use private investigators when conducting investigations on public servants.

Mr Gay took both questions on notice.