Westpac Rescue faces ‘urgent’ decision over $500 million contract

The NSW government has warned the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service that its $500 million taxpayer-funded contract is at risk, as the iconic rescue service misses deadlines and blocks whistleblowers from speaking publicly during its investigation into claims of bullying, sexual harassment and safety breaches.

The “independent investigation” has been labelled a sham by whistleblowers, some of whom have been prevented from speaking to a parliamentary inquiry and the government regulator by non-disclosure agreements that prohibit them from talking to third parties. The rescue service’s contract is due to expire next year, and the government has said any new contract will take six months to negotiate.

This masthead and 60 Minutes revealed claims in October from a dozen whistleblowers who accused Westpac Rescue of “creating a culture of fear” that endangered the health and safety of its personnel, ignored sexual harassment, backdated training certificates, protected pilots and put patients at risk.

David Steirn, the Enterprise Investigations director appointed by Westpac Rescue to lead their probe, told The Australian Financial Review on Monday that investigators were beholden to their clients’ wishes and were a “creature of instructions”.

Steirn was responding to the KPMG scandal, in which its chairman, chief executive and two partners resigned over claims it covered up whistleblower complaints. The consultancy giant has been grilled for claiming legal professional privilege between investigators and their clients to limit transparency.

“We don’t necessarily want to live in a world where every organisation has to air all of its dirty laundry, all of its bad decisions, all the time,” Steirn said. “There’d likely be none left.”

Steirn and Westpac Rescue declined to comment. Enterprise Investigations previously led an inquiry into claims of sexual harassment at Nine Entertainment, the owner of this masthead.

Westpac Rescue, which runs medical evacuation operations from Newcastle to the Queensland border, told NSW Health it would waive non-disclosure agreements for former staff who wanted to speak to Steirn for the Westpac Rescue-commissioned inquiry.

But the taxpayer-funded operation has refused to let them speak to anyone else, including the government, which has been probing the state’s largest aeromedical service through a separate parliamentary inquiry into Calvary Mater Hospital.

NSW Labor MP Greg Donnelly told the parliamentary inquiry Westpac Rescue would be “the last organisation that some of these people may be wanting to hear from”.

“It seems to me to be an extraordinary situation that the Westpac Rescue Service is participating in this investigation in any way,” he said.

Stacey Price, Westpac Rescue’s former training co-ordinator, claimed she was sexually harassed and bullied after she raised concerns about safety compliance.

Price said the KPMG scandal has fundamentally altered the national conversation regarding whistleblowers, workplace investigations, governance and public trust.

“If these standards are now being demanded of KPMG, should the same standards equally apply to a publicly funded emergency healthcare provider entrusted with public money, public trust and critical patient care?” she said.

Westpac Rescue has refused to publicly release the terms of reference and scope of its inquiry. It denied “there are ongoing endemic safety or cultural issues within the organisation” before the inquiry began late last year.

The state government is facing an imminent decision on the half-a-billion-dollar contract to run helicopter medical services for northern NSW. Westpac Rescue is a distinct operation from Westpac Lifesaver, which covers Sydney. There are two other major emergency helicopter operators in NSW, Toll and CareFlight.

The Calvary Mater Hospital parliamentary inquiry heard that a new northern helicopter service would require at least six months’ notice to begin operating.

“This is all fairly urgent,” said Greens MP Dr Amanda Cohn, the inquiry chair. “This particular current contract is due to expire in 2027.”

Dr Sarah Coombes, the executive director of medical operations at NSW Ambulance, told the inquiry she had expected the results of Westpac Rescue’s investigation in May.

Coombes said far more staff indicated they wanted to be interviewed as part of the independent review than initially anticipated, and there would be no decision on extending Westpac Rescue’s contract until the government had seen the report.

But former staff were not contacted to participate in the investigation until March. Westpac Rescue has also been on a recruitment drive since January, posting advertisements for three aircraft maintenance engineers and a head of engineering. It has also called for expressions of interest from pilots, aircrew officers and base engineers.

Last month it celebrated with a tropical-themed ball at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre, the latest in a string of lavish fundraising balls for the 51-year-old organisation.

Westpac Rescue has also been actively pursuing contracts to expand its operations. Tuesday’s state budget included a further $67 million for three new regional helicopter bases. Its law firm, Sparke Helmore, also advises the NSW government on its multimillion-dollar helicopter rescue contracts.

NSW Ambulance, which will decide the fate of Westpac Rescue’s contract, issued a further warning to the service on Wednesday.

“NSW Ambulance has consistently and repeatedly expressed our expectations that we will receive a full and unredacted report from the review of Northern NSW Rescue Helicopter Service,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

“The expectation of a full, transparent and timely review has been made clear to our contractor.”

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