Dear Editor,

I wanted to share with you and your readers an open letter I wrote to NT Chief Fire Officer Mark Spain.

Over the past nine months, your organisation has waged an unscientific, irrational and unnecessary campaign of discrimination against a subset of your staff, including my husband Matthew (Matt) Jolly.

Matt is a quiet, unassuming and humble person who does not seek personal recognition, so allow me a moment to do so on his behalf.

During Matt’s six year career with NTFRS, he served skilfully and with professionalism, earning the respect of his colleagues.

Prior to the application of workplace policy purportedly required under Chief Health Officer Direction 55, Matt’s professional record was
unblemished.

When CHO Direction 55 came into effect, like several other NTFRS staff, Matt was on pre-approved leave and was not in contravention of any of the specific contents of these directions.

Despite this, your organisation aggressively initiated disciplinary proceedings which included a demand that Matt receive a COVID-19 vaccination immediately or face termination.

Matt’s genuine attempts to engage in a good-faith dialogue on this topic were met with an entirely unsatisfactory response from you in which you stated any decision regarding COVID-19 vaccination was Matt’s choice and his alone, all while making repeated threats against his continued employment should he ‘choose’ to decline COVID-19 vaccination (despite it being abundantly clear that COVID-19 vaccines do not stop infection or transmission of the virus, a
fact your organisation conceded at the time).

While some other NT government departments allowed staff to take paid leave and/or leave-without-pay, your organisation chose to take hostile and senseless action and terminate Matt and several other staff members, in the days leading up to Christmas.

You claim that these staff (who were on leave and had not breached any public health orders) could not be recalled to work in the event of an emergency due to COVID-19 vaccination status, however it is painfully obvious that terminated staff cannot be recalled to work either, making this defence of your actions moot.

In reality, you have foolishly deprived yourself of several capable and willing employees, which no-doubt exacerbated existing staff shortages in your service, employees who would now be permitted to return to work given the revocation of CHO Direction 55 and other directions which made entry to one’s workplace contingent upon COVID-19 vaccination.

On the contrary, despite COVID-19 vaccination mandates having been rescinded in most workplace settings (including NTFRS), your organisation remains inexplicably committed to the persecution of staff against whom disciplinary proceedings are already in progress.

You and your executive-level colleagues may be feeling quite self-righteous in the aftermath of the release of Matt’s Fair Work Commission findings, and those of some of his terminated colleagues, which state that the dismissals you engineered were not “unfair”.

Let me be perfectly clear: regardless of the opinion of any commission, court or enquiry, the actions of your organisation in this scenario absolutely meet the definition of “unfair”.

You have improperly and unnecessarily subjected these staff members to inappropriate and irrational terminations and in many cases inflicted unacceptable damage to the physical, mental and financial wellbeing of them and their families.

Although your treatment of Matt and his terminated colleagues is shameful enough, there is another side to this story. Because of your heavy-handed application of government public policy, you have enabled the coercion of numerous staff under your command to undergo a medical procedure they did not want, likely did not need, and could not properly consent to.

Among these staff members are a small number who have sustained COVID-19 vaccine-induced adverse reactions, some of which have been life-changing.

You bear a share of the responsibility for these preventable outcomes (as well as any others which may not manifest until a later date) as a direct result of your organisation’s obstinate determination to work against your staff, instead of with them.

From whichever angle you examine these circumstances, your organisation has treated a significant portion of your workforce with contempt and disrespect.

You may wish, either now or in the future, to dismiss your role in these outcomes as an unfortunate and unpredictable result of simply “doing your job”, but this would be inaccurate and disingenuous.

You were presented with alternative courses of action on multiple occasions, and legitimate concerns were raised with you from the outset about the real possibilities of harm your hardline approach might contribute to.

I fear your complicity in this catastrophic public health failure will not age well, nor will it be forgotten. You see, you too had a ‘choice’, and you made it many
times over.

Laine Jolly

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