Gareth Ward
Minister for Families, Communities
and Disability Services &
Michael Coutts-Trotter
Secretary , Professional Conduct, Ethics and Performance Unit
Families, Communities
and Disability Services 4th Dec. 2020
Dear Minister and Mr Coutts-Trotter
re John Smith
It is to be hoped, as you read through Sally's email to you yesterday, that you can no longer maintain the illusion that she is unable to instruct a lawyer. As you will be aware, Sally has represented herself in court and could do so again, were it not for magistrate (redacted) deciding that she is incapable of doing so. Why (redacted) arrived at this conclusion is one of many questions that need to be answered. And why did FACS go along with this clearly flawed legal decision when all in the (redacted) branch knew full well that Sally was capable of instructing her own lawyer? As did (redacted)!
I will venture the suggestion that it is because the (redacted) FACS staff had decided Sally was not a fit mother and needed to do all in their power not to allow any evidence to be presented to the court that would undermine or discredit their decision, including allowing Sally to instruct her own lawyer. After all, if a mother is able to represent herself ably in court, this would raise legitimate doubts as to her incapacity to be a good mother. And if there are clinical reports suggesting the mother is depressed and not mentally ill, especially if these reports implicate FACS in her depression, these too must be suppressed - which is what has happened. And if an advocate such as myself appears on the scene, he too must be ignored, or denigrated as Dr Ainsworth has. And if John wishes to be with his mother, this too must be suppressed.
What has happened here is that FACS has made a decision, a clearly wrong decision, and must now defend it by excluding evidence of its bad decision, and including as justification only that which presents Sally in the worst possible light when it comes to her capacity to be a loving mother to John.
If Sally had been able to do instruct him, Robert Mc Lachlan would have been left with no choice but to submit documents to the court that Sally wished to be submitted but which her Guardian, Dr Ainsworth, did not. As in the case with FACS, Dr. Ainsworth decided that restoration should not occur and has built a flimsy house-of-cards justification for his decision - not wanting to waste the courts time, saving Sally money etc
Why did Dr Ainsworth not want these documents submitted? I will refrain from conjecture, for the time being, but suggest, Gareth and Michael, that you ask some questions of Dr Ainsworth, and insist on answers that will pass the pub test. His current explanations do not. The same applies for all at (redacted) FACS (and those copied here) who have, with their silence, given the green light to what is clearly an abrogation of the natural justice that should apply to both John and his mother.
You have both been aware of the miscarriage of justice that is occurring here for many months now - not just from emails sent to you by Sally, but from letters written by myself also. You have chosen to turn a blind eye, hoping, I suspect, that the problem would simply go away. This is the 21st C bureaucrat's preferred solution to any initiative from the general public in which honesty, transparency and accountability are required. Only when the media takes an interest, the 21st C public servant exposed as corrupt or incompetent, does the senior 21st C bureaucrat take any action. This is usually, first up, to bring on the spin doctors to make a pig's ear seem like a silk purse. If this does not have the desired effect of making the problem go away, one of two things happens: (1) The complainant is denigrated, demeaned, made to seem unreasonable ("an impossible person") and (2) Someone low on in the hierarchy has to fall on their sword in order to protect the Minister in charge of the portfolio.
This problem is your problem, Gareth and Michael. You have chosen not to deal with it. So be it.
yours sincerely
James Ricketson
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