TAKING ‘UNDUE’ CREDIT

We had a major problem with the discovery of asbestos in buildings at my school. The school was built AFTER asbestos sheeting was outlawed. When discovered, the sheets which were asbestos were labelled with an ‘A’. Those which were gyprock were left unlabelled.

Some work was done in one of the learning modules housing four classes. The “A” walls were left alone, the gyprock ones drilled for the insertion of rods to hang student work.

It was then discovered that the labels were on the wrong walls.

There was lots of hysteria about asbestos in Darwin at the time. I devised a scheme that managed the issue in a way that avoided hysteria and lead to a correction of the issue.

I discovered years later that our Department’s Media and Marketing section had used my experiences to develop an application for an award in handling sensitive issues, claiming the credit for my work. It won an award from PRIA (Public Relations Institute of Australia) and basked in self congratulation.

YEARS later I found out about this plagiarism.

That is only one example. I have had numerous other experiences of a similar nature with both NT and wider implications. I have never minded others using my ideas. BUT I have always acknowledged sources.