The tale of Karen Casey.

BUYER BEWARE!!!

Holy shit. Tread very very cautiously Kaz. An entrenched bureaucrat CAsAmite like Dr Voodoo has no soul, no conscience, no ethic and no care for truth, justice or fairness. His ‘out of the blue’ email should be treated with the greatest mistrust and suspicion. This man has an ego that requires fuelling and he cannot see past his own self interests. I would trust Charles Manson with my grandkids before I trusted Aleck or any other CAsA executive.

Has Aleck ‘found Jesus’? Does he have a terminal illness with 3 months to live? Has he broken up with his missus to pursue the woman he has fallen for - Kaz? Who knows and who cares. Give the weasel nothing, not a thing, don’t acknowledge the email, ignore his calls, if you pass him while he is trapped in a car wreck and it’s on fire don’t supply water. Tell him, Wingnut, the lot of them to piss off.

Avoid his trap at all costs. Now that is putting ‘safety first’....
Reply

'Bureaucratic bastardry': DVA secretly changed the rules to deny veteran's claim in 10-year battle

The Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) secretly deleted an incapacity policy to prevent an injured veteran claiming compensation. And it never told the veteran or his lawyer.

Brian Briggs, a military compensation specialist at Slater & Gordon, said it goes beyond just obstruction. "This is an act where you've gone to a new level of bureaucratic bastardry on a level I haven't seen before," he told 7.30.

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-18...ns/9865394

And this is what we are dealing with friends when it comes to the aviation industry, the Government and it’s corrupt practises. Names like Clark Butson, Dom James and Karen Casey come to mind. Then there are the plethora of small businesses and individuals persecuted and buggerised by the Regulator and the Department. Absolute scum, filth, parasites and low-life sacks of shit.
Reply

"Absolute scum, filth, parasites and low-life sacks of shit."

err? so I gather CAsA is not on your Christmas card list either Gobbles?

Very hard not to agree with you.
Reply

GD - "Absolute scum, filth, parasites and low-life sacks of shit."

Our old mate Darren 6D is the boss cocky there ain’t he? Seems to be the sort of thing he’d approve of. Maybe he’ll post a picture of a Vet taking a leak - on crutches would add a further touch of humour. What a bloody disgrace – these men and women are at less risk on the battle field than they are in ‘departmental’ hands. What a minister, what a track record and what of our returned troops – the lucky ones.

Shame and more shame on the minister and this half assed governemnt. Add another ’D’ to the list – Darren 7D – disgusting.  If that's been used then disgraceful or despicable will serve the turn.

Yes dear; I know I'm drinking alone - but two more will do very nicely; thank you.......

.....'Bureaucratic bastardry': DVA secretly changed the rules to deny veteran's claim in 10-year battle.

7.30 By Michael Vincent Updated 56 minutes ago

[Image: 9865890-3x2-460x307.jpg]
Photo
Martin Rollins during his time in the Army
Supplied: Martin Rollins
The Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) secretly deleted an incapacity policy to prevent an injured veteran claiming compensation. And it never told the veteran or his lawyer.
It was part of a decade-long campaign of delay and denial by the department against Martin Rollins, whose back was severely damaged while serving in the Army.

"After more than 25 years representing veterans in this jurisdiction I've never seen a case like Martin Rollins and the extent the department has gone to," Mr Rollins's lawyer, Greg Isolani, told 7.30.

Quote:"Their behaviour's been appalling."

Brian Briggs, a military compensation specialist at Slater & Gordon, said it goes beyond just obstruction.

"This is an act where you've gone to a new level of bureaucratic bastardry on a level I haven't seen before," he told 7.30.

A shattered dream
[/url]
[Image: 9874050-3x2-700x467.jpg]

Photo Martin Rollins and a colleague in a parachute emergency.
Supplied: Martin Rollins
Martin Rollins's troubles began during his six years of service as a paratrooper at bases around Australia in the 1980s.

His spine was damaged and he left the army in 1990, receiving a small disability pension from the Department of Veterans' Affairs which rose to $116 a fortnight by 2007.

To supplement that pension and to ensure his independence, Rollins created several small businesses, including a small mortgage operation.

"I could manage my own time, I could self-manage my resources and I was only answerable to myself," Mr Rollins said.

By mid-2007 his back gave out and he had to have spinal surgery.
"It was just excruciating, incredible pain and it just got worse," he said.
He recalls reading the surgeon's notes — that his shattered L5 disc had been removed.

Quote:"There were bits of the disc that had fragmented and broken all over the place," he said.

Asking for help — a 10-year fight begins

[Image: 9874296-3x2-700x467.jpg]

Photo Martin Rollins' L5 disc had been shattered.
ABC News

Before the operation Mr Rollins contacted the Department of Veterans' Affairs for more help to protect his business, making the first of hundreds of frustrated and sometimes angry calls, emails and faxes which continue to this day.

Initially the DVA offered Mr Rollins an extra $25.50 a week.

Months later he was granted 16 weeks of "temporary incapacity" payments of $370 a week to get him through.

When that ended in early 2008, Mr Rollins asked the DVA for "economic loss compensation" to keep his business afloat.

His requests were rejected.

He began living on credit cards and getting help from the RSL just to keep himself going.
"I had no idea what the legislation was, I was just incapacitated. I was just reaching out for help," Mr Rollins said.

Through Freedom of Information, Mr Rollins discovered what DVA officers were really thinking.

During 2008 a DVA official openly called Mr Rollins's incapacity "debatable".
In June, Mr Rollins warned the department about the "very serious potential loss of (his) business".

He put his house on the market and in July his business was gone. By the end of 2008 he had pretty much lost everything.

Only then did he hire a lawyer.

'Bureaucratic bastardry'

[Image: 9865898-3x2-700x467.jpg]

Photo Martin Rollins fought the DVA for a decade over compensation.
ABC News
7.30 can now reveal that in 2010 the DVA deleted an incapacity policy in order to deny Mr Rollins further assistance.

It was a policy that was specifically meant to help self-employed veterans.
If they became incapacitated they could declare their earnings were zero and claim financial help from the department, even if their business continued to earn an income.
With the stroke of a pen, the DVA had changed the rules and never told Mr Rollins or his lawyer, who were relying on it for his claim.

Mr Rollins and his lawyer didn't learn about the change until 2015 when they discovered the department's deceit buried in a several-hundred-page draft report into his case.
"This constitutes bureaucratic bastardry," Brian Briggs said.

"When you deliberately get rid of a policy, you amend or vary or revoke a policy, and then hide that from the person trying to rely on the benefits of that policy and their lawyer to defeat their claim and also to defeat a claim under defective administration for how they'd treated him — someone should answer for that."

[Image: 9865896-3x2-700x467.jpg]

Photo Greg Isolani, Martin Rollins' lawyer, says changes to policy should only be done at the highest levels.
ABC News

The Department's intent was clearly revealed in the report.

It said the policy was deleted "to remove any reliance that Rollins or his representative could place on it for the purpose of his outstanding claim as well as the CDDA … claim".

"The deletion of a policy should take place at the highest of levels within the military rehabilitation and compensation commission," Greg Isolani said.

"[The Department] shouldn't, at lower levels, just change policy and to deny this person and entitlement."

'You might as well shoot them in the head'

[Image: 9874292-3x2-700x467.jpg]

Photo Martin Rollins suffered chronic pain, stress and depression.
ABC News

Over a decade the DVA engaged three external law firms, the Government solicitor and a forensic accountant firm to fight Rollins' claim.

"It's astounding and it's mind blowing that the department would engage and spend that much money across a number of external law firms, including an international firm, to commission a 300 page report over two years rather than spend the money and time to liaise with myself as his representative," Greg Isolani said.

The cost to Martin's mental and physical health increased. He attempted suicide — several times.

"If you take away their employment, there's incapacity, there is housing loss, [there] is relationship loss, there's isolationist depression, stress, chronic pain," Mr Rollins said.
"You might as well just turn up at their house and just shoot them in the head.

Quote:"The difference here is the gun is a pen and a paper.

"That's the only difference … the outcome is exactly the same."
An apology and an offer of money — for silence

[Image: 9865892-3x2-700x467.jpg]

Photo Compensation lawyer Brian Briggs says someone should answer for the DVA's behaviour.
ABC News

Ultimately Mr Rollins won an empty victory in late 2016 when the DVA Secretary sent him a letter.

"On behalf of the department I apologise for your experience and the difficulties you have faced," the letter said.

Two offers were then made: $58,000 for back payment of Mr Rollins's incapacity entitlements, and an "administrative payment" of $69,110.07, which was "conditional upon signing … a Release and Indemnity".

Mr Rollins believes the administrative payment was an attempt to buy his silence but he says he is not going to shut up.

"I fired an email back to the Secretary of DVA — I basically told him where he can shove your $69,000," he said.

Mr Briggs said the department has "certainly breached guidelines".

Quote:"There've been delays. There's been maladministration. They haven't acted in good conscience. They haven't acted equitably," he said.

"They've bastardised this claim beyond belief.
"Of more concern is the money they've spent defending this claim over a period of 10 years.

"Hundreds of thousands of dollars — multiple law firms, cover-ups.

"It defies belief that they could get away with this. I'm talking higher up in the executive and senior officer levels."

As for Mr Rollins, the former soldier wants DVA's behaviour investigated to ensure no other veteran suffers the same fate.

In a statement to 7.30, DVA denied any impropriety by its staff but acknowledged "some aspects its client service could have been better" in Mr Rollins' case.
Posted about 7 hours ago
Related

'Either go on the next trip or f*** off': A former commando's fight for fairness

'I basically begged her': Veterans seeking PTSD help were turned away
[url=http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-26/veterans-with-ptsd-tell-of-being-turned-away-by-psychiatrists/9587106]
Sound familiar Kaz? Not ever alone in this world are you?
Reply

Could you imagine if a high profile politician or bureaucrat were to be in a terrifying plane crash or serve in the forces, copped a cap in the arse, wrecked their back and witnessed human atrocities beyond our imagination? Would they be kicked to the curb, pushed to the limits of wanting not to exist? Of course they bloody wouldn't. They would be treated like gold.

The protected species that infest the halls of parliament are so fukking out of touch with the real world and are cruel sacks of shits to their own citizens. A money making machine which lines the pockets of egotistical dumb-asses and wastes millions per year on corruption of their own making.

It is dark and it's evil to the core with no soul. Our parliament.

To deny this soldier his rights of compensation for getting fukked up whilst defending our shores displays the audacity and arrogance that the establishment has become. For the department to hide essential documents, lie and watch this man suffer and beg, demonstrates the absence of any moral compass or ethical thread. He became a number, a liability and a burden. Behaviour projected from those in the department he thought would help him never happened, instead they inflicted the feeling of hopelessness, worthlessness and leading to the desire to leave this cruel world by suicide.

Keep fighting the pricks mate. Somethings got to give. These delusion filled grandiose puppets are an ugly mutation of the human evolution. Dividing their nation whilst advertising and promoting the propaganda of unity. What a crock of horseshit. 

The gut wrenching feeling of your own government turning on you once you have discovered a truth is very real. They watch you, intercept your devices (so they are always a step ahead of you), they park cars out the front of your house to try and rattle you. I say fuck ém!

Stand up to the establishment and understand their dirty tactics or submit to their tactics only to be eaten by frustration and hopelessness. Fighting them is almost impossible because it's a game to them. They will spend millions to avoid any accountability. 

Keep going mate, drag it into twenty years, stick it up their parliamentary privileged arseholes. Be that pain in their privileged arse. After ten years one learns how to tame and handle the despicable mob of parliament.


You'll come out winning Buddy. Don't let the arrogant worms take anything more away from you. 
The Ozzy swamp in Canberra needs draining! The infestation of parasites has reached the point of epidemic and they are feeding off the Australian taxpayer.

Absolute Scum.

Reply

Voltaire:
"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise”.
Reply

'Bureaucratic Bastardry' - 7:30 Report cont/-

Via ABC 730:


Quote:


Full segment version plus transcript: 

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/dva-secretly-...im/9883774

DVA secretly changed rules to deny veteran's claim
Posted Mon 18 Jun 2018, 8:02pm
Updated Tue 19 Jun 2018, 6:43am
Expires: Wednesday 18 December 2019 8:02pm

The Department of Veterans' Affairs secretly deleted an incapacity policy to prevent an injured veteran claiming compensation. The Department denies any impropriety by its staff.

Read the full statement from the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Transcript
Quote:LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: You'd expect that when soldiers are injured in the line of duty that the Department of Veterans' Affairs would look after them.

Sadly, we're about to show you another example where that has not been the case.

These kinds of failures are so regular that some advocates even claim the department has a strategy - delay, deny, destroy and hope they die.

Tonight we're highlighting a former soldier's 10 year fight to get his entitlements.

DVA employed multiple law firms to fight him, even changing a policy to deny his claim although as Michael Vincent reports, the department finally admitted it had failed the war veteran.

And a warning, this story contains strong language.

MARTIN ROLLINS, VETERAN: You get immediately grabbed and just ripped backwards and your rig is being deployed and pulled out behind you, and it's a pretty violent action and in that, you know, quarter of a second, half a second, your heart is through your throat.

That's it, it's an adrenaline ride. Once you're on, it's just, you're just on.

MICHAEL VINCENT, REPORTER: Martin Rollins was once among the elite of Australia's soldiers.

Today, he struggles to leave his house.

What is life like now on your worst days?

MARTIN ROLLINS: Pull the blinds, go to sleep, try and sleep.

Just keep focused on wake up tomorrow, wake up tomorrow, wake up tomorrow, wake up tomorrow, go to sleep, wake up tomorrow.

That's what happens on the worst days now.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Martin joined the ADF straight out of high school at age 17.

MARTIN ROLLINS: Loved it. Nothing touches you like that job.

It's like it puts, it puts lightning in your bones.

MICHAEL VINCENT: He's now 50 years old and for the past decade, his life has been consumed fighting the Department of Veterans' Affairs, DVA.

GREG ISOLANI, MARTIN'S LAWYER: Their behaviour has been appalling. After more than 25 years of representing veterans in this jurisdiction, I have never seen a case like Martin Rollins and the extent the department has gone to.

BRIAN BRIGGS, MILITARY COMPENSATION SPECIALIST, SLATER AND GORDON: What is worse about this case is the deception and the delay, basically bureaucratic bastardry on a level that I haven't seen before.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Martin's troubles began during his six years of service based around Australia.

The constant hard parachute landings, compounded by carrying a 60 kilo back pack - it all took its toll.

MARTIN ROLLINS: Your back is everything and then your body starts to pack up and you don't believe it.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Because you think you're super human.

MARTIN ROLLINS: Oh, yep. We did.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Army doctors declared in 1990 he had long standing low back pain and degenerative problems with a disk.

He couldn't lift, bend or carry anything, and was unfit for parachuting.

Martin uses one word to describe his back.

MARTIN ROLLINS: Fucked.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Martin discharged and settled down in Ballarat, getting on with his life as best as he could.

The DVA paid him a disability pension that eventually rose to $116 a fortnight but it wasn't something he relied on to survive.

To manage his back problems, he created several businesses, including a small mortgage operation to ensure he remained self-employed.

MARTIN ROLLINS: I could manage my own time, I could self-manage my own resources and I was only answerable to myself.

MICHAEL VINCENT: By mid-2007, his back gave out and he had to have spinal surgery.

MARTIN ROLLINS: It was just excruciating, incredible pain and it just got worse.

There were bits of the disk that had fragmented and broken all over the place.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Ahead of that 2007 operation, Martin reached out to the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

He was offered initial help of an extra $25.50 a week.

He was then granted 16 weeks of temporary incapacity payments at $370 a week to get him through but when that ended in early 2008, he asked for economic loss compensation, to keep his small business afloat.

His requests were rejected.

So beginning the first of thousands of frustrated and sometimes angry calls, emails and faxes.

Martin began living on credit cards, getting help from the RSL, just to keep himself going.

MARTIN ROLLINS: I had no idea what the legislation was. All I was was, I was just incapacitated. I was just reaching out for help.

MICHAEL VINCENT: By June 2008, Martin warned the department about the very serious potential loss of his business.

First, he put his house on the market. By July, his business was gone.

MARTIN ROLLINS: Take away their employment, there's incapacity, there's housing loss, there's relationship loss, there's isolation, there's depression, there's stress, there's chronic pain.

You may as well just turn up at the house and just shoot him in the head.

The only difference here is the gun is a pen and a paper, that's the only difference. The effect, the result, the outcome is exactly the same.

MICHAEL VINCENT: By the end of 2008, he had pretty much lost everything, only then did he hire a lawyer.

GREG ISOLANI: The department just put up obstacles, constantly, and just ignored him.

MICHAEL VINCENT: In 2010, his case was mentioned in the Parliament having escalated to the executive level of the department.

The following year, the minister, Warren Snowdon, gave assurances that the department had the case in hand.

STATEMENT FROM WARREN SNOWDEN, VETERANS AFFAIRS MINISTER: I am satisfied that the processes used to determine Mr Rollins' claims have been appropriate and have been in accordance with the current legislation and policy.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Do you think they lied to the minister?

MARTIN ROLLINS: Yes, absolutely.

MICHAEL VINCENT: 7:30 can now reveal for the first time that before those ministerial assurances were given in 2011, back in 2010, the department had already deleted an incapacity policy to deny Martin Rollins further assistance.

It was a policy specifically designed to help self-employed veterans that if they became incapacitated, they could declare their earnings were zero.

It meant they would still be able to get financial help from the department, even if their business was earning an income.

But the DVA not only deleted that policy, Martin and his lawyers say they were never told.

GREG ISOLANI: It was done specifically and annotated for that purpose, of denying Rollins incapacity payments and to deny me, on his behalf, to properly calculate the detriment that they caused.

BRIAN BRIGGS: This constitutes bureaucratic bastardry, an act of bureaucratic bastardry as its worst.

When you deliberately get rid of a policy, you amend or vary or revoke a policy, and then hide that from the person trying to rely on the benefits of that policy, and their lawyer, to defeat their claim, and also to defeat a claim under defective administration for how they've treated him.

MICHAEL VINCENT: It was five years later that Martin and his lawyer would learn about the deletion in 2015, when they discovered the department's policy change buried in a 200-page draft report into his case.

The department's intent was clearly revealed in that report. It says the policy was deleted "to remove any reliance that Rollins or his representative could place on it for the purpose of his outstanding claim, as well as his defective administration claim".

Ultimately, Martin Rollins won an empty victory in late 2016, when the DVA Secretary wrote to him.

STATEMENT FROM SIMON LEWIS, SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS' AFFAIRS: On behalf of the department I apologise for your experience and the difficulties you have faced..."

MICHAEL VINCENT: Two offers were then made - $58,000 for back payment of Martin's incapacity entitlements and then a second offer, curiously described as an administrative payment, of $69,110.07, conditional upon signing a release and indemnity.

MARTIN ROLLINS: Well, I fired an email back to the secretary of the DVA and I basically told him where he can shove his $69,000.

MICHAEL VINCENT: You weren't going to shut up?

MARTIN ROLLINS: Nope.

BRIAN BRIGGS: The amount of money that they would have spent defending this claim over a period of 10 years and we're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, multiple law firms, cover-ups, it just, it defies belief that they could get away with this.

MICHAEL VINCENT: As for Martin Rollins, the 50-year-old former soldier wants DVA's behaviour investigated to ensure no other veteran suffers the same fate.

MARTIN ROLLINS: I think it's dangerous, what they're doing. They're moving in a direction that is nothing to do with veterans' welfare.

LEIGH SALES: And 7:30 approached the current minister, Darren Chester as well as former ministers, Warren Snowdon and Michael Ronaldson. All declined on-camera interviews.

It a statement to 7.30 the Department of Veterans' Affairs denies any impropriety by its staff, it also acknowledges some aspects of its client service could have been better in Mr Rollins case.

A detailed statement is on our website.
 


(06-18-2018, 10:56 PM)WTFIncorporated Wrote:  Could you imagine if a high profile politician or bureaucrat were to be in a terrifying plane crash or serve in the forces, copped a cap in the arse, wrecked their back and witnessed human atrocities beyond our imagination? Would they be kicked to the curb, pushed to the limits of wanting not to exist? Of course they bloody wouldn't. They would be treated like gold.

The protected species that infest the halls of parliament are so fukking out of touch with the real world and are cruel sacks of shits to their own citizens. A money making machine which lines the pockets of egotistical dumb-asses and wastes millions per year on corruption of their own making.

It is dark and it's evil to the core with no soul. Our parliament.

To deny this soldier his rights of compensation for getting fukked up whilst defending our shores displays the audacity and arrogance that the establishment has become. For the department to hide essential documents, lie and watch this man suffer and beg, demonstrates the absence of any moral compass or ethical thread. He became a number, a liability and a burden. Behaviour projected from those in the department he thought would help him never happened, instead they inflicted the feeling of hopelessness, worthlessness and leading to the desire to leave this cruel world by suicide.

Keep fighting the pricks mate. Somethings got to give. These delusion filled grandiose puppets are an ugly mutation of the human evolution. Dividing their nation whilst advertising and promoting the propaganda of unity. What a crock of horseshit. 

The gut wrenching feeling of your own government turning on you once you have discovered a truth is very real. They watch you, intercept your devices (so they are always a step ahead of you), they park cars out the front of your house to try and rattle you. I say fuck ém!

Stand up to the establishment and understand their dirty tactics or submit to their tactics only to be eaten by frustration and hopelessness. Fighting them is almost impossible because it's a game to them. They will spend millions to avoid any accountability. 

Keep going mate, drag it into twenty years, stick it up their parliamentary privileged arseholes. Be that pain in their privileged arse. After ten years one learns how to tame and handle the despicable mob of parliament.


You'll come out winning Buddy. Don't let the arrogant worms take anything more away from you. 
The Ozzy swamp in Canberra needs draining! The infestation of parasites has reached the point of epidemic and they are feeding off the Australian taxpayer.

Absolute Scum.


Oh no 7D Chester, two ministries of the Crown and two disasters (so far)... Confused 

[Image: Johnny_and_sal-e1508022309972.jpg]

Maybe 7D,  instead of swanning around taking FIGJAM selfies, you and your invisible 'do nothing' - Minister for Reality – Really? - leader, should start doing the job of actually providing governance to an obviously self-deluded, self-serving 'law unto themselves' bureaucracy - FDS! Angry

[Image: Untitled_Clipping_091017_095355_AM-e1512866355491.jpg]


MTF...P2  Dodgy
Reply

It is issues such as this disgusting DVA action that needs to be made very very public. I appreciate the ABC taking this up but I would love to see the public made aware of this in these politicians electrotates to show them up for the dross that they are.

To deny this soldier a couple of hundred grand when our Government is giving away billions per year in foreign aid to corrupt countries, spending billions per year on the military industrial complex, and abusing our taxpayer money and filling their own political pockets with high salaries and high protected superannuation packages it is palpable. May they burn in hell for eternity.
Reply

The thing that really burns me –is it has probably cost two or perhaps three times the amount asked for to get this far. The cost in terms of electoral back lash, considering Chester has a military establishment close home is potentially lethal, smacks of purblind arrogance; and/or, terminal lunacy. The giant Gippsland worm keeps blindly tunnelling in his own labyrinth.

Don’t vote for Darren 7D – vote for the worm – (a) it is real; and, (b) it’s smarter; and, c) nowhere near as vicious:........ not by a bloody long shot. .(d) has more backbone (K)....

[Image: Photograph-of-Giant-Earthworm.jpg?fit=500%2C375]

RAAF Base East Sale opened as a training base on 22 April 1943. Initially, the base was home to No.1 Operational Training Unit (1 OTU) equipped with Bristol Beaufort light bomber aircraft
Reply

Sen Hinch 20 June '18: On Martin Rollins v DVA - 7:30 report.

Via Australian Senate:

Quote:



Department of Veterans' Affairs

[Image: 2O4.jpg]


Senator HINCH 
(Victoria) (13:35): I want to go back to question time yesterday when I put several questions to defence minister Payne, representing the latest Minister for Veterans' Affair, Darren Chester. He is probably the fourth or fifth in as many years. My question concerned the case of former paratrooper Martin Rollins. He withdrew from the military after suffering a spinal injury. I made the point that, as an election promise, I would not neglect country Victoria. So I make frequent trips to regional and rural areas to talk to the mayors, councillors and the local police officers, and I always make a point of going to the RSL club in time for The Ode and to talk to returned diggers.

Recently, I did a Q&A with 50 veterans at the Ballarat RSL and heard some horror stories, not about what happened overseas, not about what happened in the war zones where they put their lives on the line for their country, but about what happened after they got home, after they got back here. I told them the brutal truth about the Department of Veterans' Affairs. I told them they had to regard the DVA as the enemy, because it treats you as the enemy. The case of former paratrooper Martin Rollins is, sadly, a classic case; it's not an unusual one. This shameful episode over how this serviceman was treated was featured on the ABC's 7.30 Report the other night. They story claimed that DVA deliberately deleted an incapacity policy for self-employed vets so that the pen-pushers could deny the compensation claim of veteran Rollins, who had to retire as a paratrooper after damaging his spine. Yesterday, in question time, Senator Payne said:

… the Department of Veterans' Affairs itself denies the specific allegation that it removed or cancelled policies to deny veterans their lawful entitlements, and that was one of the aspects which was raised in the program.

Well, somebody is telling porkies. Somebody in the department has misled Minister Payne. I don't say that lightly, because I have proof.

Between 2009 and 2010, Martin Rollins's lawyer wrote to the DVA eight times. The lawyer wanted his case resolved on the basis of the then current policy outlined in what is known as the Incapacity Handbook. After those eight letters, on 16 August, an internal email from Veterans' Affairs—an incriminating, self-damning email, which I have seen—was widely distributed. The email said: 'Following discussions with the business area, 12 July 2010, the Incapacity Handbook paragraph 32.3.5 has been amended to remove any reliance that Rollins or his representative could place on it for the purpose of his outstanding claim.' I have not only a copy of that email but the cc'd list. It was sent on 16 August and cc'd in with a DVA chief operating officer, the executive PA to the DVA Secretary, the national director of the legal section, the national director of DVA policy, one senior lawyer and, most telling, the manager of the Military Compensation and Rehabilitation Service. If the policy hadn't been 'removed' or 'cancelled', as the minister claimed in question time yesterday, why such a wide distribution list? It proves, despite the denial the department gave the defence minister for question time, that they did tamper with the Incapacity Handbook to thwart Mr Rollins's legitimate claim. Not only did they tactically delete part of the policy that would have helped the ex-serviceman but it gets worse. Over 10 years the DVA engaged three external law firms, the Government Solicitor and a forensic accountant to fight Martin Rollins's claim. You have to ask: how much did it cost the taxpayer to persecute and destroy the quality of life of a man whose only crime is that he served his country? In fact, during one meeting Mr Rollins asked one of these government outside lawyers how much they thought they'd been paid since it all started. He asked if it was over $100,000. They responded, 'Of course—probably much more.'

Speaking of emails again, an email discovered by Rollins through FOI in 2008 openly called Mr Rollins's incapacity 'debatable', suggesting that he could have been faking it and feigning injury. The man has a shattered L5 disc in his back. Centrelink did the same calculation as the veterans' affairs department, and they came to the conclusion that Rollins was entitled to financial assistance based on his incapacity. It took them just 14 days in July 2010. Centrelink told Rollins they were baffled that his case was taking so long at Veterans' Affairs.

This treatment of a struggling ex-serviceman, in my view, was despicable and unconscionable. For the DVA to be still trying to pull the wool over a defence minister's eyes and trying to publicly whitewash despicable, vengeful behaviour, I believe, is truly appalling. Sometimes you wonder if public servants in that department even know that the V in DVA stands for 'veterans'. As I told those veterans in Ballarat, to get anywhere you must treat the DVA as the enemy, because they regard you as the enemy.

I have a final indicative point: Martin Rollins didn't want this to become a story. He says 'I was just incapacitated. I was just reaching out for help.' And the DVA was not there.


MTF...P2  Cool
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Go for it Hinch, show the world what the disgusting despicable chain of Government departments have done to shaft this innocent man. The same parasites who protect their own wellbeing, who would receive a multi million dollar payout if they stubbed a toenail or got RSI from wanking themselves at the feet of the PM.

Maybe the media can investigate why it’s only politicians who are protected by law for anything and everything? Does the taxpayer know that while we all lost up to 2/3 of our Super during the GFC, the political grubs lost nothing because ‘their superannuation’ is protected. That’s right, protected!!! So this fucking scum never lose a cent, yet that can screw over their constituents.

The sooner there is an uprising the better. Cut the swill off at the kneecaps. Off with their heads.....

Disgusted
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A three Card misère

Ace – “Well, somebody is telling porkies.”

King – “Somebody in the department has misled Minister Payne.”

Queen – “I don't say that lightly, because I have proof.”

Every Senator involved in any of the ‘committees’ doing business in parliament should have a little card printed with those three sentences in nice clear letters. The only ‘difficult’ bit will be remembering which minister has been misled; unless of course the minister is willing party to the Porky Pie charade. But there’s the rub – we have now had a series of willing accomplice ‘ministers’ quite prepared to support the lies, damn lies and statistics spoon fed by their ‘departments’. It has almost got to the point where you know, categorically that a minister is lying simply because the lips of the bureaucrat’s tame dummy are moving. Perhaps it’s time government started governing rather than play at silly bugger politics.  But then I wonder why our armed forces have allowed this to happen to one of their own, that is a truly troublesome notion; when they can’t support one of their own. I always thought it was a ‘team’ thingy with leadership and comrades etc. Apparently not………. Well, Hinch is about to learn 'how things are in reality'. Good luck with that  heart breaker..

Hinch – “You have to ask: how much did it cost the taxpayer to persecute and destroy the quality of life of a man whose only crime is that he served his country? In fact, during one meeting Mr Rollins asked one of these government outside lawyers how much they thought they'd been paid since it all started. He asked if it was over $100,000. They responded, 'Of course—probably much more.”

While the ministers were ‘at it’ they could get a rope on the truly horrendous cost of supporting the lies, damn lies and statistics; take the Pel-Air scandal as an example – how much do you reckon the whole package cost and what the return on that investment was?

Billions flushed down the Swanee in support of all manner of strange things – but they fight tooth and nail to stop a Vet getting the help needed to be independent. Then there they stand, the same politicians, cynically looking all misty eyed and teary on Anzac day. What a sham. Shame, shame, shame on you all. I wonder what will be left of the Australian dream for my children’s grand children – not too bloody much I reckon.

Selah.

Oh; and Bollocks.
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THE DVA DINE ON A SHIT SANDWICH

Update from our GayBC about the systematic, deliberate, planned pineappling of our injured paratrooper;

“The head of the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) has offered to personally apologise for the way an injured paratrooper's compensation claim was handled.”

Here is the full link;

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-11...im/9971942

The response by the Sandwich Muncher Payne and the department underling ‘fall person’ is pathetic. These bastards have been caught red handed spending a bunch of our tax dollars to thwart a small compensatory payout to a ligitmate Aussie recipient. This legacy Australian Government attitude of f#cking over its own people while handing billions to corrupt local countries is nothing short of criminal, and is morally nauseating. Many many of our aviation industry associates have been treated with similar contempt over many many decades.

I can only hope that Teflon 7D (who has escaped the latest bad publicity) cops a bit of the spotlight. This highlights yet another bureaucratic department molding, manipulating, massaging and mistreating Australian citizens for no legitimate reason. No doubt the DVA also has its own beard wearing, PHD holding f#ckwit squirrelled away in a back room getting hard over exercising his power to change laws, rules and policies just for shits and giggles.

Mongrels, absolute mongrels
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