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Give the man a life! - A story about institutionalised racism in modern Australia
Tue, 26/12/2006 - 15:38 — Webmaster
Can you help? - by John Tracey
The office of the Qld Adult Guardian have imposed draconian and cruel restrictions on the life of my nephew Marley Creed (above) including confining him to Brisbane against his will
Marley has (and has been assessed by the supreme court to have) the capacity to make all decisions in his life except for financial matters - he has a physical disability
However on 19/12/06 the Guardianship and Administration Tribunal removed all powers of decision making about his personal life and gave those powers to the Adult Guardian
They have however made no attempt at all to provide his basic needs such as accommodation clothes a survivable income and health care
The only agency with legislative capacity to investigate is the Adult Guardian itself - it is independent even from the Attorney General
The only avenue of appeal is an expensive Supreme court appeal ($500 just to lodge a document) which I cannot afford and the Adult Guardian (obviously) is refusing to release Marley's money for such an appeal
Please read the following complaint to the Adult Guardian and the Queensland Attorney General
At the end are some email addresses where you can complain about Marley's treatment and a suggested message to send - but please feel free to express your concerns in your own words
John Tracey
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To the Adult Guardian and the Attorney General
From John Tracey
Reporting neglect of Marley Creed - urgent
Marly Creed is a 24 year old Aboriginal man currently living with me
Marley's legal Guardian is the Adult Guardian
I would like to officially complain that Marley Creed's Guardian is neglecting the needs of Marley and subjecting him to serious and imminent danger
1/He is being forced to live an empoverished life with a weekly allowance of $150 per week - less than the
lowest Centrelink payment and without concessions available to pensioners Marley is the poorest of the poor
2/He has no health care card or medicare card and cannot self access health care
3/He has no personal belongings of any sort including clothes and his guardian has refused to supply him with clothes
4/His human rights of freedom of movement and association have been arbitrarily removed by his Guardian who have never met him and despite him being previously assessed by the Guardianship and Administration Tribunal to be capable of making decisions in all areas except financial matters
5/Marley has chosen to move out of the Public Toilet at the Kurilpa Point homeless camp to his mother and
my house in the vicinity of Kurilpa Point Marley's mother and myself are pensioners
Yet despite numerous urgent requests for assistance to remove Marley from access to his most dangerous
environment and despite clear instruction from Marley being given to his Guardian that this is what he wants the guardian has refused any resources or assistance beyond his regular allowance ($150 pw)
6/Marley's guardian has subjected him to an unnecessary and traumatic psychiatric intervention despite advice that it was unnecessary and traumatic
7/Marley's Guardian is refusing to allow Marley to have contact with his family
8/Marley's Guardian is allowing him to be paid his allowance via my bank account which the Guardianship and Administration tribunal have previously ordered should not happen
Can you please act as soon as possible to remove Marley from such neglect so that his immediate needs may be facilitated
I would like to further complain that there seems to be no other action available to pursue Marley's
interest other than asking this neglectful guardian to investigate itself
John Tracey
(07)32552146
0401174769
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What is the Adult Guardian?
Adult Guardian's website
Why does the Adult Guardian have the power to remove Marley's decision making power?
The Guardianship and Administration Act 2000 allows the Guardianship and Administration Tribunal a loophole to disreguard all aspects of the act including respecting human rights natural justice and due process
"129 Interim order
(1) If the tribunal is satisfied urgent action is required, it may make an interim order in a proceeding without hearing and deciding the proceeding or otherwise complying with the requirements of this Act, including section 118.70"
an excerpt from Guardianship and Administration Tribunal Presidential Direction No 2 of 2005
"The Guardianship and Administration Tribunal is generally required to follow principles of natural justice and procedural fairness in exercising its powers when making an order in a proceeding. In limited circumstances, the tribunal may displace these principles by issuing an interim order, however these orders are only issued in accordance with stringent guidelines and a strict set of criteria."
I am eagerly awaiting news of what these limited circumstances are that has justified this action - especially since nobody in the Adult Guardian's office have ever spoken to Marley in the 3 years they have been making decisions about his life and the "stringent criteria" is supposed to be to act in his interests
In Marley's case - after 6 weeks of reports to the Adult Guardian that Marley was in danger living on the street and complaints that his family were not allowed to invite him home - they lifted restrictions on his contact with his family who immediately retrieved him from the street
Only after Marley was safe with his family did the Adult Guardian and GAAT act and used the section 129 wild-card and removed Marley's capacity to make his own decisions - seemingly preferring him to be homeless
Marley wants to stay with his family in Palm Island but the Adult Guardian have refused this and offered no alternative accommodation options except to say Marley must stay "in some sort of hostel"(sic) in Brisbane
Please send the following suggested message or your own to the emails below
Please restore Marley Creed's human rights of freedom of movement and association and please ensure Marley's income is raised to at least the level of the disability pension
Kay McInnes from the office of the Adult Guardian
Kay....@justice.qld.gov.au
Caitlin Hawting from the Public Trustee (who hold Marley's money)
Cait...@pt.qld.gov.au
Even though the minister has no power in this matter the Qld Attorney General's office is monitoring this situation so please contact them too
Atto...@ministerial.qld.gov.au
Marley has seen and approves of this post
note - this call for help is the result of several months of going up the right chanells which all lead directly to the Adult Guardian who repeatedly ignore Marley's deperate needs
We are told there is no action the Adult Guardian can take until it has completed it's report - after the holidays
Marley gave written instructions that he wanted to visit his family on Palm Island for the holidays - which will no doubt be addressed in the report
Meanwhile Marley remains in substandard emergency accomodation in Brisbane without enough money to do anything about it
It is important that such disreguard for human rights and needs should not be swept under the carpet
The absurdity of this raises questions about how many other people are being forced into desperate poverty and depressed lifestyle by the incompetant and unlawful decisions of the Public Trustee and the Adult Guardian
"Paradigm Oz" will pursue the broader issues of the Public Trustee and the Adult Guardian at a later date - stay tuned
I believe these things need to be exposed
This is the essential point of my frustration and concern - Marley's legal human rights as a citizen and further rights given to him under various disability legislation have been arbitrarily dismissed
the removal of liberty without trial is intolerable - David Hicks and Marley Creed
Both Marley's immediate needs and the broader issues of arbitrary removal of human rights need urgent action that "the right channels" seem unable to deliver in at least this case (but I suspect many more)
This entry was posted on Sunday, December 24th, 2006 at 2:30 am and is filed under justice.
Original article: Give the man a life!
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Comments
Don't believe everything that John Tracey might say
Don't believe everything that John Tracey might say.
The Adult Guardian was appointed because there was no other person willing or able to act in the role of Marley's Attorney. You had your chance John ... but you blew it.
Sure, Marley has some physical injuries since that car accident as a baby, but in my opinion his intellectual injuries are far more profound.
When someone is awarded damages, this will generally include an exclussion period for any pension they might otherwise have been entitled too. It's probably another 10 years before Marley can get the pension again.
If the Adult Guardian has never met Marley, what was there ever to stop you gathering Marley and taking him home John ?
Did you ever ask Marley what he wanted ? Ever get a coherent response ? I always thought he was scared of you ...
You had control of that award money for a while John. What good did you ever do with it ? Buy a unit at Maroochydore and some dirt at Imbil. How'd that help him ?
Run out of cash did you ? Marley is lucky to have anything left, john ... the way you seem to think that you know precisely what Marley needs.
QLD Guardianship Tribunal
Dear John Tracy
Yes You are not alone,I see that this is happening all over Australia, I have been fighting with the Guardinship Admistration Tribunal, Public Trustee's Office, and Adult Guardian Office now for near on 4 Years.
When my father died of asbestois 4 yrs ago I held Enduring Powers of Attorney for my Father and My Mother who lived next door to me and had done so for 8 yrs I looked after both my father when he became sick with asbestois, my mother who was getting forgetful, when dad died my step sisters who I had not had any contact with (neither had my father or mother) took us to the Guardianship tribunal and with in 5 mins they had cancelled my Enduring Powers of Attorney using the excuse of conflict with my step sisters, Mum was declared not competant to look after her money (which dad had received a large compensation payout for asbestois 3 mths before he died.
My step sisters told so many lies and I was unable to view any paper work due to the Condidentialty Rule, and they bought a witness in that had been a RSL welfare visitor home worker who had changed my fathers Will so he had become his Excector of the Will one day when I was out. Luckily I came home early and my father got me to keep the man out of his room for 5 mins and my father told the solitors to add my name on the will.
The Public trust Office are so incompetent and negligent it is not funny, in 4 yrs Mum has had 11 people in charge of her file and they pass the buck to the previous person all the time when mistakes are found, The Adult Guardian Office mum has had 6 people on her file and I and my mother have spoke to them 2 times in 4 yrs, this is from people who are supposed to make decisions.
After 3 times in these so called courts I feel as if they are just there to collect there big pay packets, as nothing you say or do ever means anything to these people.
And after Mum pays them the Public Trust Office $9,000 per year to manage her money and they cant get a Bill or Account right or Pay it (which is 3/4 of her pension), I feel they are just a waste of time and energy, and they need to be fully investigated in to what do they really do to earn there money.
wn
NSW Guardianship Tribunal
Dear John Tracy,
You are not alone in your concerns re the Guardianship ACT, there are many people out there who are suffering at the hands of these Judicial arms of the Government who appear to be answerable to no-one.
I was involved in a NSW Guardianship matter when my now late, mentally ill father was taken before them in 1994.
Lies were told in the applications of the two applicants and regardless of there being a clause on the Tribunal's application forms which states "It is an offence to provide false or misleading information in an application. Penalty up to $500.00", the applicants responsible were not placed under scrutiny and the diligent Tribunal members simply fabricated an excuse for the lies. This excuse had no bearing on the real facts whatsoever.
It was later discovered that a person who claimed to be a 'devoted friend of my father's had interferred with my father's wills and stood to gain around $1 Million dollars via a will he arranged to have drawn up by his own solicitor friend, had fed false and misleading information to the two applicants in order to get them to approach the Guardianship Tribunal for the sole purpose of securing his hidden financial interest in my father's estate.
This person was present at the Tribunal hearing and only said what he wanted the Tribunal to know and only what he knew they wanted to hear.
Regardless of me advising the Tribunal I suspected this supposed friend was involved in wrongdoing in connection with my father's wills, they declared him to be 'open and straightforward' and the best person to place a my father's 'Private Financial Manager' under the 'normal' supervision of the NSW Office of the Protective Commissioner. (By the way 'normal supervision' means none!!!)
Regardless of the Guardianship Tribunal being bound to be fair to all parties to the proceedings, as the 'supposed friend' was a wealthy prominent well respected busnessman and the holder of an OAM, I was looked down upon for daring to suggest he could possibly be involved in wrongdoing.
After making many complaints to the then President of the NSW Guardianship Tribunal re the members lack of interest in the truth and fabrication of an excuse for the providers of false and misleading information, I received a reply from the esteemed President advising me "It is not the role of the Tribunal to ascertain the truth or otherwise of allegations made before it".
I believe the Australian public need to be made aware that the truth is irrelevant when this powerful Tribunal makes decisions that can result in a person loosing their basic human rights.
In Victoria the provision of false or misleading information is a criminal offence. It is considered to be perjury and the Police are involved.
I don't know what the policies are in other states, however in NSW it doesn't even raise an eyebrow.
I have made many attempts to have the practises of the NSW Guardianship Tribunal and the NSW Office of the Protective Commissioner investigated over the last 12 years, however, no-one will listen as it is no their role to interfere with decisions made by these two authorities.
JW.