158 The plaintiff says that there were other blemishes in the process which also vitiated the reasonableness of the action of the plaintiff. The plaintiff complained that he was left to his own devices, was not assisted, but then also complained that he was shunted around, which is the direct opposite of the former.
159 The fact is that in October 2006 Mr Gilham decided that the plaintiff should have some professional development, suggested to the plaintiff that he find an LAC where he could go, where he could work with the commander to broaden his experience. The plaintiff himself found Maroubra for that purpose and that was acceded to by Mr Gilham and Mr Gilham spoke with the local area commander.
160 The plaintiff could have stayed on at Maroubra but decided to move himself because he did not want to work with Detective Inspector Pisanos. The plaintiff moved himself to Sutherland LAC where he was an old friend with a commander, Mr Williams. From there the plaintiff moved himself to the Dog Unit which was part of the SPG and that movement was at his own request. There is no suggestion in the evidence that he had to leave Sutherland LAC.
161 On 28 May 2007 he would have been required to move from the Dog Unit for the reasons which I have already pointed out. However, that move was not necessary because on 15 May 2007 the plaintiff had stopped working, on sick report and never returned to work prior to his medical discharge. That is not a person who was left with no assistance, nor is it a person who is being "shunted around". One asks, rhetorically, if the plaintiff had not found himself an opening at Maroubra and then an opening at Sutherland and then an opening at the Dog Unit, he might have been more aggrieved if someone acting on behalf of the SPG had managed to find him an opening at some more distant location, such as Goulburn or Bathurst or the Central Coast or perhaps an even less attractive LAC, such as Macquarie Fields or Campbelltown, where the amount of violence is particularly great.
162 One of the issues that was raised for my determination was whether it was necessary for the decision that was made by Mr Benson to go to the IRP, even if the plaintiff acquiesced in the action proposed by Mr Benson that was communicated to the plaintiff on 8 March 2007. In that regard there is a conflict in the evidence between the opinion of Mr Benson and the opinion of Mr Williams. I pointed out that the conflict could be solved by the tendering of the relevant policy documents. That was never done. When one considers the evidence of Mr Williams as to why he would always send it to an IRP, it is clear that he would always send it to an IRP lest there be any communication by him of some course of action which he later had to retract, causing him to be seen as foolish in the eyes of his subordinate. However, Mr Benson, a man of higher rank and great experience, did not believe that it was necessary for a decision to be taken to the IRP if the subject of the decision acquiesced, and I cannot see any logical reason why such would not be the case. I therefore accept that it was not necessary for the decision reached by Mr Benson on 8 March 2007 to go to an IRP if the plaintiff acceded in that decision.
163 Furthermore, that goes back to the interaction between the plaintiff and Mr Kaldas and Mr Gilham in October or November 2006. If that had been a final decision the plaintiff would have been entitled to insist that it go to an IRP. He did not. He knew the usual procedures were not being followed and he knew that they had to be followed. They were in fact being followed by a much more lengthy and drawn-out route which the plaintiff was happy to follow. I cannot perceive that he saw the communication to him of advice that was ultimately correct by Mr Kaldas and Mr Gilham to have been final and irrevocable.
164 I have already discussed the interim management plan submissions, but I would again point out what was pointed out by Mr Benson in cross-examination, that the plaintiff was a commissioned officer of police, a man with great seniority in the Police Force. When being cross-examined about the interim management plan Mr Benson said this:
"It does vary but in terms of the level and by that, there is an expectation that you have, for example, and I've done it myself, a very detailed outcome report for say a constable and it would be considerably less for a sergeant and it would be considerably less for a commissioned officer or an inspector because there is an expectation that at that level, senior officer with the New South Wales police, that, you know, the level of advice and guidance that - for example, I might be required to receive from my boss, my boss would be horrified if I didn't have it because, you know, in - and I use Mr McGilchrist's example, he was able to satisfy a promotions system that promoted him to the rank of sergeant. It talked about how you deal with people, what you do and he was said to be the best applicant, got that job and then again with the - because he got under the old promotions system, went through that, written report, documentation and select committee, everything. Questions in relation to maximising performance, staff, everything. Got through all that and made a commander. So there is - there is an expectation as a baseline that the commissioner signs off as a commissioned officer that - you know, it does happen where people slip through the system but there is an expectation that these people will have a skill set."
That skill set can be seen in Exhibit 1, the plaintiff's application for merit appointment as the commander of the RBDU and what the plaintiff had to say about his own competencies. One of the criticisms levelled at the lack of any formal interim management plan was that there was no written plan, there was nothing to tell the plaintiff what he had to do. He was told he had to improve his management skills and sent off to observe and listen. One has to accept that he would not need to be given the written guidance that might need to be given to a probationary constable or a constable bearing in mind his level of rank in the New South Wales Police.