SGT. HELEN POKE, VICTORIA POLICE: The call came across that one
member was down and one member was missing. We found Sergeant Silk.
He was deceased and had been shot in the head and he was laying on the
ground. We knew that there was another police officer missing. We found
Rod Miller writhing in excruciating pain on the ground. He was fighting his
injuries and trying to give us as much information as he possibly could
about the incident that occurred around the corner. So we comforted him
and reassured him and screamed for ambulances and assistance, which
seemed to take forever.
CHERYL HALL, REPORTER: Helen Poke and Graham Thwaites were the
first police on the scene after the shooting of two colleagues on August 16,
1998. They're part of a group of 29 police officers caught in a legal black hole:
the period between November 1997, when the Kennett government axed
the right to sue for damages relating to personal injury, and October 1999,
when the Bracks government restored their ability to be compensated for
their pain and suffering.
SGT. HELEN POKE: And I pray to God that I don't see another colleague of
mine killed in the line of duty and I have to lay there with him and cradle
his head and tell him he's going to be all right, only to find out two hours later
he's died. That is the most gut-wrenching thing I think I've ever come
across in this job, and there's been no support. Sorry.
CHERYL HALL: They received the full support of the Police Association
this week.Voice of
PAUL MULLETT, SECRETARY OF POLICE ASSOCIATION: As you can see,
members, these issues are affecting each and every one of these people
significantly. The Chief Commissioner should be doing the right thing by
our people, and she's simply not.
CHERYL HALL: Neither Helen Poke or Graham Thwaites have received
an offer of an ex gratia payment for their psychological and physical injuries.
SNR. CONST. GRAHAM THWAITES, VICTORIA POLICE: And, because
I don't have a physical injury, people just go, "Oh, yeah, he's fine." Maybe
I am, but inside I'm certainly a different person than I was when I went to
that nightshift and, as I say, it'll never go away. And all I've asked in all the
times that I've been trying to deal with this, in association with the Police
Association, is that the Chief Commissioner give us fair hearing, and at no
stage has she done that.
CHERYL HALL: The Chief Commissioner says she's made offers to 16 police
officers, four have accepted, while 13 were deemed ineligible for any
compensation. Victoria Police won't say what was offered but the amounts
were based on the NSW crime compensation scheme.
CHRISTINE NIXON, CHIEF COMMISSIONER: The level we offered was
appropriate. We'd previously used this model when we determined to
compensate the officers who were in the Bendigo shootings, and that was
accepted and understood. Their solicitor advised them in those cases to
accept, and we believe that was a good outcome. So we are using that as
the standard, and it's an acceptable standard within and outside policing
that we use this sort of a model. So I'm responsible to the community and
to the members, and what we tried to do is just be fair and reasonable in the
compensation.
CHERYL HALL: Christine Nixon says she has offered to explain the reasons
for her decision to the officers involved.
CHRISTINE NIXON: Many of these members - in fact, all of them - were
supported through workers compensation. They were supported through
counselling. They were given obviously substantial amounts of leave in some
cases to be able to recover from those injuries. So it wasn't as if just nothing
happened and they weren't supported at all. They were and are continuing
to be supported.
CHERYL HALL: The Police Association campaign was timed to follow news
of payouts to people injured by police during protests around the World
Economic Forum in 2000.
CHRISTINE NIXON: I find it a surprise that the Police Association has -
I mean we've been in negotiation. They understand our position. I
understand they produced an ad or some sort of a video, which I think
they've got a perfect right to use members' money in that fashion, but I'm
a bit surprised at that. We've made offers we think are fair and reasonable.
I think sometimes the belief of how much money some members were going
to get was not realistic at all.
CHERYL HALL: The 29 police officers aren't the only casualties of the black hole.
JENNY VEARES, FORMER AMBULANCE DRIVER: I do feel for them.
On the flip side, they are getting more than anybody else, even if it's not
very significant. They are the chosen ones that have been offered this.
I don't understand why they are the chosen ones and why they're different.
CHERYL HALL: Thousands of teachers, nurses, builders and ambulance
officers were also caught up. Jenny Veares's case was part of the ALP
election campaign in 1999. The ambulance she was driving was hit by a truck.
JENNY VEARES: I was knocked out almost instantly. My face hit the steering
wheel. I've had eight rounds of surgery.
CHERYL HALL: Jenny Veares recently received $75,000 from WorkCover
for permanent disability. According to her lawyers, she would have expected
to receive between $300,000 and $500,000 under a successful common
law claim.
JENNY VEARES: I don't see that I did anything wrong that day, and I
don't know why not just me being punished but my children and my
whole family is being punished due to someone else.
MARCUS FOGARTY, SLATER AND GORDON: We saw hundreds of people
injured in that black hole. We had to tell them that they had no rights. It was
gut-wrenching. I had many clients in tears when I've told them that, due to
no fault of their own, they had no rights.
CHERYL HALL: Slater & Gordon estimate up to 5,000 people could make a
claim if all common law rights were restored during the black hole.
At an average claim of $200,000 each, that would add up to a billion dollars.
The moral question for government, employers and insurers is whether this
group of people should be entitled to the same access to compensation as those
injured before and after them, even though there is no legal obligation.
MARCUS FOGARTY: Ultimately that's something for the community to
decide: whether these people should be compensated. If the community
decides that's something that should be done, then the stakeholders,
WorkCover, the state government, should sit around the table and see
if something can be organised for these people. In the meantime, these
seriously injured workers just have to cop it.
Transcript from: ABC Stateline
Broadcast: 09/03/2007
Reporter: Cheryl Hall
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