ACT Health spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on celebrity guest speakers for its annual nurses and midwives awards night.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Documents revealed the directorate hired comedian and TV host Anh Do as a guest speaker for its awards in 2017.
Acting ACT chief nursing and midwifery officer Karen Fachiney said the directorate paid $16,500 for Mr Do's speaking fee.
Other celebrity guest speakers at the awards night have included comedian Magda Szubanski and Australian voice artist Keith Scott, which cost $23,579.
Ms Faichney said not all of the gala dinners had attracted celebrity guest speakers, with a band used for the night's entertainment on some occasions.
"It is not standard practice for the ACT Health Directorate or Canberra Health Services to engage celebrity speakers for events. Each event is taken on a case by case basis," she said.
"For any ACT Health or CHS event, decisions regarding speakers are determined by a number of factors, including available budget, appropriateness for the event, relationship to the theme of an event and relevance to the audience."
While the directorate has forked out the cost for the guest speakers, Ms Fahichney said the gala dinner for Canberra's nurses and midwives had attracted more than $100,000 of sponsorship since 2013, with $34,953 of that going towards covering the fees for the speakers.
The event has been held annually to coincide with International Nurses Day and International Midwives Day.
"For the 2017 event, Anh Do's offering for the occasion fitted extremely well for the theme of the dinner, which was 'culture of respect'," Ms Faichney said.
"The ACT Health Directorate is still in discussions with a speaker for this year's event."
Documents obtained by the Sunday Canberra Times also revealed the department considered inviting Australian of the Year and former army chief David Morrison to speak before its clinical culture committee in 2017 amid escalating allegations of bullying and harrassment in the ACT Health workplace.
The retired Lieutenant-General shot to prominence in 2013 after a viral video speech in which he ordered soldiers who did not respect women to "get out".
General Morrison received Australian of the Year in 2016 for his stance on delivering cultural change and within the Australian Army.
During a December 2016 meeting, ACT Health's clinical culture committee - a now-disbanded group of health executives set up to reduce bullying and harassment - said it was making arrangements to invite General Morrison to address the 17-member committee.
However, members of the committee, which included former director-general Nicole Feely, said the former army chief should be invited to speak before a larger audience.
The committee agreed instead that General Morrison should instead address the ACT Public Service through its Executive Speaker Series.
Minutes for the committee's next meeting in February said while the option of inviting General Morrison to speak before the public service was explored, the idea was abandoned because of the cost involved.
