I advised my solicitor at that
time, that I had the name of a Barrister that could
be contacted to help me remove control from the OPC
but he needed to receive the 'brief' from him. I
wanted to take up the offer of appeal. I just
couldn’t win! This solicitor did not do as I
requested.
Since I was denied the opportunity to question Mr
Peter McGivern as to his reasons for the slander at
the first hearing I wrote to him, quoting statements
from the Report (taken as evidence) presented by
Margaret Watson, that he had made, according to her,
and also asked him pertinent questions regarding his
lack of interest in my husband’s physical and
financial welfare 10 months prior to the first
hearing and why he found it necessary to defame my
character. Mr McGivern instructed a solicitor to
advise me that he would not be answering any of the
questions and to threatened me with a law suit if I
harassed him further.
He did offer to answer questions should they be asked
by the Protective Commissioner. I requested that Mr
Brian Porter put these questions to Mr McGivern. Mr
Porter was provided with the list of questions I had
put to Mr McGivern and I receive a reply from Mr
Brindell dated 23 October 1997 stating that out of
the 19 questions asked
“The Protective Commissioner has
asked me to indicate to you that Mr McGivern has been
asked to reply to questions 13, 15, and 16 as set out
in your facsimile letter of 21 October 1997 and will
advise you of the response. It is not considered that
the remaining questions have direct relevance to the
formal management of Mr Furner’s estate.”
These 3 questions only concerned the appointment of
the liquidators and the length of time it was taking
to wind up the company. Whether or not Mr McGivern
answered these questions I do not know because I
never received a response from the OPC.
Mr McGivern’s costs for his solicitor in
this instance were added to my
husband’s account for the
closure of his company.
I wrote to the Hon Ron Dyer after the October 1997
hearing advising that I had been denied to right to
discuss the events of the previous hearing, as
promised. To which he replied:
“ .... that Ministers cannot
interfere with the conduct and decisions of bodies
such as the Guardianship Board.”
Again, I had been denied my right to be heard and Mr
Dyer could care less. The Guardianship Board was
within his portfolio yet he was unable to question
their methods? Why is this body within ANY portfolio
when they are answerable to no-one?
If my life was Hell before this final Order it became
worse than Hell after!
I was threatened with an Admiralty Order over our
vessel if the fuel and mooring accounts were not
paid. I had asked that these be paid when the OPC
first became involved. Since my husband’s
business was sold for $1,200,000.00 and our share was
$635,000.00 there was no reason for the OPC to fear
that the funds would not be replaced. But the OPC had
refused.
With the threat of an Admiralty order the OPC now
decided that maybe it would be better to pay the
accounts. Of course the amounts were now greater
since there were further mooring fees added. Owing to
the accounts not being paid our vessel was chained to
the mooring by the owners of the Fuel Station so I
was not allowed to take the vessel out of the water.
since this time it has cost a further $6,000 plus for
mooring fees the cost of which has come out of our
monthly support. I have been unable to sell the
vessel, since technically it belongs to the Bank of
Queensland and is part of my mortgage collateral to
them.
As a result of the vessel being unused the $38,000
worth of motors are now eaten away with electrolysis,
the vessel itself is weather beaten and instead of
being worth $115,000 to $120,000 it is worth nothing
today, only the market value of the hull.
Had the Protective Office been as diligent as they
professed they could have listened to me and paid the
debts owed by my business when first requested by me.
The vessel could have been sold, we had potential
buyers, and the funds from the sale could have been
used to replace the amount used to pay off the debts.
The maximum loss, had this been done the way I wanted
would have been in the vicinity of $60,000.00
reducing our capital to around $570,000.00.
Because of the pig-headdedness of the OPC and their
refusal to listen to reason, today that loss
overall is in the vicinity of $250,000.00. and
our capital reduced to $200,000.00 in a matter of 3
years with OPC ‘expertise”.
Had I not been denied the opportunity to manage our
own financial affairs my intention was:
To pay out the debt to the Bank of Queensland, sell
the vessel, replace as much of the payout as possible
with the funds from the sale of the vessel. We would
have had in the vicinity of $575,000 left to invest.
I would have appointed a reputable, QUALIFIED
Financial Consultant to invest our funds and today we
would be living from the interest earned with most
likely still having at least $550,000 worth of
capital, if not more. I would not have the cost of
solicitors, faxes, phone calls, stationery, bank
interest etc.
With forethought our funds could have lasted us for
many years to come. Minor repairs to the property
could have been done as they occurred, now these
minor problems have become major problems because of
the refusal of the OPC to co-operate and remain
unattended.
The OPC have all but eliminated our future financial
support which was the reason my husband kept working
until well into his 70’s. Our future! My
husband never entertained retiring, he always had to
be doing something. He never ever thought about
getting a pension from the government, he was too
independent.
Now, it appears we have no option but to apply for a
pension since at the rate the OPC eat up our funds
the $200,000 is not going to last very long.
Everything my husband worked for is gone.
What the OPC owes us is:
$
Loss of value of our vessel 120,000
Payments to the Bank Of Qld to buy time 
41,000
Bank Interest for 3 years approx 53,000
Solicitor’s costs 20,000
Mooring Fees approx 6,000
Interest on Council Rates 800
Overcharge on Accounts bill 12,000
Embezzled funds 13,000
Fund’s missing from my husband’s account 2,100
Fax/Phone for 3.25 years
1,950
Stationery/postage/ printer cartridges 1,000
Gayler & Co. Solicitors (for OPC) 565
Unnecessary copy of marriage certificate 41
Moss Krouk & Assos (for OPC) 815
Various OPC Fees and charges 14,639
To this, when I am forced to sign the mortgage there
will be Stamp Duty, Solicitor’s fees for me,
solicitors fees for the OPC which will be charged to
us plus all associated cost incorporated in creating
a mortgage, which will be charged to us. I
couldn’t create a disaster on this scale if I
tried my hardest!