[Peetwo]

Ref: https://auntypru.com/sbg-07-06-20-of-the...-sandwich/

Speaking of Swiss Cheese - 

Via Sentry One Pty Ltd on FB, spot the parallels...  

HOW MORRISON'S MEDIA PLAYED THE VETERANS OF AUSTRALIA

Dr Daniel J Mealey Bach Biomed Sci, MBBS (Melb) ACEM (Cert), Afghanistan veteran

The “Swiss Cheese” paradigm is a constructed, analytical and investigative model of a specific accident or unwanted emergence, illustrating that when specific holes or cracks align, harm is caused to either or both an organisation and the general public.

No organisational system is perfect, and cracks will always appear. However the willingness of an organisation to address its systemic cracks (or its recalcitrance to do so) defines its ethical, moral and legal integrity.

This article is a reflection upon the “Swiss Cheese” paradigm that permitted the demise of a 'Royal Commission into Veteran Suicide.'

In 2019, at least upon first glance the Daily Telegraph illustrated the capacity of media to influence major political reform. Adella Beaini was permitted journalistic freedom in telling the stories of deceased veterans from the perspective of maternal grief.

At the close of 2019, the newspaper held a “Save our Heroes Summit” upon the hallowed grounds of NSW Parliament House, the location of which provided in its own right an emphatic level of impetus behind an apparent push for a Royal Commission.

Key speakers notwithstanding Ben Roberts-Smith VC, mothers of deceased veterans and representatives from RSL, military, political and medical worlds (including the author of this article) met with the intent of a firm and bipartisan resolution to construct an external, transparent, introspective, retrospective and exhaustive “Swiss Cheese” investigation into the many causes of the veteran suicide devastation.

Most commentators agreed that only a “Royal” Commission might achieve this kind of investigation, and yet, within the space of a financial quarter a suboptimal, untested and unprincipled "Commission” was announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison,

Many who had previously taken a tenacious position on the matter, joined in a national celebration of an outright antithetical replacement of the Royal Commission. Upon the proximity of receiving the golden apple of justice, Morrison handed the nation a banana, and the nation seemingly could not discern the difference.

Why?

The “Save our Heroes Summit” was postured as a pro-Royal Commission event sponsored by the Daily Telegraph, Sky News Australia and Channel 7.

Ben Roberts-Smith VC was permitted very much air time projecting poor transitional services upon exit from Australian Defence Force as being a pivotal predictor of veteran suicide, as well as a failure of ADF leadership to exhibit 2020 societal expectation of corporate responsibility. Ben Roberts-Smith VC is the General Manager of free-to-air television Seven Brisbane.

The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel 7) is one of few major, commercial free-to-air television stations in Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media. Seven West Media (SWM) is an ASX- listed media conglomerate that owns The West Australian, The Sunday Times, Community Newspaper Group and has a 50% Share in Yahoo!7.

The Daily Telegraph is an Australian tabloid published by
Nationwide News Limited, a division of NewsCorp Australia
the parent of which is Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which also owns Sky News.

Kerry Stokes (like Rupert Murdoch) is invested as a Companion in the General Division of Order of Australia (AC) and is the Chairman of the Seven network, of which he has acquired a 43% share. He also has acquired a 33% share in Sky News.

Murdoch’s media owns approximately 70% of Australia’s printed media, and his self-interested interference in Australian politics can be easily identified by recent demonstrable Australian political decisions such as those that led to the demise of the NBN.

Foxtel’s dominance in the home-entertainment market predicted a boom in the Netflix competition. The Liberal Party’s incestuous relationship with Murdoch has resulted in Australia’s broadband service becoming the butt of international jocularity.

With noticeably slower broadband than that which is provided in some developing countries, the productivity of the nation has been compromised, with a concomitant erosion in the reliability and integrity of the Liberal Party… and to what end ? A suboptimal Foxtel product with ever-decreasing consumer relevance?

And the Packer enterprise is no better. In 2015, the The Packer Foundation and Crown conglomerate donated millions of dollars to St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney. St Vincent’s Emergency Department Head, Dr Gordian Fulde, whose “Kings Cross ER “television program (funded by Packer) grossly and unethically exaggerated the incidence of a “King Hit” phenomenon in Sydney.

As a consequence, the “lock-out” laws were borne forcing the death of a vibrant night-life in Sydney …except of course the Packer family-owned Sydney Crown Casino which is not only exempt from lock-out laws, it was granted 24/7 operability.

The cost in productivity from unemployment and university drop-outs consequent to young Australians once financially supported with hospitality jobs, remains entirely un-calculated simply because we do not have a media that permits the expression of journalistic integrity to tell the story.

Clearly we have arrived at a most unfortunate situation in which Murdoch and Packer Foundation can so easily commandeer Australian legislation and judiciary to ensure an obscene hoarded personal wealth for themselves, and to do so with justice blindfolded to the criminality at play.

When legislation and judicial process pertaining to veterans is obfuscated (and the cancellation of a major platform of Royal judicial investigation of thousands of deaths is as obfuscatory as it gets), this feeds a sadistic soldier-crunching machine that has neither an internal nor an external mechanism of scrutiny.

Over decades, rather than addressing the need for major organisational reform, successive leaders of the Australian Defence Force have labelled all veterans distressed as a consequence of defective administration, and from all forms of physical and psychological injury as “malingerers,” “weak,” and “lacking in resilience.”

A national obsession with a mindless attitude of toxic positivity, and perpetual demonising of all forms of victimhood has silenced the distress of veterans whose test of soldierly resilience has become their capacity to show gratitude having been administratively, psychologically, physically, symbolically and quite literally raped.

The very ADF leaders whose careers were advanced promoting this envenomed corporate culture, have retired into positions within the Department of Veterans’ Affairs overseeing the health and wellbeing of every single one of the very veterans these leaders scapegoated.

One does not need the qualification of “Commissioner” to observe a cross-pollination of a corporate culture of harm.

One does not need the qualification of a Clinical Psychologist to comprehend the extraordinary harm to the mind of a human being whose valid emotional reaction to such criminal harm is suppressed by ADF, DVA and cultural mores that validate the emotional expression of only 'positivity' or 'neutrality.'

Enter right-stage the Australian Media, which unashamedly and unanimously will not publicise the injustices of distressed veterans whilst they are alive to avoid the litigious ramifications should their stories tip these vets into suicide. Once dead however, justice may be served, if their deaths serve the media telling their stories.

What has the media to gain from airing the stories of dead veterans, and embarrassing the Federal Government?

On the 4th June 2019, the Federal Police stormed ABC Studios Ultimo and confiscated "The Afghan files" and for the first time in decades Australia witnessed a "separation of power" between Murdoch and the Australian Government. Journalists were given direct mandate to express journalistic freedom in attack of the Federal Governmet, and Editors staged events like the "Save our Heroes Summit," under a greasy disguise of altruism.

The consequence to all this is that Scott Morrison inherited Prime Ministerial ownership of a veteran population expressing distress via the metaphor of a suicide, and a media in outright rebellion. And because at that stage no amount of political interference was able to silence the screams of inevitable maternal grief (a grief being permitted by Murdoch to echo with greater amplitude by the week), an urgent political strategy was sought.

Where was the formation of Morrison’s strategy to begin, when the depth and breadth of the problem was so overwhelming that even the very first step in statistical analysis (that is, counting veterans) had never once been conducted by the nation? How was he to even count the suicides when the baseline number of veterans was never counted?

One might be forgiven for suggesting a national census as the solution; which indeed would be efficacious, except that this strategy would break the number one (perhaps the only) rule of engagement with Australian bureaucracy:

“Never under any circumstance permit the truth to stain the reputation of the man.”

And failure to count veterans both living and dead, would incur indelible stains upon countless reputations, so the “Lapel Pin” and “Veteran Discount Card” was borne on 3rd November 2019 with the underlying assumption that every veteran in the country would be drawn to toward this peculiar head-count, via a 5% fuel discount.

All this accomplished was a coffin-sized hole in the ground for the Liberal Party, for an appalling failure to understand the contemporary veteran (and more so the non-contemporary one). Morrison might well have approximated an accurate head-count had he emulated a remarkably similar, historical counterpart (that being Queen Marie Antionette), by offering his veterans “cake.”

Morrison was drowning. The Murdoch media coterie hosted a “Save our Heroes Summit” on 6th November 2019 demonstrating the media's power over Morrison's government Ben Roberts-Smith VC stepped up representing veterans and their mothers, yet failed to represent himself as the General Manager of network Seven Brisbane. Sharri Markson from Sky News was the Master of Ceremonies, the Daily Telegraph hosted the event, and as an added wound to the Federal Government, the event was conducted on the Federal Government's home turf, NSW Parliament House.

The “Save our Heroes Summit” was a Murdoch-run event, to which Scott Morrison made a special "back-door" appearance. Morrison only spoke with the mothers of deceased veterans, to whom he confessed his true “head-counting” machination of the Veteran Discount Card. Morrison then offered several of these mothers roles as Advisors to his government, effectively buying loyalties and voices of grieving mothers. Morrison left them with the promise that his Christmas break would be spent in deep contemplation weighing the merits of a Royal Commission.

On that very day however, he began preparations to meet in a similar, special "back-door" appearance in Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s office in Melbourne, a meeting that took place on 12th December 2019.

Numerous attendees stacked the power of numerous organisations behind support of the Liberal Party’s anti-Royal Commission agenda, and in support of finding peace with the clearly powerful might of the media.

Steve Pilmore represented the
Australian Commando Association Australia, the Commando Welfare Trust, and RSL National. Dr Rob Webster represented RSL Victoria. Professor Malcom Hopwood represented the University of Melbourne, Royal Australian and New Zealand College Of Psychiatrists and Phoenix Australia. Associate Professor Morton Rawlin represented the Royal Australian College of General Practice (RACGP). Dr Simon Judkins represented the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine . Professor Jane Burn represented herself (instead of the veterans her Open Arms - Veterans & Families Counselling empire allegedly supported).

The Ringleader (according to the minutes of the meeting) was Sir Peter Cosgrove. The Court Jester writing the minutes (Dr Peter Wirth of Mackay Base Hospital fame) wrote:

“Every person at the table gave clear reasons against the Commission.”

The problem is that most of these organisations were not notified, at any stage, of the nominal representation of those organisations at this meeting, and certainly were not informed that the names of these organisations were used as obstacles in the carriage of justice for thousands of Australian veterans.

Certainly, neither the Commando Welfare Trust, Australian Commando Association, RSL National, RSL Victoria, nor any of the RSL Sub-branches knew what had transpired until months later. Call this misappropriation of power; collapse of organisational constitutional and democratic integrity; fraud; interference of the carriage of justice, or just profound stupidity - the outcome was the same, which was the demise of the Royal Commission.

On 5 February 2020, Scott Morrison had by this stage called a "truce" with Murdoch's coterie, and announced a permanent Commission into veteran suicide, amidst a breathtaking display of self-praise from the Daily Telegraph. This "truce" involved the condition of no further media support nor discussion nor even mention of a "Royal Commission" ever again.

The announcement of Morrison’s antithetical “Commission” into veteran suicide, and more importantly the national celebration of this announcement that drowned all debate, was not a Commission founded upon a compassion toward the distress of veterans, nor toward the grief of mothers. It was founded upon a battle between media and politicians. Morrison and Murdoch permitted corruption to continue, and then everyone collectively painted that corruption to the nation as the solution.

“Although it is not a Royal Commission,” Mr Morrison said addressing the nation “the new role will have similar powers and will investigate individual cases alongside state and territory coroners.”

Ben Roberts-Smith VC had carried the baton for veterans in such an impressive manner, but then he dropped that baton, when his vocality had served its true purpose, which was to have his position of military valour used like a pawn to embarrass the Federal Government subsequent to the Australian Federal Police storming the ABC studios and confiscating the "Afghan Files."

On the of 6th February 2020, the daily Telegraph reported that Ben Roberts Smith VC welcomed the announcement of an independent Commissioner to investigate veteran suicide:

“We are aware the problems that we face are because of a particular culture in defence around this issue [of veteran suicide]. The Commissioner’s role is to shine a light on that,” he said.

Julie Ann Finney, motivated by the suicide of her veteran son David last year, captivated the nation by her change.org petition amassing 300,000 signatures calling for a Royal Commission to investigate veteran suicide.

Until the “Save our Heroes Summit,” Ms Finney represented veterans and their families.

Following this summit, her support was for the Prime Minister and his unprincipled and untested “Commission.”

“I’m excited that something’s happening,” Ms Finney said on ABC radio. “Excited is a bad word but I was not expecting that call yesterday.”

When asked if she was pleased that her involvement had helped get something done, she did not want to take credit for it alone:

"This was not me, this was all of Australia backing this," she said.

Only “all of Australia” was not backing this, because nobody bothered to ask the veterans. In fact the veterans were fundamentally excluded from the entire conversation.

The Commando Welfare Trust, the Australian Commando Association, RSL Victoria, RSL National, and every one of the sub branches of RSL were excluded from every stage of Prime Ministerial conversation, and the venomous treatment of veterans continuing to promote a Royal Commission agenda, with absolutely no media representation, serves as yet another reason for a Royal Commission to investigate veteran suicide.

Or for a coup d’état.

One way or another, the veteran population (which is much, much larger than the Veteran Discount Card was able to demonstrate) will soon realise the machinations of the Morrison-Murdoch madness, and they will realise they have all been played. As was Julie Ann Finney, as was each of the other mothers cornered in Parliament House by the flattery and bribery of an unconscionable Prime Minister, as was Ben Roberts-Smith VC.

Those given freedom to speak at the "Save our Heroes Summit" were given permission to do so only insofar as it might direct injury to the Morrison administration that permitted the Federal Police to usurp power from the media. The Commission that resulted is not a Commission to be trusted.

How the veteran and serving ADF population responds to this corruption - or more correctly - how willing they are to unite under a banner of justice to fight that corruption, will dictate the viability of Australia moving forward to operate within the disappearing goal posts of democracy and decency.

- Dr Daniel J Mealey

MTF...P2