Today's rag tells us that several firemen are facing court relating to indecent assaults on a colleague 20 years ago which was part of an 'initiation rite', so it it seems, that was common in N.S.W. fire stations.
How did employees of N.S.W. fire brigades in several locations get away with these crimes against new recruits? How did the cover-up happen?
The few who were brave enough to complain about the abuse were informed they must be 'mad' for 'imagining' such things. They were then stood down from their jobs, placed on forced sick leave when they were not sick and made to attend HealthQuest, the N.S.W. government medical office.
The perpetrators of these crimes (and I am not discussing the case above as it is sub-judice, I am discussing other related cases) would write false reports about the alleged 'strange behaviour' of the victims, stating that they were a danger to the fire service and must be 'medically retired' on 'psychiatric grounds'.
The various unions throughout N.S.W. would go along with this kind of thing: the FBEU, the NSW Teachers Federation, the Public Service Association. Not one of them did a thing to protect their members from serious human rights abuses at HealthQuest. Not one of these unions or other public service unions even warned their members they could be falsely 'certified insane' at HealthQuest or forcibly 'medically retired', with false and untrue 'certificates' issued. They need not bother lying and telling us now that they had no idea what HealthQuest was up to. Many of their members informed them of the horrible truth. A large group of protesters gathered outside the headquarters of the N.S.W. Teachers Federation at the 1997 Annual Conference with loudspeakers and informed all and sundry of what HealthQuest was about. This group of protesters included firemen. But neither the Teachers Federation, nor the FBEU or any other union did a thing about it.
And so the protesting firemen were sacked via faked 'medical retirement' at HealthQuest. The 'problem' they had 'created' by protesting was then dispensed with as well as they themselves. Having been 'certified insane' (falsely), these firemen were not only barred from their own workplace, but from holding any N.S.W. or Federal government job. Most of them were then unemployed for years, or even for the rest of their lives, as it is hard to explain an alleged 'mental illness' to prospective employers.
HealthQuest and the Fire Brigade Employees Union were accessories to these crimes after the fact. HealthQuest doctors did not report the crimes to police - they punished the victims. The union did not protect its members who were abused, instead it protected the perpetrators.
The only HealthQuest doctors or psychiatrists who have been brought to task were Hadi Stambouliah and Dr Peter Dodwell. Stambouliah was made to attend a secret, locked-doors tribunal held by the Psychiatrists Registration Board. The victim gave evidence but Stambouliah was not de-registered. Dodwell was found to have breached a person's privacy in 2008 and was sacked.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/teachers-pest-top-health-official-sa...
However Dodwell was not the chief perpetrator of crimes against public employees in N.S.W. It was the former government medical officer, Dr Helia Gapper and her offsider Dr Helen Jagger whose signatures appeared on hundreds of 'certificates of retirement' aimed at silencing dissenters of the N.S.W. Public Service and teaching service.
I have seen one of the fake, fraudulent certificates alleging permanent 'mental illness' preventing a fireman from ever returning to work: one of those firemen (not mentioned above as we are not discussing something that is sub-judice) who had been assaulted. The signatures to this atrocious Soviet-style human rights abuse belonged to Gapper and Jagger.
Dr Gapper has disappeared following her removal from HealthQuest. Trained in England, she may have returned there and changed her name. Whistleblowers have been searching for her whereabouts for years. Dr Helen Jagger was promoted and is now Director of Medical Services for Sydney South West Area Health Service.
PICTURE: HealthQuest 'retirement certificate', issued to many firemen who were not in any way sick and signed by Dr Helen Jagger and Dr Helia Gapper.
Comments
HealthQuest, Victimised Firemen, Howard/Rudd - What a Joke
I agree. The HealthQuest fraudulent "Retirement Certificate" duped me into thinking that I was somehow, without my knowledge "retired"or sacked. Fraud is a crime.
http://www.wbde.org/documents/2006_Mar_03_IndyMedia_HealthQuestingValKer...
ICAC were supposed to investigate
http://www.wbde.org/documents/Article_Outrage_Over_Psychiatric_Findings.php
What a joke.
HealthQuest wrote their fraudulent "Retirement Certificate" for profit and to service their fee-paying clients DET, TAFE, NSWFB, DoCS etc. They frivolously ruined an uncountable number of lives as they slapped psychiatric labels onto their victims, wrecked their reputation, their rights to their jobs, all future employment, terror, humiliation, thus often breaking up their families in the ripple effect, and wrecking the victims' health, safety and well-being.
As many of the HealthQuest victims were the ethical people who reported internal wrongdoing etc to their superiors in government agencies; i.e. whistleblowers, this matter comes firmly under the responsibility of the Prime Ministers (Howard, and now Rudd), who signed the United Nations Convention Against Corruption promising to protect whistleblowers.
http://www.wbde.org/documents/2006Dec14UNCAC_CivilSocietyStatment.php
What a sick joke!
BOTH of these gentlemen have repeatedly refused to eith address the issues, or ensure that anyone elsed does either.
Please tell me, what are we paying them for?
So when will the mainstream media tell us about HealthQuest?
They have been strangely silent for years, apart from an article in the Sun Herald by Sue Williams in 1997. The people of N.S.W. need to know what a succession of Labor and Liberal (but mostly Labor, supposedly the working person's party) have done behind our backs. It's downright evil and a public apology should be issued to every HealthQuest victim, just as apologies have been issued to stolen children.
Re: Firemen face court over indecent assaults, but not ...
First, no country has a “right to exist,” and that includes Israel or the United States or even (heavens forbid!) China. The concept is a neat “sound bite” that is historical nonsense, and anyone who has even the slightest grasp of the interplay of international affairs over time understands that elemental truth. Anyone who doesn’t might consult the ghosts of the elders of ancient Carthage and Troy, or the leaders of modern USSR and South Vietnam, for their insights.
Second, if a country’s or regime’s specific policies are sufficiently noxious, then everyone else has both the right and the duty to criticize those policies, and if the result is regime change in that country or its dissolution, so be it, either or both would be morally and legally justified. Hitler’s policies justified the removal of his regime, and so, for that matter, did (e.g.) those of Stalin; one lost, the other won for a while, but deserved to go. If the Israelis treated both the Palestinians and their neighbors better, and were less militarist and racist in their overall approach, they wouldn’t be in such a situation.
Third, comparisons of apartheid in South Africa before and in Israel forever are only superficially justified. In reality (having seen both on the ground), the South African variant at its worst was a pale shadow of what Palestinians suffer under Israeli hegemony. Whites in South Africa never hated and brutalized blacks there a fraction as badly as Israelis brutalize Palestinians. mcdba No Jenin or Gaza City in the old South Africa, for instance
Re: Firemen face court over indecent assaults, but not ...
FYI
Rosemary Milkins ( former Senior Executive @ Healthquest) has just been appointed Deputy Commissioner of the NSW Fire Brigades as of the 28th March)
Re: Firemen face court over indecent assaults, but not ...
Nothing new in this story for me, as a Station Officer I was "advised" to harrass a Senior F/F by management. I refused to be involved in this sort of thing. I also went through one of these initiations as a junior firefighter which was really a sexual assualt, during which I has held down by three f/f's.
I complained to my Station Officer and was moved to another station the bizarre thing is at my new station on the first night shift as the "junior" man I had to buy the dinners which consisted of two cases of beer. I soon fell into the culture.
As a result of the recent media I thought that I should report what happened to me as a Probationary F/F I contacted the brigade to ask the name of the Police Officer in charge of investigations. The Senior brigade officer I spoke to said "that I HAD to report the matter to the brigade first". This looks like another case of "keeping the dirty linen in the family"!
The Senior Brigade Officer Is Wrong
Bob you need to contact NSW police and ask who is the Senior Officer in charge of the investigation. You may be reporting a crime and perhaps providing evidence of an ongoing conspiracy. Neither of which is any business of NSWFB. I would suggest you talk to a good lawyer first and perhaps even take the lawyer with you if you deceide to give information to police. If you still intend to make your complaint. Ask for and insist on confidentiality. You will be a lot like a person reporting a rape it will not be pleasant, you may wish to consider very closely the way NSW has and continues to treat whistle blowers. The stories you read about Health Quest are no joke Bob I am certain you can find others who have made complaints and been crushed. Get some legal advice before doing anything else. You said you are medically retired stay the fuck away from NSWFB management they are not your friends Bob!
Edward James
Re: Firemen face court over indecent assaults, but not ...
As Mulligrubs says above "The various unions throughout N.S.W. would go along with this kind of thing: the FBEU, the NSW Teachers Federation, the Public Service Association (PSA)".
Not only that, but one of the union lawyers was put as a 'judge' in my case in the Industrial Relations Commission.
So, ages after TAFE commenced paying me my pay, suddenly they did a complete turn-around and lodged an appeal to be heard by ... you guessed it ... a panel including an ex-lawyer from the law firm which processed union victims through the HealthQuest legal minefield.
Guess what the outcome was?
But perhaps they were duped into thinking that a HealthQuest fraudulent "Retirement Certificate" was valid?
Yeah! Right!
http://www.wbde.org/documents/2000_Oct20_Salpeter_HQ%20RetirementCertificate.pdf
This one Raoul Salpeter from Crown Solicitor's Office himself swore an affidavit on and lodged in the Industrial Relations Commission.
Then he and his barrister tried to withdraw it! Bad luck b***ds, I put it in for the whole world to see.
I hoped that one day I might find some justice.
Looking... looking... looking...
Justice? R.I.P.
Cover up almost compleat over indecent assaults on firefighters
White wash of fire fighters complaints KPMG called in to look at what has been alledged read story here
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/report-finds-bullying-in-fire-briga...
Cover up almost compleat. Edward James
Re: Firemen face court over indecent assaults, but not ...
Well Fire Chief Greg Mullins indy readers should see this Telegraph link and read the crap http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sunday-telegraph/firies-still-ridd...
every case is serious because several fireies were charged last year as reported in the Telegraph. Yet public trust journalist still have firemen complaining on another public forum here http://indymedia.org.au/2010/03/13/firemen-face-court-over-indecent-assa..., telling readers the NSW Fire Brigade is harbouring wrongdoing. Your employment would require you to know what has been identifed by KPMG is illegal pursuant to several bits of legislation and you are alledged to have been accomadating, is not acceptable in any workplace. Bullying and sexual assualt is straight out illegal and management level in NSW firebrigades have been covering up illegal activity. The type of activity which in some cases has resulted in successfull civil action and claims for compensation in other NSW workplaces during the last five years.
The puported 'personality disorder' has never been substantiated
I was one of the firefighters that was bastardised unfortunately the Sunday telegraph did not permit me to put my side of events when I gave my story which was published - my name for all to see ie with the fraudulent retirement. Subsequent complait to the Aust Pres Council to rectify the truth was refused. I was also a formidable whistleblower - statutory informant - against my corrupt employer NSW Fire Brigades eg in 1991 exposing the training deficiencies and vocational corruption since has been revealed causing deaths. The NSW Fire Brigades union, chief officer personnel officer were told in 1987 of my ordeals but many others knew as well - I was never to be promoted past senior firefighter. HealthQuest pronounced me with a 'personality disorder' 1995 after years of torment and stress. My own medical practitioners were set aside as HealthQuest were told of the crime against me now under investigation by Police taskforce Sime. The puported 'personality disorder' has never been substantiated by any qulaified practitioner my complaints to HCCC, ICAC, Ombudsman, NSW IRC, WorkCover have been rebuking of my ordeals. The IRC stated that I would be a danger to the public if I was to be reinstated 2007 yet I was if not the first, one of the first TAFE qualified firefighters in the Australia - re fire engineering certificate; firefighting station management before being retired in lieu of dismissal soon after I completed the Building Code of Australia and Associate Diploma in Building Science. I have completed other TAFE courses of Environmental Diploma, Computer software and office management courses. I am now in my second trade course but unable to find an employer to complete on site training......I think I need to stop now, what's the point no legal person will touch this.....BUT I WILL GET MY JUSTICE AND PROBABLY GO TO JAIL, BUT I HAVE TO ENSURE MY DEAR WIFE IS PROTECTED FIRST.
The brigade will let these people "go quietly" on FULL PENSIONS
I understand that the long running ICAC investigation into corrupt conduct by brigade employees has been completed and forwarded to the Minister with a recommendation that the matters be "handled internally by the brigade"? One senior College employee has been stood down from work on full pay for a period of nearly two years! It's my believe that the brigade to avoid further media attention will let these people "go quietly" on FULL PENSIONS".
If this is the case it goes to prove that it pays well to be corrupt in The Premier State!
Any experience of Peter M Snowdon or Mark Underwood?
Yes Sydney Water Did the same to me. The ASU followed suit. Just wondering has anyone had any bad experiences with a Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Peter M Snowdon or Executive Lawyer Mr Mark Underwood