8 Interviewee story summaries In recent updates before publication of this Report, Cissy spoke about the years since securing the paid role and Home Valley Station. During those two to three years the CEO at that time worked closely with the PBC Board to ‘develop plans of operation and how to best progress to the next stages’. The Board secured funding from ILSC, Lotterywest, NIAA, DBCA ‘to support the delivery/works on country and governance’. Cissy said the Board made a lot of progress during this time, however, directors and the CEO and staff also dealt with constant efforts to undermine and threaten BAC members, community, and board members themselves. During this time, we constantly received petition letters from these bullies who continually tried to intimidate and threaten BAC members, community and board members. They made baseless complaints with no substance to ORIC, meaning we had to spend a lot of time dealing with these complaints. We asked ORIC to help and tried to explain what is happening (again) with the bullies. During this period BAC was selected to undertake a review. The BAC Board and staff assisted with the ‘Review’ process, which was very tiresome, dealing with these bullies who consistently distracted us from progressing, dealing with unnecessary complaints with no real substance, all based on personal opinions and personal agendas. Cissy told us that during this period the CEO received constant abuse and threats from certain individuals and because of the personal toll this took, the CEO resigned. Cissy explained that the Board decided to assign Cissy as interim CEO because it was a ‘vital time’ in terms of how much was at stake with so many developments and initiatives in progress at the PBC. This meant Cissy stepped down as Chair to work in the CEO role. The board made a decision to assign me to step up to fill in until we get through this ordeal, the review and to follow through to make sure we are compliant. So I stepped in as the interim CEO and stepped down as the Chairperson to assist with the review and the disputes. Cissy described how the next move of the ‘bullies’ was to go to the media as another ‘tactic’ to try and intimidate and discredit her and the Board. The local media, a news reporter from ABC … He posted a story ‘Regulator says Kimberley native title group Balanggarra breached own rules and CATSI act’, with a picture of me and my children on the front page. I was saddened to see how low this reporter went to get a story with no real substance. This seems to be a story they chase after up in the Kimberley region with other Aboriginal organisations and PBCs. Cissy told us the ‘bullies’ tried to use minor compliance matters from a ‘compliance notice’, which was removed from the public register after those minor issues were rectified, as another means of discrediting and intimidating the directors on the Board. Australian Human Rights Commission 67