On September 12, we had a story from our Federal Court Watcher, Rodney Cake, about a “realignment” in the court’s corporate bureaucracy.
Former Home Affairs bureaucrat Jimmy Mastorakos is now the court’s Executive Director Strategy and Programs on $300,000 + pa.
He’s responsible for CourtPath, “strategic planning”, governance, organisational change, and finance. Big job – and to help him at least a dozen others from Homes Affairs have been recruited.
There has been a big exodus of staff from HR in Sydney following Jimmy’s appointment, with some additional bodies hired for the team in Melbourne.
Also, Cara Lawson has moved from the NSW Department of Communities and Justice to take over another senior role as the court’s Executive Director Corporate Operations (library, communications, culture, people, property, procurement and security).
Paul Kennedy, the former head of Corporate Services, now reports to Jimmy, whereas previously Jimmy was further down the pecking order to Paul.
On behalf of our readers we put a series of questions to the media people seeking to flesh out details about the management rearrangement, the progress of CourtPath, and whether the daily press clipping distributed to judges are censored.
We know the media muffins do their best, but are subject to control from above – so it was no surprise that we got the traditional boilerplate response:
“The recruitment process followed the rigorous requirements of making senior executive appointments in the Australian Public Service and was undertaken with due probity and was conducted extremely thoroughly.
The appointments were made by a selection panel comprised of senior representatives and a highly experienced senior independent external panel member representing the Australian Public Service Commissioner.
A large number of applications were received, and the calibre of the candidates was exceptionally high. The successful candidates are highly deserving.”
In the meantime, our investigative sleuth managed to riffle through the undergrowth and find at least some of the answers.
In the interests of not letting queries go to waste here is what we have …
Some unanswered questions answered …
• How many people have been recruited by the entity from the Department of Home Affairs since Mr Mastorakis joined the entity?
At least 12, including the head of payroll and his team.
• How many people have left since Mr Mastorakis joined the entity?
More than 50% of HR team members based in Sydney have left the court since his appointment, with most replacements or additional employees being based in Melbourne. The Director of Communications left after more than a decade in the role.
• Is it correct to say Paul Kennedy was not consulted about the decision to create the new role of Executive Director Corporate Strategy & Programs?
It is correct.
• Is it accurate to report that Mr Mastorakis is now senior to Mr Kennedy – or that Mr Kennedy is now answerable to Mr Mastorakis?
It is correct.
Can you list Mr Mastorakis’ key achievements over the past two years?
[For some unreason, this response was left blank, and we have no further details about the censorship of press clipping delivered to judges and staff]
In relation to CourtPath we have the latest follow-up information from Rodney here.