Laws preventing freedom of speech in Queensland need to be repealed to stop the legal gagging of truth, writes Sue Nunn.
IMAGINE FACING a $50,000 fine and possible imprisonment simply for telling the truth.
That’s the reality today for thousands of Queenslanders, many of whom are intellectually disabled, elderly and First Nations. They are legally gagged. Many cannot speak for themselves. Their family members and loved ones can’t advocate for them. The media is silenced from sharing their stories.
They are existing and former clients of the Queensland Public Trustee and Public Guardian, prohibited by law from ever speaking publicly about their experiences. This law needs to change because freedom of speech is a fundamental human right and every Queenslander deserves the right to speak truthfully and openly without fear of retaliation or prosecution.
Gag laws enable abuse. They suppress transparency, accountability and genuine reform, enabling abuse of power to continue unchecked.
Earlier this month I instigated a parliamentary petition calling on the Queensland state government to repeal gag laws.
Our eldest brother Terry Nunn was a client of the Public Trustee for three decades. I’m only able to speak publicly about his experiences now because he passed away in December 2018.
Terry died at 63 from the same rare cancer that had killed our father only 15 months earlier. He was 29 when the car he was travelling in was hit by a drunk driver. He lost his girlfriend, two friends and sustained life altering, brain injuries.
When Terry received his compensation, it was placed under the Public Trustee to administer. All went well for many years until he needed 24/7 care as his health dramatically declined and he began suffering absence seizures.
The problems started with a junior trust officer, advising we should put him in a nursing home because the care he needed was too expensive. He was 57 at the time and in full possession of his faculties. Things only got worse from there.
If you think this could never happen to you, remember, life can change in an instant. Terry never thought his life would end up the way it did. Ultimately, he found himself in a system that let him down at a time in life when he needed their support the most.
Under Section 114a of the Queensland Guardianship Act, anyone wanting to share their experiences publicly about the Public Trustee or Public Guardian must apply to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) for the gag orders to be lifted.
In a media release dated 16 August, Attwood Marshall legal practice director Jeff Garrett says:
‘The original intention of the confidentiality laws was to keep vulnerable people’s affairs private or confidential, but it extends well beyond that and effectively allows the Public Trustee to act without public scrutiny. The laws were not brought in for the purpose of being able to gag any comment with relation to their conduct.’
In November 2022, the Disability Royal Commission (DRC) dedicated a five-day public hearing into guardianship and administration issues. I was one of three Queensland witnesses. The stories shared that week captured how pervasive and insidious abuse and exploitation is within the Public Trustee and Public Guardian.
Yet, as Kate Eastman (Senior Counsel Assisting the DRC) said in her closing address, the stories told were just “the tip of the tip of the iceberg”. We don't hear about others because victims are not allowed to tell their stories publicly, be they good, bad or indifferent.
In their final report dated September 2023, the DRC recommended that gag laws be repealed. The DRC supported a model proposed by the Queensland Public Advocate whereby the existing legislative framework is reversed.
Rather than the default position being to prohibit everyone from speaking about their experiences without QCAT authorisation, it proposed a default position allowing everyone to be able to speak about their experience, unless serious harm might be caused in doing so.
Queensland Public Advocate John Chesterman said in a report titled ‘Public accountability, private lives’, the existing ‘approach disempowers the individual and arguably represents an outdated, paternalistic approach to this issue’.
Indeed, sitting in the DRC hearing room, we heard a recurring theme from those in positions of power like the state Public Trustees and Public Guardians of “we know better”.
The Tasmanian State Government has already enacted legislation to repeal the state's gag laws. These new laws will come into effect 1 September 2024. The A.C.T. repealed its gag laws years ago. The sky hasn’t fallen in as a result.
This is not a partisan issue, it’s a human rights issue. Yet neither the ALP nor the L-NP seem willing to commit to anything more than investigating the issue further if they win the upcoming election.
The Queensland Public Trustee, Samay Zhouand, maintains he heads an industry-leading, customer first organisation. If that is the case, surely there shouldn’t be anything to worry about in empowering us to speak.
You can support the human rights and freedom of speech of all Queenslanders by signing and sharing this petition across your Queensland network, colleagues, friends and family. The petition closes on 11 September to allow it to be tabled in the house in the last sitting session prior to the election.
Sue Nunn is a retired I.T. manager who has worked extensively in global, multi-national environments.
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