Document Reveals Cover-up
By Bruce Grundy (April 2000)
A long running political saga is set to erupt again following the uncovering of a document giving details of what was happening in a Brisbane youth detention centre when the Goss government suddenly shut down an inquiry into the centre ten years ago.
Not only was the inquiry into the John Oxley Youth Centre at Wacol abruptly aborted but all the evidence it had gathered were controversially shredded shortly afterwards.
Through Freedom of Information processes the writer has obtained a copy of a memorandum written by the centre's acting manager shortly after the inquiry was shut down and three weeks before all the evidence it had taken was destroyed. The contents of the memorandum have never before come to light.
The memorandum reveals that, among other things, the lives of children in the centre had been, and continued to be, in danger because staff either refused to obey instructions or because they were incapable of performing the duties required of them. It also reveals that, although aware of these problems, senior bureaucrats in the department failed to do anything about them.
Incidents detailed in the memorandum include: a staff member placing a child who had been diagnosed as clinically depressed and suicidal in a room with another resident who was encouraging the depressed child to kill herself. The staff member had been given specific instructions not to put the children together but ignored the instruction. The memorandum says the individual believed the instruction had been issued with the intent of "using reverse psychology" on the staff member.
Although much of the document has been blanked out in the FOI process the memorandum also records that the same staff member issued medication to an inmate without authority and was also discovered rolling a tablet under the door of an inmate's room. The child in question had previously overdosed by hoarding Panadol tablets. Written instruction had been given to staff members to crush all such tablets to be given to the child because of the resident's overdosing attempt. The instruction was ignored.
The memorandum says one staff member was making a bed in her section at night and sleeping on duty. Residents were said to "fear for their safety in the event of an emergency".
The memorandum says a number of staff had such serious health problems that they were a danger not only to the children in their care but to other staff as well.
One former resident who was in the centre at the time has told of a women staff member bringing a blanket and pillow to work with her. At night, the former resident said, the woman would pull a row of chairs together, make up a bed and go to sleep. Inmates were all locked in their rooms.
"At times it was likely the only one asleep in the section would be the woman who was supposed to be looking after us," the former resident said.
"And we were locked in. What a joke.
"And nothing was done. We complained to management. The woman was still there when I left," the former inmate said.
"What's more the woman would go to sleep at any time - whenever."
The person also admitted to hoarding Panadol while in the centre and to attempting suicide on many occasions.
Although all identifying details of residents have been blanked out from the memorandum t it also reveals that the state of health of a number of staff at the centre was so serious that the lives of other staff and inmates were in serious jeopardy.
One staff member had indicated to management that he or she "would probably die at work". The person had admitted that his or her state of health was such that the person "should leave this type of work". However, the memorandum says, the person "felt a need to remain in the Department in order to receive long service entitlements".
The memorandum also reveals that a case in which a staff member was alleged to have assaulted a child had not been resolved nine months later.
It is now known that at the time these events were taking place, a staff member was involved in an unprofessional and improper relationship with a teenage girl in care (see separate story).
Following the closing down of the inquiry into the youth centre and the shredding of all the evidence it took, the manager of the centre was given almost $30,000 and an "involuntary redundancy". He was required to sign a secrecy agreement binding him never to talk about events that took place in the centre.
Political figures and others who have followed the shredding case over its ten-year history have expressed dismay, shock and outrage at the content of the memorandum and the fact that it has remained hidden from public knowledge for ten years.
Democrat Senator John Woodley who was a member of Senate Select Committee which examined the shredding case in 1995 said he had never seen the document before.
"It is a scandal," Senator Woodley said.
"I It is very disturbing. I am dismayed that we were not provided with documents like this concerned with child abuse and I find it astounding the government did nothing. If the inquiry had been shut down when this document appeared, it should have been re-opened immediately," he said.
"One has to ask why Coyne [the former manager of the Centre] was paid all that money. We were told by the CJC it was for entitlements but that wasn't the case. Now it appears he was paid the money to get him to sign a secrecy agreement - in other words to make sure that the abuse of children was covered up."
Another member of the Senate committee which examined the shredding affair said the memorandum only confirmed the concern he had at the time that the Criminal Justice Commission had not told the committee everything it knew.
Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz said: "The possibilities are they were aware of this document and did not want us to know about it, or they did not know - and they should have known.
"Perhaps it was hidden from them, but that is unlikely. If you got it through FOI, they could have got it if they had wanted to," he said.
Senator Abetz said the Queensland Parliament should investigate the matters raised in the memorandum and how its contents have never before been revealed.
"But if they fail to do so, it may have to be raised by the Senate yet again," he said.
Kevin Lindeberg, the former union official who has fought for ten years to get to the bottom of the shredding affair said he was outraged at the contents of the memorandum.
"They have sneered at me and ridiculed me for years," he said.
"They even had me sacked when I tried to stop the shredding. And all the while they were covering up incompetent, incapable and downright dangerous staff and bureaucrats who were putting the lives of children in state care at risk. They didn't care about the kids and they didn't care about me or my family-- all they cared about was protecting their long service leave and their mates and their political survival.
"They gave a man a gift of $27,000 of public money to keep his mouth shut. And they talk about their integrity. And the deception is continued today by the Beattie government.
Mr Lindeberg said he had no words to adequately describe "the deceitful CJC and its role in this matter".
"This is a monumental cover-up and I wonder where it ends because I'll bet this is not the end. If they thought I would stop after ten years they were wrong. Now we are getting close to the nitty-gritty," Mr Lindeberg said.
Senior Lecturer in Public Administration at the University of Queensland , Doug Tucker, said the memorandum was "deeply disturbing".
"Surely a document like this would have been examined at the Forde Inquiry," he said.
Prominent QC Bob Greenwood who represented the parents of a former John Oxley resident at the Forde Inquiry said the memorandum was "a most important document".
"If I had had it at the Forde Inquiry I would have waved it like a battle flag," Mr Greenwood said.
Mr Greenwood said there should be a Royal Commission into why the Forde Inquiry had not revealed the contents of the memorandum or the improper relationship between a male member of staff and the girl he had been required to watch over all night while she was handcuffed to a tennis court fence.
The Premier at the time the inquiry into the John Oxley Youth Centre was established, Russell Cooper, said the memorandum was a vindication of his Minister Beryce Nelson for setting up the inquiry, and an indictment of the Criminal Justice Commission for not uncovering and revealing the document.
"If the boot had been on the other foot the posse from the CJC would have come galloping into town, there would have been another Carruthers Inquiry, public hearings, and we in the Coalition would have been pilloried with the usual death of a thousand cuts and drips to the media.
"But anything to do with a Labor Government, Goss or Beattie, are treated with kid gloves and a whitewash, " Mr Cooper said.
Mr Cooper said Kevin Lindeberg was to be admired for never giving up on the case despite all the persecution he had suffered.
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