Labor candidate for Hinkler Richard Pascoe today made his first press appearance, calling on the government to take action on Bundaberg’s aged care system.
October 31, 2018
A disability worker who allegedly threatened to poison, burn and potentially drown a vulnerable client while masking the abuse as an accident may still be employed in the system because police chose not to investigate the matter, a disability advocate says. Principal Community Visitor Maurice Corcoran made the startling claim in his 2017/18 Disability Services Annual Report, which has been tabled in State Parliament. The revelations have prompted Police Minister Corey Wingard to seek answers from Police Commissioner Grant Stevens. Mr Corcoran said the family of a young man with an intellectual disability, who was living at an unnamed SA-supported accommodation facility, had raised concerns about a menacing letter they allegedly received from a staff member at the care home. The letter was one of a number of allegations, including that the man was taken to a topless waitress restaurant. He said the letter was reportedly prompted by a mistaken belief that the family had complained about another staff member. “The family found a very disturbing and threatening letter that was left in their letterbox addressed to them and allegedly from a staff member who blamed them for the site manager being moved,” Mr Corcoran said. “The letter went on to state that ‘the staff who are affected by this are angry and pissed off, which puts your nephew at risk’. “It went further, detailing forms of harm that could be applied to the client while masked as an accident and included the following: Food … poison; medication … wrong; shampoo … what’s in the bottle — acid?; how well does he swim?; going through the windscreen … seatbelt unclipped.” Mr Corcoran said the letter finished with a “final chilling statement”. “(It read) ‘This little piglet is going to be abused with cruelty violence … regularly and repeatedly’,” he said. Mr Corcoran said, “as a social worker for over 30 years, this letter is one of the worst that I have seen in terms of the threats to abuse with cruelty and violence, and all because of some misconception that the family had complained about a staff member”. He immediately contacted the Department of Human Services’s critical incident team director, expressing concern for the young man and urging the director to accompany the family to a police station to report the incident. The service provider placed extra staff in the care house to ensure the client was safe. Mr Corcoran said neither the police nor the department investigated the matter, meaning the author could still be working with people with a disability. “I do need to express deep disappointment and concern that this incident was not investigated by police nor the department’s critical incident team,” he said.
October 30, 2018
Aged-care double murderer Garry Steven Davis should be acquitted or a new trial ordered because the judge who found him guilty used a process of “backwards reasoning”, reversing the onus of proof and leaving Davis as “the last man standing” after other suspects had been eliminated, the Court of Criminal Appeal has heard. Davis, 30, was jailed for a maximum of 40 years with a non-parole of 30 years in December, 2016, after he was found guilty of the murder of Gwen Fowler, 83, and Ryan Kelly, 80, and the attempted murder of Audrey Manuel, 91, after a four-week judge-alone trial in the Newcastle Supreme Court. He lodged an appeal against his convictions and faced a hearing in the Court of Criminal Appeal in Sydney on Monday, where his legal team labelled the guilty verdicts “unreasonable and not supported by the evidence” and claimed that Supreme Court Justice Robert Allan Hulme had erred when admitting coincidence evidence and using it to find that it was a single perpetrator who injected all three elderly, non-diabetic SummitCare Wallsend residents with insulin over two days in October, 2013. The prosecution case against Davis was a circumstantial one and the theory that a single perpetrator was responsible was a significant issue at trial. During his closing address, Crown prosecutor Lee Carr had submitted that there were 11 similarities between the three injections and that, if viewed collectively, they formed a pattern from which the judge could infer that one person was responsible for all three crimes. But defence barrister Graham Turnbull, SC, said those similarities were “situational” and all seemed to be related to Davis’s job as a SummitCare team leader.
October 30, 2018
The Health Services Union and Catholic Healthcare Limited are also involved in a s.739 (Application to deal with a dispute) before Fair Work Commissioner Johns in his NSW chambers at the same time.
October 30, 2018
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and Catholic Healthcare Limited will duke out a s.739 (Application to deal with a dispute) before Commissioner Johns in his Sydney chambers at 4pm today.
October 30, 2018
Monash Health has a s.739 (Application to deal with a dispute) with which it must deal before Fair Work Deputy President Hamilton in Court 3 and Conference Room B – Level 6 in Melbourne (Singh).
October 30, 2018
Surfers Paradise Anglican Crisis Care Inc will defend a s.394 (Application for unfair dismissal remedy) today before Deputy President Dean in Hearing Room 4 in Brisbane (Alexander).
October 30, 2018
Trustees for the Roman Catholic Church, Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn are still battling a s.394 (Application for unfair dismissal remedy) in front of Fair Work Deputy President Dean in his Brisbane chambers (Crowley).
