# 6 FACS makes it impossible for Sally Smith* to file an appeal

 Gareth Ward

Minister for Families, Communities 

and Disability Services  &

Michael Coutts-Trotter 

Secretary , Professional Conduct, Ethics and Performance Unit 

Families, Communities 

and Disability Services                                                                                                   8th. Dec 2020

 

Dear Minister and Mr  Coutts-Trotter

 

                                                            re Sally Smith

 

Eight days away from her deadline to appeal the decision handed down by magistrate (redacted) on 16th Nov, Sally still does not have a copy of the transcript of what was said in court that day by Robert McLachlan, Frank Ainsworth and (redacted). How can Sally appeal the judgement if she does not know what she is appealing against? The (redacted) court tells her that there will be no transcript available until January 2021, when it will be too late for her to appeal.

 

Is this just bureaucratic incompetence, or is FACS, in conjunction with (redacted) court, determined to make it impossible for Sally to lodge an appeal? I have little time for run of the mill conspiracy theories but it is certainly beginning to seem as though, from the Minister down, FACS has decided to tough this out; to circle the wagons around its (redacted)  branch and hope that the incompetence on display here never makes it into the public domain.

 

It is not just incompetence that should be a matter of concern to you, Gareth and Michael, but that both Dr Ainsworth and Robert Mc Lachlan (along with all FACS staff copied here) clearly lack empathy or compassion for either John or Sally. Neither Frank nor Robert has met or spoken with John. He is a stranger to them. The plight of this sensitive 11 year old boy is of no concern to them. As Guardian and lawyer, both supposedly representing Sally, they see their jobs merely as putting ticks in boxes for FACS. And that is all FACS expects of them, and pays them to do. How this tick-in-a-box approach to the human drama unfolding here impacts on John  is of no consequence. If this breaks his heart, if he experiences this brutal separation from his mother as a lifelong trauma, this is not a problem that Ainsworth, McLachlan and most copied here will ever have to deal with, having never met either John or his mother. Out of sight, out of mind. It is hard to imagine a more alienated or alienating way of resolving complex emotional issues than the system that you both, Gareth and Michael, have in place. It is a disgrace. And you are both, jointly, responsible for it.

 

yours sincerely

 

James Ricketson