Federal court greenlights claim alleging conflict of interest in termination decision

A government worker who complained about bullying says the people he accused sat on the panel that ended his job three weeks later.

Graeme David Simmons worked as a risk management officer at the Australian Digital Health Agency from January 15, 2024. On February 27, 2025, he made a formal complaint alleging bullying by two senior employees. Less than three weeks later, on March 19, 2025, his employment ended.

The sequence of events that followed has now landed the agency in Federal Circuit and Family Court, with a judge on February 9, 2026 allowing Simmons to proceed with his case despite missing a filing deadline.

According to court documents, Simmons alleges that the very people named in his bullying complaint were on the selection panel that determined he had not secured a role in the agency's new organizational structure. When he raised concerns about the fairness of this process, he says his system access was removed and his employment termination was finalized earlier than originally planned, all without a proper investigation into his complaint.

The case centers on section 340 of the Fair Work Act, which protects employees from adverse action when they exercise workplace rights. Making a complaint about bullying counts as exercising such a right. If an employer takes adverse action like dismissal because of that complaint, it can face civil penalties.

Simmons had initially applied...

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