QCAT shenanigans

The Queensland government, including the QCAT kangaroo tribunal, deceptively claims that the Office of the Public Trustee has expertise in financial matters'. This is a blatant lie as both the Costello Inquiry and the Cooper Review identified glaring issues with PTQ policies and procedures which render the PTQ incapable of providing prudent financial management. No official entity acknowledges malpractice on the part of the QCAT kangaroo tribunal and the PTQ. To add insult to injury, the long overdue review of QCAT required by the QCAT and several attempts by the Queensland government to cover-up the fact of the Maher/ / Endicott matter (despite this being in the public domain) demonstrate the official obsession with protecting the kangaroo tribunal. It is noteworthy that the comment by the three Court of Appeal judges 'the quality of decision-making in QCAT is deplorable' has apparently been excised from the current record although the comment is included in earlier copies retained by interested parties. These issues only reinforce our opinion that the government is pathologically obsessed with protecting the image of the kangaroo tribunal. Whether or not the cost-saving (for the government) represented by the kangaroo tribunal is the primary reason for protecting the kangaroo tribunal, the fact remains that the kangaroo tribunal cannot and will not provide any semblance of justice to victims of the guardianship racket. According to OPG reports to parliament, the kangaroo tribunal handles an average of 600 guardianship matters per annum, or around 11,000 since the beginning of the guardianship racket. On ly 5% of those matters are recorded on the Supreme Court caselaw website (situation last time we checked) and as far as can be ascertained, only three victims with appreciable un-exploited assets, Bucknall (QSC09-128), Maher (QCA11-225), and Marmin (QCAT-G29078) have ever escaped the lobster-pot and regained control of their lives. Actually it is only two as the guardianship racket was instrumental in the death of Rodney Maher. Overall, the guardianship racket has been directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of Australians. The PTQ obsession with institutionalizing its victims in cheap and nasty flea-pits reduces their life-expectancy considerably. According to a report by the prestigious and highly respected Grattan Institute, life-expectancy is at least halved as a consequence of institutionalization.

A report prepared by a human rights lawyer with considerable experience in the guardianship racket details the litany of utter ineptitude and trenchant bastardry inflicted by the kangaroo tribunal, OPG and PTQ on its victim LRE. Whilst less financially abusive, the charge of $29,000 for the PTQ legal department to read an appeal document (less than two A4 pages of actual writing) and total costs in excess of $100,000 (effectively all the victim's savings) for 'protecting the interests) of ex-victim MLB over 27 months can only be described as fraud, extortion and embezzlement. It is particularly galling that the PTQ is able to plunder the assets of its victims to support PTQ attempts to keep its victims in the clutches of the guardianship racket and vigorously oppose any attempt by victims to regain control of their lives. The PTQ's use of its victim's funds to protect the interests of the PTQ can only be described as embezzlement. An all too common trick is to use a rigged ACAT or medical report stating that the victim suffers dementia as a ploy to separate owner and home. This solves the PTQ dilemma of how to impose fees in respect of owner occupied homes. Once institutionalized, it is easy for the OPG and PTQ to deny victims access to medical and legal assistance of their choice.

Another current victim of the guardianship racket, TCR had a nett worth over $3,000,000 when he was tricked into leaving his home on the basis of a highly dubious medical report which stated he suffered from alzheimers dementia. Due to PTQ ineptitude, TCR's nett worth is now understood to be in the order of minus $600,000. A highly experienced psychologist who has assessed TCR reports that there is no evidence of dementia, and this opinion is supported by the testimony of long term friends of TCR. Deliberately incarcerating an individual not demented in a dementia facility for many years constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, breach of both the Crimes Legislation (Torture Prohibition and Death Penalty Abolition) Act 2010 and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment. Despite substantial evidence of financial malpractice by one time associates of TCR, the PTQ has refused to take any action to recover the hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to him. There is little doubt that if it were possible to arrange genuinely independent medical and legal assistance for TCR, the shonky / rigged official diagnosis of alzheimers dementia would be overthrown, leading to a successful claim for massive compensation.

In the case of LRE, the PTQ has actually admitted that LRE is entitled to legal counsel, as is his right under Queensland, Commonwealth and International Law. That said, the PTQ is insisting that the kangaroo tribunal decision that LRE lacks capacity was a global ruling, which the PTQ interprets as if LRE is a completely ga-ga and non compos mentis. Absolutely no regard is being paid to the principle that loss of capacity is not global, but is merely a lack of capacity for a certain matter or matters. Needless to say, the systemic and extreme bias of the kangaroo tribunal toward the OPG and PTQ results in studied ignorance on the part of the kangaroo tribunal regarding the concept of 'capacity for a matter'. Collusion between the PTQ and the kangaroo tribunal has led to illicit appointment of a 'separate representative' who has not, and will never meet with LRE. To add insult to injury, this separate representative is a part time adjudicator for the kangaroo tribunal. As with the Maher, matter in which the Court of Appeal acknowledged apprehended bias on the part of senior member Clare Endicott, we allege that exactly the same apprehended bias applies here. In our opinion, the deliberately deceptive, mendacious and hypocritical appointment of ANY separate representative, let alone one known to be intimately linked to the kangaroo tribunal constitutes conspiracy on the part of the kangaroo tribunal, the OPG and the PTQ to pervert the course of justice. In several cases where the kangaroo tribunal has acknowledged that an individual victim has the right to his or her own choice of legal counsel, the PTQ has invariably refused to allow the victim access to their own funds to retain legal counsel.

A further example of shenanigans on the part of the kangaroo tribunal and a senior medical professional was demonstrated in a report on an intended victim, deceptively presenting it as a review. The medical professional openly admitted to the request by the kangaroo tribunal to prepare the report and to deny the intended victim access to it prior to the hearing which removed the person't capacity. It is alleged that as is typical of the kangaroo tribunal, this decision had been made much earlier and that the hearing was merely window-dressing to provide an air of legitimacy. Furthermore, we allege that the aforementioned parties conspired to arrange provision of false and misleading evidence in that the medical practitioner conveniently neglected to mention critically important information.. Had the evidence not been intentionally incomplete, it is evident that the kangaroo tribunal would have found it extremely difficult to justify finding its victim incapable of managing their affairs.

Yet another example of kangaroo tribunal shenanigans is seen in the insistence by the kangaroo tribunal that evidence provided by professors of psychology is unacceptable as they are not currently practicing. The fact that professors must have a substantially higher standard of knowledge than those they teach is clearly lost on the kangaroo tribunal despite members openly admitting on record that they don't have a clue about medical and / or allied health matters. They summarily discard reports from medical and allied health professionals as 'rubbish', and welcome with open arms, as the oracle of wisdom, suggestions made by a non-practicing ex occupational therapist employed by the PTQ. In any case, occupational therapists are not considered capable of producing capacity reports, or indeed capable of declaring reports by medical and allied health professional invalid. The kangaroo tribunal as from time to time employed the occasional allied health practitioner, most if not all of whom are understood to be retired and non-practicing for up to thirty years !!!!! Whilst on the subject of the PTQ, what legitimate reason could there be why a financial services organization employs a non-practicing occupational therapist, and more to the point, a Director of Disability Services, let alone one who is not known to have ANY qualifications of any kind since leaving school at sub-senior ? it follows that a financial services organization is not qualified to make assertions regarding medical and allied health issues, although that has never prevented the kangaroo tribunal from accepting without question every word spoken by PTQ operatives.

When even politicians admit candidly that 'the Office of the Public Trustee charges like a wounded bull, it is blatantly obvious that the PTQ is badly in need of a genuinely independent investigation. Note that by 'independent' we mean the dictionary meaning and not a farcical internal review or a quasi-independent one conducted by some accounting organization which is in the government's pocket.Furthermore, the review panel MUST include significant representation by individuals who have personal experience with the Office of the Public Trustee. Not only do the kangaroo tribunal and the OPG completely ignore their responsibility to monitor PTQ financial skullduggery, we can show on official record that the kangaroo tribunal not only ignored blatant PTQ gouging but also actively encouraged the PTQ to increase the already extortionate fees the PTQ intended levying on a victim's account.