Jarndyce and Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of
a suit has, in course of time, become so complicated
that no man alive knows what it means.
-- Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Today (31 January 2015) my friend, Bernie Neville, was at his local polling booth in the seat of Ashgrove. Campbell Newman came up to him and asked: “How is that friend of yours, Xxxx?“ The Premier used the person’s name perhaps dumb to the prohibition of its publication under the Guardianship legislation.
Bernie gave Campbell Newman an update. Xxxx is still locked up in a high care dementia unit even though we have been to QCAT three times since 16 October 2014 when they abducted him from his home.
Campbell Newman responded that if he wins today he will make sure he will look after Xxxx. My friend gave the Premier the benefit of the doubt and cast his vote for his friend Xxxx and others in the same predicament, cast out of society and locked in a facility. It is not the first time Campbell Newman has given an undertaking to to support Xxxx. He gave it to me late last year.
So Bernie Neville voted for Xxxx and for people in Xxxx’s predicament and put 1 beside Campbell Newman’s name … note that Bernie, like many other workers, always voted ALP till Hawke & Keating sold out rank and file unionists … since then, many like Bernie have voted green or independent, some have even crossed to the darkside and voted LNP … in 2012 Bernie went and asked for support from then Premier Anna Bligh who refused to meet with him … so he and a friend set up a stall at the West End markets by getting up at 3 am in the morning and claiming a spot – stalls are allocated on a first come first served basis – and asked for people’s support for AHIMSA house and for Xxxx.
After months of canvassing at the markets every week, they got over 600 signatures from the local community … only then did the local member and Premier Anna Bligh give her support and present the petition in the parliament in her last day in office.
In 2014 Bernie went back to the current member Jackie Trad but Jackie fobbed him off … today Campbell Newman, clearly desperate for votes, came up and asked Bernie about Xxxx by name (without prompting) and offered his support if elected.
This whole situation of starting a community centre (AHIMSA House) based on the earnings one worker’s accumulated savings was wrong, from the outset in 2003. Xxxx was poorly advised. He should have provided firstly for his own financial security in his retirement. Professional advice failed him. His own accountant stole his family home of 30 yars that he had slaved for.
Xxxx should never have got involved with Laver. It was political and financial suicide.
Laver had a group around him who were not capable of challenging the financial mistakes he made. Ironically the one person who had sufficient nous to stop Laver from squandering Xxxx’s money … this person had given some good advice at the beginning but then backed off and did not ensure that his good advice was followed by Laver. Never leave the details to ideologues.
Eventually it was another friend M. who saw through Laver and told Bernie. Bernie acted immediately and locked Laver out of AHIMSA house and set about trying to recover financially … but, by then, it was too late, the debt to the bank was too great.
A community centre resourced by one individual could never work … a community centre requires organization and participation by many and should not be left to the grandiose plans of the Lavers of this world. A sad lesson.
Bernie Neville submitted this statement to Qld Civil Administration Tribunal (QCAT) on Friday 30 January 2015 in support of the the rights of Xxxx. Bernie said:
Xxxx must be allowed to return to the life he lived before been taken into care at the RSL centre at Alexandra Headland, a life he enjoyed in the general community at Sunnybank. Xxxx will be able to enjoy and take part in activities in the general community with the support of his friends.
On 30th January 2015 Mr Les Clarkson and Ms Julie Ford both presiding members of QCAT refused Mr Neville’s application in support of his friend ordering that a needs assessment of Xxxx’s accommodation be done by the Public Guardian within the next three months.
That means Xxxx is locked up for over 6 months just because Xxxx got ripped off by self-appointed libertarian Brian Laver and architect Will Marcus (who will be whoever he wants to be).
Not a single state institution was willing to help – the Public Trustee gave up, the Crime and Corruption Commission refused to deal with it as did the Qld Police Force and the Ombudsman, the Attorney General, QCAT and even the Supreme Court. All this was predictable.
Result: No Justice for the Vulnerable
This submission was prepared for but not heard by Queensland Civil Administration Tribunal [QCAT]. The Presiding members, Clarkson and Ford, did not give time for this submission and ruled that any discussion of Xxxx’s finances to be irrelevant even though they relate directly to where Xxxx lives . In its judgement QCAT gave the Public Guardian three months to prepare a needs analysis concerning Xxxx’s accommodation. So Xxxx remains locked up. The Guardianship and Administration Act places a prohibition on the publication of the person’s name. In his judgement, Presiding Member Clarkson unilaterally upgraded Xxxx’s medical condition to Alzheimers without any consultation with medical opinion. Here is the submission that I did not get a chance to give. Here is the submission
We (Xxxx’s friends) have been coming here to Queensland Civil Administration Tribunal [QCAT] since 2009, that’s six years. How many times has QCAT ruled on matters relating to Xxxx [publication prohibited]? This is not the first time, not the second time … Ms Claire Endicott and Mr Les Clarkson have ruled on this matter. Ms Endicott refused our application for a stay of the decision to remove Xxxx and place him in a high care dementia facility. Ms Endicott put Xxxx at risk and he fell in the toilet at the facility breaking a vertebrae and causing a disc to bulge. From the outset, Mr Clarkson was disinterested in the theft of $168,032 by Mr Will Marcus of West End. Clarkson shut Bernie down when he raised the issue at the first QCAT hearing in 2009.
Still no fairness, still no justice for Xxxx in this place. The process in this place (QCAT) is unfair. We put in sworn affidavits and the Public Guardian responds with one hundred and fifty three pages (153) of innuendo, covert recordings of private conversations, and gossip. We are required to lodge our material first so that the Public Guardian can respond with lies. We were given little time. We are unrepresented but the Public Guardian and the Public Trustee have a building full of lawyers at their disposal.
The Public Guardian locked Xxxx up in a high care dementia unit on the 16 October 2014 … at the time, it did not ask Xxxx, the Public Guardian consulted none of Xxxx’s friends … the Public Guardian claimed it was for a month but three months later [Xxxx] is still locked up … not even permitted to go out with friends on his birthday on the 21 January 2015. After Xxxx’s friends, P, M, Bernie, Mh and myself visited him on his birthday last week … on our departure, when we were hugging Xxxx and saying our goodbyes the security staff were heard to say: “Watch him, in case he tries to make a run for it.”
Even a cursory look at the quite voluminous QCAT file reveals that Xxxx’s incarceration at Alexander Headlands over 100 kilometres from his nearest friends has nothing to do with dementia but a lot to do with property. In 2009 Bernie Neville and Xxxx went to Caxton Legal Aid asking for pro bono legal advice about how to recover jewellery that belonged to Xxxx’s wife Ellen from Brian Laver.
They ended up having all Xxxx’s legal and financial affairs being dealt with by the Public Trustee, who charged him fees to mismanage his properties. The architect Will Marcus exacerbated this by making his own application to QCAT to have Xxxx declared to lack legal capacity … but only after Xxxx had gifted Marcus a sixth interest in the building at 26 Horan Street West End.
In an extraordinary transaction Xxxx’s accountant Suliman Sabdia (President of the Islamic Council of Queensland) had taken Xxxx’s freehold title to his family home at Sunnybank and placed it in the Sabdia Family Trust.
Sabdia claims that Xxxx had gifted the property to him.
But why would Xxxx give up his family home to an accountant? It beggars belief that an accountant would be allowed get away with such a transaction.
In an even more bizaare transaction, acting upon the sage but undisclosed advice of Queen’s Counsel, the public trustee cut a deal with Sabdia sanctioning the theft of Xxxx’s family home by Sabdia so long as Xxxx be permitted stay in his house.
No mention in the sage advice by Queen’s Counsel that Xxxx may need the assistance of a carer to live with him in the house.
Acting as Xxxx’s de facto guardian, this is exactly what Bernie Neville put in place, a responsible carer. Not the Public Guardian, not their outsourcing entity Centacare, Bernie Neville did this.
I immediately noticed the improvement in the house at Mains Road and in Xxxx after Rosslyn came to live there. No longer was the laundry lying on the floor, no longer were food parcels organised by the public guardian filling the refrigerator. The house was tidy, a proper regime of cooking was commenced with Xxxx’s full participation. The yard was cleaned up, and Rosslyn’s goat Billy was keeping the grass down. The appointed mower man at $100 a pop was a waste of Xxxx’s money.
Of course it did not take long for Centacare, the Lawsons and the Public Guardian gossip mill to start up. The one hundred and fifty-three page submission by the Public Guardian to this tribunal is full of it. The case officer Tim Brown had never met Xxxx, his then boss Therese Craig had not ether.
In the Public Guardian’s report it to QCAT [Lisa Pool, Principal Guardian, Office of the Public Guardian, Date report completed: 9/01/15] it states that:
In writing this report, the Guardian has attempted to gain the views of all key parties which are listed below in accordance with the General Principles and in accordance with the rules of natural justice.
In the same report it includes the following people as key parties:
Mr Mh T, Mr Ian Curr, Mr Bernie Neville, Ms R M, Ms M B.
Yet none of these people were consulted in the decision to remove Xxxx from his home to the RSL Care facility on 16 October 2014.
Section 8 of the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act 1992. says:
“This Act applies in relation to having a carer, assistant, assistance animal or disability aid in the same way as it applies in relation to having a disability.”
The public guardian says that it made a decision not to tell the support people listed about the decision to remove Xxxx because they would oppose the decision. No other reason was given.
For the past three and a half months while he has been locked up in the RSL Care, Xxxx has been deprived of his carers (his support network of Bernie, M, R, Mh, P and myself) by the public guardian.
It seems to me that Xxxx has been discriminated against by the public guardian in the terms laid down by the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.
Xxxx needs support – not just for personal care but more importantly in this case for advocacy and decision making.
Both the Public Guardian and the Public Trustee refuse to deal with us.
When we asked them to act to save Xxxx’s property they ignored us.
When we told the police that people were stealing Xxxx’s property, they refused to listen to our complaints.
When we told the Public Trustee that Sabdia, Laver and Marcus had de-frauded Xxxx out of his home and his rental properties, the Public Trustee claimed legal privilege from his client (Xxxx and his support group). The PT took the matter to the Supreme Court so that they did not have to act against the fraudsters.
Wouldn’t Xxxx be better off without the public guardian and without the public trustee?
Why did you think it necessary that Bernie put up his hand to be Xxxx’s guardian?
Wouldn’t it be better if the presiding member revoked the appointment of the Public Guardian and instruct the Public Trustee to deal with Xxxx’s support group?
We have never had support from the Public Guardian or the Public trustee.
They have discriminated against Xxxx by refusing to support people who care for him.
Will QCAT stop the discrimination?
We met with Natasha from Centacare after we went to the Supreme Court to get Xxxx’s home back. The Public Guardian officers Tim Brown and Therese Craig were using Centacare as their eyes and ears but they had never met Xxxx. Everything was being handled remotely through an outsourced entity that seemed oblivious to Xxxx’s real needs. It was left to Bernie Neville to pick up the pieces yet again after the relevant appointees had mismanaged both Xxxx’s finances and accommodation. The Public Trustee did not even have Xxxx on a full pension when we first came to this place asking for a review back in 2011.
I noticed a marked improvement in Xxxx and in his situation at Sunnybank. He was beginning to recover from the terrible loss of his beloved Ellen. Rosslyn was prompting him to look after himself.
What was the response from the Public Guardian? Order an ACAT assessment. This cursory examination lasting 45 minutes looks the same as the ones done previously … they could have been copied from one another … the main difference was a recommendation that Xxxx is high care. Xxxx is not high care, he does not wander, he does not fall over (excepting when placed on an unsafe slippery surface in a high care dementia unit), Xxxx is aware of time and place, he can cook light meals, he can visit his friends using public transport, he can walk to Garden City once a week. Xxxx has not changed in that respect in the past 10 years. Xxxx does have memory loss, he is confused by complex financial and legal transactions.
Yes Mr Manwaring, Xxxx’s concentration does waiver after 75 minutes of interview. Mine waivers after five minutes, it does not mean I am high care dementia sufferer. How do I know this? I have participated in the care of my mother and my aunty until they both passed away not so long ago. I have been through the ACAT assessments with my mother. I have been present in the room, I was forced to take Mum to a gerontologist because of the facile nature of the ACAT assessment to determine Mum’s ongoing care. I have seen the people that are housed with Xxxx in the RSL facility at Alexandra Headlands. It is a disrespect and a distortion of the language to say that Xxxx is high care dementia sufferer. Xxxx came here today on the train from Landsborough. He has conversed with the people present, he knows what is going on. He wants to go home, this tribunal should respect that and order that the necessary arrangements are made by the public guardian to ensure it happens, now. Three months incarceration in that facility is long enough. Xxxx has a right to reside in his house at Xxxx Road. He is entitled to have someone stay with him. Rosslyn has put her hand up. No one else has. Round the clock professional carers would cost a fortune.
Claims by Sabdia and the Public Trustee that only Xxxx is entitled to live in his home (i.e. without a carer) are absurd. And no tribunal properly instructed should sanction it.
Needless to say, Campbell-Newman never lived up to his word.
Ian Curr
30 Jan 2015
Please Note – xxxx is Ross Taylor