Over the years I have written
to:-
The Attorney General, the Auditor General, the
Ombudsman (all 3), Ron Dyer, Faye LoPo, their
relevant opposition counterparts, the Leader of the
Opposition (not Kerry Chikarovski), the Premier of
NSW, the Prime Minister, and Kim Beasley, none of
whom appear to have any authority to investigate the
Guardianship Board or the Office of the Protective
Commissioner . I begged for their help
knowing that I had been well and truly ‘set
up’. None was forthcoming, they all had excuses.
As a result, today I am on the verge of losing our
home, losing my husband, because the OPC will no
doubt involve the Adult Guardian here in Queensland
instructing them to remove my husband from our home
and my care, admitting him to a nursing home and
there won’t be a damned thing I can do about it!
The OPC insists that the Queensland Public Trustee
sign the mortgage on behalf of my husband, yet it
is not the Queensland Public Trustee who is
demanding the mortgage. I questioned the necessity of
involving the Queensland Public Trustee in this
matter, to be told by Steven Mohr, Legal Office with
the OPC that
“The Public Trustee of
Queensland will be signing the mortgage at our
instructions on behalf of your husband under
reciprocal arrangements I have outlined.”
and
“The Protective Commissioner
has the authority to manage your husband’s
affairs in accordance with the provisions of the
Protected Estates Act, 1983 irrespective of where he
now resides.”
My question was that if the Protective Commissioner
has the authority and since why does he need the Qld
Public Trustee to sign the Mortgage.
I know full well why the Protective Commissioner
wants the Public Trustee to sign. Going on the past
history of their methods they will use this initial
involvement as a precedent to hand over everything to
the Queensland Public Trustee and get me off their
backs. In the course of this they probably hope that
if they are able to transfer their financial control
to the Qld. Public Trustee before your Inquiry then,
my submission will be worthless.
They will have systematically and maliciously removed
any financial possibility of my being able to look
after my husband. I will be out on the street at 53
years of age along with my 75 year old mother and 7
year old grandson with no financial means of support.
I am unable to receive a pension, I’m too young!
Everything my husband and I worked for will be gone
in a matter of a few more months.
Through the untold stress this affair has created, my
husband’s business partner died in hospital
after suffering from a heart attack, one of many
caused by the Guardianship Board and the OPC. She
never lived to spend any of the funds from the sale
of the business premises.
My father, although he was in his late 80’s was
in good health for a man of his age when all this
began in 1997, the worry for me, the stress I was and
am suffering and the total enormity of the situation
took it’s toll on him and he died a year ago,
thanks to the OPC. I have never seen anyone
deteriorate as fast as my father, a man who in April
1997 used to have my grandson climbing all over him,
went for daily walks with my husband, helped me
around the garden and house, swam in the pool, to end
up in two short years unable to even get to the
bathroom unaided.
The Guardianship Board and the Office of the
Protective Commissioner should pay dearly for the
misery they have caused, not only to me but untold
thousands of others. I know we are not the only
family to have suffered under their Gestapo
like control.
Prior to these events I was never sick except for
colds and such. Now, I am on tranquillisers, some
days I don’t ever want to wake up. I have skin
problems, rashes, and have put on considerable weight
from sitting writing copious amounts of
correspondence. I have a short temper, everything
irritates me. I cry at the drop of a hat!
The OPC has robbed me of special time with my
grandson, robbed me of perhaps two or three more
years with my father, in fact robbed me of the final
months when I should have had the chance to spend
time with my father instead of writing faxes and
letters every day, and they have aged my mother with
all the worry. My husband is now oblivious to all the
stress and trauma, he is lucky.
These people are cold and heartless and obviously
none have ever had ‘hands-on’ experience in
caring for someone with dementia or any other
disability for that matter. They have no idea the
heartbreak in losing a loved one to dementia without
the extra trauma of having to worry about how fast
life savings are dwindling in the hands of the
Protective Office. I hope when their time comes that
every last one of them has to go through what we have
suffered, only I hope it’s a thousand times
worse for them
Wendy Steel, Area Manager for the Office of the
Protective Commissioner, for instance, I believe is
about 26 years old. She worked hand in glove with
Brian Porter. She is arrogant and condescending,
lacks any semblance of emotion or feeling. When I
asked for extra funds because we were having visitors
from the U.S. for a month she told me that I ‘shouldn’t
invite people when I couldn’t afford it!' I
snapped back at her that I could afford it! At the
time we had over half a million dollars in their
clutches! She finally condescended to fulfil my
request, under sufferance on her part, I’m sure!
For a country that promotes freedom and democracy,
it’s a pity those that govern this country
don’t practice what they preach. No-one
has the right to inflict the suffering on anyone that
these animals have inflicted on me, my family and
hundreds of other innocent victims. We are
treated like the scum of the earth. Were we
Indonesian refugees, we would get better treatment!
I thank you for your time and I pray with all my
heart that this Inquiry is a success for those of us
who have to put up with the hardship and torment.
Yours sincerely,
Jamie Furner.