Toxic workplace culture blamed for $335 million NT health IT project failures, inquiry finds

Warning: This story contains discussion of suicide.

A "toxic" workplace culture within a Northern Territory government department has had a range of detrimental impacts on the bungled delivery of a $335 million health patient record system, a parliamentary inquiry has found.

The NT Public Accounts Committee released its almost 200-page report into the embattled Acacia IT project last week, which also found the suicide death of a senior contractor was emblematic of the experiences of staff working on the project.

Shaun Joyce died in 2025 while he was employed as the director of solution delivery for Acacia, inside the Department of Corporate and Digital Development (DCDD).

His sister Kara Joyce — who also worked on the project — told the committee earlier this year a "systemic failure in the management" of Acacia had resulted in Mr Joyce's death.

Designed to replace decades-old technology and integrate multiple NT Health patient record systems, Acacia has only partly been rolled out, despite several budget blowouts since the project began 11 years ago.

The committee's report said on the basis of evidence, it was clear the culture within Acacia "was harmful to staff".

"Additionally, beyond the details recounted in this report, the committee has heard in private hearings accounts of behaviour from those in leadership positions within [Acacia] that are both distressing in nature and clearly unacceptable in a workplace," the report reads.

"It is clear to the committee that the workplace culture of [Acacia] has impacted [its] cost and delivery, but it is not the remit of the committee to attribute the failings of the program to particular individuals."

Workplace 'stressful, demanding'

The committee said it had "heard from public and private submitters and witnesses alike that working on [Acacia] was an unpleasant, stressful, demanding, and often thankless experience".

"The committee was told the toxic workplace culture created a high level of turnover within the program," the report reads.

"This meant that over time institutional knowledge was lost and extensive resources were spent on recruitment and training.

"Secondly, the committee heard that senior management were not willing to constructively engage with concerns or issues raised by staff."

Serious challenges were subsequently left unresolved, the committee said.

"With decisions made by leadership without full clarity of the scale or complexity of the issues," the report reads.

"The committee heard that these factors harmed the delivery of the program because refusal to acknowledge concerns did not make the root cause disappear.

"The committee heard the toxic workplace and fears of retribution meant that people stopped raising issues, which undermined the quality of the delivery."

Fears toxic culture could re-emerge

The committee also said it was "deeply concerned" Acacia's toxic culture could emerge again, due to the high rates of contractors working on the project.

"Around 80 per cent of the workforce were contractors — this is an extremely unusual reliance on contractors compared to the rest of the NT public sector," the report reads.

"The committee understands that daily rates [of contractors] enabled long hours of work without additional costs to the program.

"Further, the committee understands that contract insecurity facilitated threats of retaliation due to the ease of ending a person’s contract with the program."

Departments slammed by committee

In the report's concluding comments, the committee said it had "faced challenges understanding Acacia, in part due to the ... quality of information" provided by DCDD and NT Health.

"At times the departments have provided contradictory answers to the committee’s questions," the report reads.

"More concerningly, it appears to the committee that at times the departments have omitted information and failed to answer the committee’s questions in ways that have challenged the committee’s understanding of the program and ability to report to the terms of reference."

Clinton Howe, the committee's chair, said the committee was not confident that Acacia was "necessarily the most appropriate pathway forward for the Northern Territory".

"The committee recommends that strict cost controls are implemented whereby any additional funding is subject to an independently prepared business case," Mr Howe said.

Overall, the committee made 11 recommendations, including that the DCDD review its induction process for all contractors to ensure they are aware of their health and safety rights.

The DCDD has been contacted for comment.