Australia’s mental health crisis may have engulfed the very federal agency mandated with delivering policy advice and evidence on the issue, after health minister Mark Butler confirmed a formal investigation into the National Mental Health Commission.

“Christine Morgan has voluntarily stepped aside as the commission’s chief executive officer while this investigation occurs,” Butler said in a statement.

Professor Deb Picone has been picked to lead the independent official probe into the agency, which follows a series of allegations from staffers revealed in a report by Rick Morton for The Saturday Paper that pointed to poor staff morale and a potentially psychologically unsafe workplace exhibiting internal conflict and deep cultural issues.

Butler has declined to comment on the allegations, one of which The Saturday Paper said “relates to a public interest disclosure” and “the awarding of a $535,000 communications contract to a company with connections to senior staff”.

Department of Finance contract letting notifications confirm Primary Communications Partners landed not only that deal but a swag of others from the NMHC totalling $1,997,820 between March 2019 and July 2021 for 14 contracts. They are listed here: Contract notifications for NMHC and Primary Communication Partners

Notably, the NMHC is featured as a case study and reference client on Primary’s Comms Group’s website citing its role in the ‘#InThisTogether COVID’ mental health outreach campaign.

Tale of the tape

The procurements are certain to arouse strong political interest given two senior staff at Primary Comms Group have strong political links from former Liberal party positions. There is no suggestion the contracts were not competitively nor legitimately awarded.

The LinkedIn profile of Chris Hall, Primary’s Comms Group’s chief executive, reveals that until 2017 he held a variety of NSW ministerial chief of staff roles for Stuart Ayres across Tourism, Trade, Sport and Police.

The profile also lists Hall as the “battleground director” for the Liberal’s NSW division “responsible for coordination and leadership of the Liberal campaign across eight state seats and three federal seats” between 2010 and 2011, when the Liberals were swept to power in NSW in a landslide win against Kristina Keneally.

Chris Downy, the executive director of Primary Engage, part of the Primary Comms Group that Hall heads, spent nearly a decade as the state member for Sutherland and spent two years as the state’s minister for sport recreation and racing until 1995 before taking on a number of senior gambling industry roles.

According to Downy’s LinkedIn profile, he did a four-year stint as general manager of external affairs at The Star Sydney until March 2020 and was previously the chief executive of the Australian Wagering Council and executive director of the Australian Casino Association.

The Saturday Paper has also noted that former Primary Comms chief counsel Jennifer Muir was directly employed by the NMHC in 2020 as a key adviser to its chief, Morgan, but the publication stressed it was “not suggesting anything improper in the awarding of the contract” in relation to the $535,000 deal listed by Finance as a contract for the agency’s ‘Strategic Communications for Connections Tour 2022’, given to Primary Comms, the details of which were disclosed in June 2021.

It is not uncommon for specialist communications staff from suppliers to government to take positions in agencies, especially when a full-time position is created or becomes available to reduce reliance on contractors and specialist roles that can be difficult to fill.

There is no suggestion by The Mandarin that any contracts awarded to Primary Comms were not done so properly and fairly; they are certainly transparent, and publicly accessible.

Move with intent

Commendable agency attention to detail aside, returning minister for health Mark Butler and the Labor government will undoubtedly have their antennae up and finely tuned for any deals that may have nudged probity, as Bill Shorten’s dogged pursuit of former government services minister Stuart Robert’s dealings has exemplified.

“The investigation will inform any changes required to support the Commission’s role, functions and operations,” Butler said of the probe into the body that he set up in 2012 when last in office.

“To ensure the continued functioning of the commission I have appointed an interim chief executive officer, Dr Ruth Vine, who is the current deputy chief medical officer at the Department of Health and Aged Care,” Butler said of the intervention.

While many of the revelations about the NHMC contained in The Saturday Paper are confronting, the organisation has an obviously elevated APS risk profile because of the very fact that it deals specifically with mental health and engages directly with people who have direct experience of mental illness.

“A hallmark of the commission’s work over the past decade is how we actively seek out ways to strengthen the involvement of people who have first-hand experience of accessing care and support in designing, governing, delivering and evaluating the mental health and suicide prevention systems,” the NHMC’s 2022-2026 corporate plan says.

“Mental health and suicide-prevention services, policy and programs will never be fit for purpose unless they reflect the lived experience of people with mental ill-health and suicidality, as well as their families, carers and other support people.”

That means, in blunt terms, persistent exposure to trauma in the same way royal commissions and other frontline services dredge up unwanted or intrusive feelings.

When the results of the NMHC investigation come, there will be many eyes upon them.

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