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Amazing Australian Scandals
From time to time the shit hits the fan in Australia
and a big scandal takes over the media headlines, here is a selection
of a few Australian scandals over the years;
Craig Thomson's credit card
Craig Thomson was a Labor Party politician in Canberra but
changed to being an independent member after he became too much of a liability
when claims and allegations arose of paying hookers with the credit card
his employer had issued him.
In 2008 auditors for the Health Services Union picked up suspicious credit
card transactions which started years of allegations and denials, leading
to Craig's arrest in February 2013. He was charged with 154 counts of
fraud and released again on bail with strict conditions that he did not
contact a list of escort agencies.
Dr. Death
This name has been assigned to various people over the years,
first euthanasia activist Dr. Kevorkian in the US, then euthanasia activist
Philip Nietske in Australia, and in 2005 to Dr. Jayant Patel, an Indian
trained doctor who worked as chief surgeon at Bundaberg Hospital for several
years but fled Australia in April 2005 when the ground got too hot under
his feet when he started being investigated for botched surgeries where
people had died, initially 13 cases but later this number rose to 87!
Well, he did not actually run away, he gave a goodbye dinner party in
his favourite Indian restaurant and the Bundaberg Base Hospital district
manager Peter Leck bought him a one-way business class airfare to the
US that cost Queensland taxpayers $3547.-!
It had started raining complaints about Dr Patel's incompetence, both
from staff and patients, since May 2003, less than two months since Dr
Patel started there on 1 April. Doctors and nurses that knew about Dr.
Patel's performance used to hide their patients and book them in with
other surgeons for fear of getting them killed through incompetence. Nurse
Toni Hoffman witnessed the incompetence and blunders for two years but
none of her complaints and reports, either verbal or in writing through
official channels, had any result. It was only when one of her letters
reached National Party MP Rob Messenger that the matter was discussed
in Queensland Parliament. Next The Courier-Mail discovered that Dr Patel
had been struck off and discredited in the United States for botched surgery
which killed a number of patients and finally Premier Peter Beattie decided
on an inquiry, headed by Tony Morris, QC. Airports and police around the
world were told to be on the lookout for Dr. Patel, but he was later found
in his house in Portland, Oregon, where he answered the door pretending
to be his brother and praised himself as a top surgeon.
After lengthy investigations including 35,000 pages of evidence and about
350 people interviewed, health inquiry commissioner Tony Morris recommended
Dr. Patel be charged with murder, manslaughter and fraud. He suggested
an urgent provisional arrest be made, pending extradition. He also criticized
Queensland Health for not checking history and references of overseas-trained
doctors.
Genital Friday Club
In 2011 staff a a New South Wales nursing home would take
photos with their mobile phone of elderly patients genitals and then others
would have to guess which patient they belonged to.
Peter Reith's phone bill
Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith had been issued with a government
mobile phone and tele-card but in October 2000 it was revealed that he
had passed card number and pin code on to his son who then also passed
it on to a flatmate again and very soon there was a $50,000.- phone bill.
The opposition called on John Howard to sack Peter Reith which did not
happen but it was reported that Peter paid the phonebill out of his own
pocket rather than leave it to the taxpayer. In 2010 he also had to repay
$2841 for flights taken by his wife Julie to various destinations.
Royal Prank Call
Prank calls are a popular item on some radio stations, but this one got
way out of hand.
In December 2012 Michael Christian and Mel Grieg of radio station 2DayFM
made a prank call to King Edward VII's Hospital in central London and
convinced Saldanha they were the Queen and Prince Charles.
Despite their accents sounding like a bit of a joke nurse Jacintha Saldanha
transferred them to the nurse looking after Kate Middleton, who divulged
details about the Duchess’s pregnancy.
Many people had a good laugh about it but it all took a different turn
when several days later Jacintha committed suicide and made reference
to the prank call in her suicide note.
The shit hit the fan, the show was immediately off the air, Scotland Yard
investigated, the radio station made a sizable payment to the family of
the nurse, and then it all gradually disappeared from the news headlines
and in February Michael Christian sneaked back into his DJ job again.
Listen to the call
here.
The children over-board affair
On October 7, 2001, yet another boat load of refugees had entered Australian
waters and the navy intercepted them. These boats were a regular headache
for the governement in those days and they were getting tougher on them.
What made this arrival stand out from the others was that John Howard,
under a bit of pressure to look like he was dealing with this in a tough
manner just before the election, claimed that people on the boat had thrown
their children overboard and he said he would not want that sort of people
in Australia. The opposition claimed that the children had not been thrown
overboard and John Howard was trying to score political points with this.
Just before the next elections in 2004 the scandal was recycled again
and resurfaced when public servant Mike Scrafton claimed Howard had been
informed very soon after his first claim that no children had been thrown
overboard but that he had ignored that advice as it did not suit him.
John and Mike kept disagreeing on the event and Mike even took a lie-detector
test on Channel 9 that he passed. The scandal then gradually disappeared
from the media again.
The Foxtail palm affair
Foxtail palms in the remote Cape Melville region north of Cooktown
In the late 1980s the remote Cape Melville area north of Cooktown in
north Queensland used to be the only place in the world where the foxtail
palms grew. Some people realized the value of the seeds and every wet
season they used to go up there to raid the palms and strip them of their
seeds to smuggle to the States at a healthy profit.
Usually national park rangers back away from heavy shit like this but
Pat Shears, being a Vietnam vet, decided to enforce the law. He found
barricades to a closed off section to the park knocked down and when he
went to investigate he found a camp with several vehicles with guns and
chainsaws. In his ususal style, barefoot, rifle at the ready, by himself
and without a sound, he snuck into the camp and drove away in one of their
vehicles that he impounded and delivered to Cooktown police station.
This was a job well done but when they traced the rego plate the shit
hit the fan!
The vehicle belonged to the brother of the secretary of the Queenland
Premier! Several high ranking government officials became involved in
the situation and attempted cover things up.
Pat was sacked, received death threats, and a huge CJC inquiry was launched.
In the end none of the people involved were charged and Pat had to wait
for a change of government to work for National Parks again! Meanwhile
Four Corners TV show and many newspapers did his story, and he became
the first man in Cape
Tribulation to feature in Penthouse Magazine! ( With his clothes on)
Police man holds shares in speed camera company
In October 2004 it was revealed the New South Wales Traffic Services
Commander had held shares in Redflex Holdings, a speed camera company,
which holds major contracts with the Roads and Traffic Authority.
The Winegate affair
Indigenous Affairs Minister Liddy Clark made a trip on a government jet
to the alcohol-restricted Aboriginal community at Lockhart River in Cape
York in February 2004 but while the plane was on the tarmac there, a bottle
of red wine was discovered on board by Lockhart River airport manager
John Hardaker.
Government media adviser to Liddy Clark Teresa Mullan had brought it along
and was sacked but later reinstated by Premier Peter Beattie. After lengthy
investigations by The Crime and Misconduct Commission and countless taxpayers
dollars wasted nobody was charged as the tarmac of the airport was considered
not a public place under liquor legislation. The airport was later renamed
Iron Range Airport, to shake off its Winegate stigma.
Tourists have also been fined thousands of dollars for having alcohol
with them on their holidays driving through these areas, if you head this
way ring 1300 789 000 for up to date info on restricted areas.
The Wheat Scandal
Early 2006 a scandal hit the news headlines that is still being unraveled
today with the Cole inquiry.
W hile Iraq was under United Nations sanctions and only trade through
the "Oil For Food" program was allowed, the Australian Wheat
Board used to deliberately inflate wheat prices to pay Saddam Hussein
illegal kickbacks that amounted to no less than A$300 million!!! This
was discovered when a UN report into the now notorious Oil For Food program
revealed that AWB was the largest single supplier of illicit funds to
the Iraq regime!
So far the Cole inquiry has claimed one scalp; the AWB's managing director
Andrew Lindberg has admitted the company deceived the UN and resigned
from his $800,000 a year job, but he claimed he had learned about the
inflated prices only after they occurred. The inquiry is now starting
to look at what the Howard government knew about this, even though they
keep saying they knew nothing.
Some people claimed Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and the Howard government
knew about this all along and Kevin Rudd said the federal Government had
already been informed about payments to Saddam back in 2000. Others claimed
that the plans for the illicit payments were already hatched before the
AWB became independent and was still under control of the Howard government.
The inquiry discovered an AWB plan to pay more than $US2 million to a
man who was the Six of Hearts card in the Most Wanted Iraqis pack of cards,
most payments were made to Jordanian trucking company Alia which was owned
by Saddam. These payments were then added to the price of the wheat shipments
from Australia, and presented to the UN who then approved them.
During the inquiry Mr Lindberg was asked a dozen times whether he had
deliberately deceived the UN by inflating the wheat price by U$12.- a
tonne and continuously denied, until he finally admitted and said that
they had no other option because the Iraqi trade minister Mohammed Medhi
Saleh had told them to pay up or he would not allow Australian wheat to
be unloaded that had already arrived at the port of Umm Qasr.
It was then decided to pay up and recover the cost by inflating future
shipments.
So while Australian soldiers were busy preparing to go to war in Iraq
at great taxpayer's expense the Australian Wheat Board was busy propping
up Saddam's bank account to the tune of A$300 million!!
AWB share holders were not happy with all this as the value of their shares
dropped by at least 30% and took AWB to court in a class action, and around
February 2010 the issue was settled for nearly $40 million.
The Governor General Peter Hollingworth
Just over two centuries later Australia legally left the Empire in 1986
with the passing of the Australia Acts .
The Australia Act 1986 declared Australia to have the status of a Sovereign
Independant and Federal Nation. The Act also terminated all British legal
jurisdiction over Australia, though officially the Queen is still the
head of state and she has a representative in Australia called the Governor
General who is officially the most powerful person in Australia. In reality
G-Gs stick to drinking expensive champagne at public functions and do
not really mingle in affairs and many Australians do not even know that
they do have a G-G, let alone know his name. One G-G that Australians
did know by name in 2003 was Peter Hollingworth who was forced to step
aside in May 2003 after a church-initiated child sex abuse inquiry found
he permitted a disgraced priest to stay on when he was still Archbishop
of Brisbane. Even though he served Australians for less than two years
in the vice-regal role Mr Hollingworth is entitled to an annual pension
of $184,000 and he has already moved himself into a plush office in Melbourne's
101 Collins St building with an estimated rental of $100,000 a year and
the bill for a staff member to run Mr Hollingworth's affairs adds another
$74,821.
Australian taxpayers are forking out up to $4.9 million in pensions and
entitlements for the growing club of retired Governor-Generals. Every
state in Australia also has its own Governor, which does the same as the
Governor General. One of the most expensive was Tasmania's Richard Butler,
see below. Many Australians would like to see the country break ties with
Britain completely and become a republic, but at the last referendum held
in 1998 it was decided by a small margin to maintain the status quo.
The Governor of Tasmania
As chairman of UN Special Commission on Iraqi Disarmament from1997 till
1999 Richard Butler unsuccesfully tried to find Iraq's nuclear weapons,
and became world famous by having his name and face on TV all over the
world every night to tell us that they had found nothing today but maybe
tomorrow. A few years later Tasmania's premier Jim Bacon thought he had
a good idea by appointing Richard Butler with his high profile name as
the Governor of Tasmania to help in the island's econcomic recovery. Richard
was given a $370,000 a year salary and free accommodation in a $12 million
dollar castle but his performance and rising tensions between him and
his staff led to the termination of his appointment. By this time Paul
Lennon was premier of Tasmania and for reasons still unclear and to everyone's
outrage he gave Richard a 'golden handshake' of $650,000 on termination
of his tenure, even though he had received legal advice that Richard was
not entitled to this payout. People all over the country were outraged
that he was payed two years pay for only ten months of work, of which
he had been absent for several months anyway. After Richard's departure
several senior staff memners who had previously walked out tried to get
their jobs back. The Department of Foreign Affairs also investigated Richard
for something dating back to the time when he was an ambassador in Europe;
two years late he had submitted a year's worth of "expenses to be
re-imbursed" with receipts with consecutive numbers and all with
the same date from a single receipt book! Even more amazing was that the
investigation concluded that it was all OK! How would you rate your chances
submitting something like this in your taxreturn?
The Home Insulation Fiasco
In 2009 the Australian Government allocated $2.4 billion to subsidize
the installation of foil insulation in tens of thousands of houses and
ex-Midnight Oil Singer Peter Garrett, who was now Environnment Minister,
was overseeing the whole project.
He was warned several times of dodgy operators and that the metal foil
exterior of the insulation batts that were lying on ceilings meant that
if there was any damage to house wiring then the whole ceiling became
electrified, but the money kept rolling and installers kept installing.
By February 2010 the shit hit the fan and Peter was demoted by PM Kevin
Rudd. The whole scheme had by now proven to be a total WOFTAM
with four installers electrocuted and dead, a spate of house fires, and
many scams by dodgy and fraudulent installation companies that had come
out of nowhere when suddenly there was copious amounts of money to be
handed out. The Government then had to foot the bill to inspect and rectify
around 40 000 houses.
The Qantas Mile-High scandal
Early 2007 Actor Ralph Fiennes flew from Darwin to Mumbai with Qantas
in first class. All was well on board until he was seen exiting the toilet
cubicle together with Qantas hostess Lisa Robertson.
Thinking they had joined the Mile-High Club, the other crew informed Qantas
management, the media got hold of it and the shit hit the fan. (Hostesses
are supposed to provide good service in first class, but not quite that
good).
Interestingly enough they came up with two very different excuses, Lisa
said she had gone to the toilet and then Ralph had followed her in to
the cubicle and tried to get it on with her, while Ralph reckoned he had
gone there to do his own business and the horny hostie had followed him
in and forced herself upon him.
The instantly world famous trolly dolly then started using her "mile
high" claim to fame to promote Sydney bordello The
Site, although her job description read" promotions and marketing"
she was reported to be accepting appointments with customers too.
This was not a career change for her as she had already worked in the
Pelican Club in Auckland making around two grand a night when she could
not get by on her $NZ29,000 Qantas salary.
The following year there was another rumour that hit the media about two
male flight attendants allegedly getting a bit naughty in the galley with
a young female passenger, Qantas went on the defensive again suspending
the two men while investigations were carried out whether this was all
true or not.
We are not sure why Qantas is so possessed with their puritan image, their
opposition Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines uses slogans like "Hello
gorgeous", "Love at first flight", "You never forget
your first time",
"More experience than the name suggests", and "Extra inches
where it counts".
Richard was also more than happy during an interview to enlighten the
world on himself joining the mile-high club at the age of 19 on a Freddie
Laker flight heading to Los Angeles and he still remembered that when
they were finished there were four handprints on the mirror which he wiped
off as a courtesy to the next passenger. He complained about the problem
of plane loos being very small, and that the acrobatics can't take too
long because there's no room and people start banging on the door. Despite
his experiences the toilets on the Virgin planes nowadays are still just
as small as any other airline.
One of our readers sent us a handy guide to joining the mile-high club,
click here to
view the inflight sex guide.
A survey by online travel company ZUJI.com.au
found that seven per cent of men surveyed have joined the exclusive Mile-High
club and only one per cent of women saying they had, but 48 per cent of
men and 26 per cent of women said they had fantasised about joining the
mile-high club.
Have you heard of, or been involved in, a good
scandal? Then tell us!
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