An Extract from "The Human Toll": Cristina's Story.

Cristina Anzellotti’s Story

On 9 June 2021, my third book 'The Human Toll: Is the Nature of Regulation under the Australian Skills Quality Authority Destructive?' was published. Since then, it has joined my previous two books amongst the international best seller lists in the areas of Vocational Education and Training ("VET"), Education Policy and Administrative Law. While the book continues to be distributed around the world on platforms such as Amazon and Booktopia, people are still ordering signed copies of my book in significant numbers; these sales have meant that this publication has recently become my best seller of all 3 titles.

What makes this book so special you ask? I'm told that it was the real stories of real people who had become victims of the regulatory practice of the Australian Skills Quality Authority ("ASQA").

To celebrate this milestone, I'm extracting one of those stories. It is the tragic story of Cristina Anzellotti. There are other stories of loss, grief and destruction in this book, Cristina is but one of them. I encourage you to share your feedback regarding Cristina's story at the end of this article. Cristina's story has been provided by a long-standing and respected member of the VET sector, Ms Amy Boleszny. Cristina asked Amy to ensure that her story was told and made available to the public to encourage and advocate for change but also to make the national VET regulator accountable for the behaviour of its staff and the toxic culture that it exposes people to. The story is also being shared after seeking consent from all relevant parties. Cristina's story included an email from Amy Boleszny to the assistant Minister responsible for the VET portfolio.

As this extract has been taken directly from the book, all legislation, job roles and titles were correct and current at the time of publication. The disclaimer that follows has also been extracted from the book and applies to this article. It is important to remember that this article is only about sharing one woman's tragic story as she journeyed through her RTO registration with the National VET Regulator. Sadly, Cristina lost her life; she is not alone. There are others who have died due to similar circumstances. The important thing to remember is the behaviour of the regulator, how they managed the audit process and the subsequent appeal.

Disclaimer

The author provides notice that the stories that follow have been provided by victims of ASQA’s regulatory behaviour. In some cases, the victims have provided the stories themselves already written, in other cases, interviews were conducted with the victim who detailed their experience verbally to the author. In all cases, the stories below have been reviewed and approved by the victim for publication.

All stories were collected and shared under a Collaboration Agreement where the ASQA victim, or n this case, the person who was asked to share the story of the deceased declared the facts of their stories and their experiences to be true. The author of the book has not verified any facts, albeit, in some cases, the author was already aware of the experiences of these collaborators through professional interactions.

The important thing to remember is that these stories and experiences are being shared as victim testimonies. These stories are how these victims perceived their story to take place and the experiences and emotions that they went through and in most cases, continue to go through. That ASQA may have a different perception to their behaviour or the facts that led to the decisions that ultimately impacted these people's lives so greatly, while also important, is not really the focus of this sharing these stories. The focus of course is that it doesn’t matter whether the RTO was actually meeting its regulatory obligations, the focus is on the fact that:

1. Even the regulator has legal requirements it must abide by in executing its regulatory functions;
2. Each RTO and person affected was entitled by law to receive natural justice and to experience procedural fairness at every stage of their ASQA journey;
3. That there are model litigant obligations that MUST be followed by all Commonwealth lawyers, even at the AAT;
4. When the stakes are so high for a business, the regulator MUST only use qualified auditors and technical experts;
5. Audits should not commence while there is a conflict of interest that is not being appropriately managed;
6. The Commonwealth MUST be mindful of the consequences of their abrupt policy changes;
7. All RTOs are workplaces and ASQA auditors are in a workplace. Albeit, this needs to be tested from a legal perspective, if the auditors’ workplace is considered to include the RTO, there needs to be recognition of workplace bullying and harassment laws and the accountability for breaches of this legislation if it applies. Likewise, if an RTO perceives that it is being bullied and harassed by ASQA auditors, it should be able to ask the auditor to leave the premises and exercise any other rights that they would normally have under relevant legislation. Furthermore, there should not EVER be a negative consequence (such as, but not limited to vengeance or coming back for another bite at the cherry) for exercising your legal rights in this regard.

Most importantly, however, the focus of sharing these stories is on the fact that all of these people are human beings. They deserve to be treated in an empathetic way. Everyone has inherent biases, admit to them and manage them. ASQA staff might benefit from training in being more sensitive to other people. Sensitivity training in this context is focused on making employees aware of their attitudes and behaviour toward others. Other forms of training that should be considered on an ongoing basis are around ethical decision-making, identifying bias, cultural sensitivity training (there has long been a feeling by many in the VET sector that ASQA as an agency is racist) and training in micro-aggression in the workplace.

According to Dr Derald W Sue from Columbia University, micro-aggressions can be perceived as everyday verbal, nonverbal slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to people based solely upon being members of a marginalised group.

* Dr Derald W Sue is a University Professor at the University of Columbia who has published several books on micro-aggressions. Dr Derald Sue has put together a YouTube video explaining micro-aggression in everyday life at the following link.

Cristinas Story 

Cristina’s story is tragic. Her story comes to us with permission from Cris prior to her death to ensure that there is an awareness in the sector of the toxic culture at ASQA and the harm it caused to Cristina, her RTO and her loved ones. Cris passed away approximately six months after this story was provided to Amy. She was found collapsed and deceased in her home.  Amy believes she lost the will to survive and her serious health issues overcame her.  Her heart was literally broken.

This email was also provided to the Assistant Advisor to Assistant Minister for Vocational Education, Training and Apprenticeships, the Hon. <insert name>.

 From:                       Amy Boleszny <email provided>

Sent:                        Friday, 9 August 2019 10:15 AM

To:                           '<Insert Name>'.

Subject:                      Cancellation of Registration for AHPTS

Dear <Insert Name>, 

Many years ago I helped a professional colleague, Cristina Anzellotti, set up her RTO training in Pathology Specimen Collection and Health Administration and Management.

I have acted as her compliance manager since then. She has successfully passed every audit and her registration was extended for 7 years without audit as she was low risk and with a good reputation for quality.

She was a Smart and Skilled provider.

In the middle of last year a student made a complaint to ASQA trying to force AHPTS to give her a full refund on bogus claims. This student had completed all the training but failed to attend the mandatory practicum which was arranged with NSW Health in one of their regional hospitals.

The Refund Policy given to all students upon enrolment clearly states that no refund was possible under such circumstances.

Without giving the RTO an opportunity to respond to the claims, ASQA issued a complaint resolution with sanctions, forcing AHPTS to go to the AAT.

At the time, the CEO was critically ill in hospital so the matter was handled by the Training Manager, the partner of the CEO, was to attend the Tribunal, but she died suddenly thus leaving no-one to assist in rebutting the sanctions. Cristina, the CEO, gave ASQA permission to deal with me directly since she was still in the hospital.

ASQA gave a long list of documents they wished to see and I provided these by Dropbox. I then got an email claiming they had not received them and therefore was in breach, but I demonstrated that not only had they received them, but one of ASQAs officers had accessed them. I copied the documents again into a second Dropbox folder and again they were accessed by the same officer.

Meanwhile, the family of the student was so abusive that Cristina paid them the full refund. Even that did not satisfy ASQA.

Then ASQA cancelled the registration and the lies started. Firstly they claimed they did not receive the requested documentation and promptly followed this with a statement that they could not open the documents (all MSWord and PDF documents). They then claimed they had telephoned the RTO office and got no reply. They had been told three months prior that the office was closed and given both my and Cristina’s direct mobile number.

Next they claimed they had sent correspondence to the Parramatta office and because no reply was received, this was the breach that triggered the cancellation. Again, they knew that the office had been closed. In addition, had such a letter been received the building owner, being a long standing friend, would have sent it on directly to Cristina. He says no such letter was ever received and neither was a copy ever forwarded to me.

As a result of this, my seriously ill colleague lost the business that was her pride and joy, her best friend and might possibly lose her home. With no RTO she cannot claim the considerable amount of monies she is owed by Smart and Skilled. She has also lost the considerable investment she made in establishing and growing an RTO that had very high post-course employment records.

This is a shocking indictment of ASQA, in that they denied natural justice and ignored the evidence that the RTO had acted correctly, thus forcing a closure. The health industry has now lost a high quality provider of Pathology courses at the time when it is needing to reskill workers because of facing so many nearing retirement age.

Kind regards, 

Amy Boleszny

CEO

Commentary

Cris’ story has similarities to that of Philippa earlier in this book.  An ASQA auditor who takes it upon themselves to generate a range of complaints that never existed prior to their involvement, students had never lodged any complaints and the RTO had no record of any complaints.  It is unclear why any staff member or contractor working on behalf of the national VET regulator might engage in such behaviour but one thing appears to be clear...in at least 3 of the stories in this book, ASQA auditors have been involved in the generation (and/or fabrication) of student complaints that did not exist prior to their involvement with the RTO.

Cristina's story is another demonstration of another life lost unnecessarily.  The author can reveal that another provider of whom she is aware in the pathology collection space was audited a few years back, also nationally acclaimed for her expertise, multiple award winner, an incredible simulated training environment, outstanding industry recommendations and graduate outcomes. During an audit, the CEO was advised that they were critically not compliant and threatened with cancellation because their simulated environment did not have running hot water.  The auditor was the same as Trudy Barlow from Bronwyn’s story next in the book. 

RTO Doctor

The first choice for RTO sanction management and compliance assistance.

RTO Doctor assists VET & international education providers around the country to ensure their compliance with their regulatory requirements; a critical issue for RTOs around the nation currently experiencing a very hostile and punitive regulatory environment. Raelene Bartlett, Founding Director of RTO Doctor published the book CRICOS CPR: Top 5 Tips to Rescue Your RTO as a way of supporting providers in navigating this minefield. She has also published the number 1 international bestseller in 3 categories "National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 (Cth): An Investigation Into Merits Review" and 'The Human Toll: Is The Nature of Regulation Under The Australia Skills Quality Authority Destructive?'