The Queensland government has ordered two separate investigations into the state's Office of the Public Trustee, after a Four Corners report revealed exorbitant fees and dire financial mismanagement.
Public Trustees are supposed to protect the finances of people with cognitive deficits caused by such conditions as dementia, brain injury or intellectual disability.
Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman said she took the stories featured in Four Corners "very seriously" and described them as "difficult to watch" and "uncomfortable viewing".
"Their experiences are unacceptable for any Queenslander," she said.
She announced an internal review of the Office of the Public Trustee's practices and policies and an independent external review into the three cases highlighted in the program.
Ms Fentiman said the moves were needed "so that Queenslanders can have confidence that every matter raised in that Four Corners story is being investigated".
One of the external reviewers is former corruption watchdog chief executive Forbes Smith.
Public Trustees have escaped media scrutiny because gag laws in most of the country stop 'clients' from talking publicly. Journalists can be fined or jailed for identifying them, even after they have died.
The ABC went to the Supreme Court in Queensland and Western Australia to lift the ban on identifying former clients of the Public Trustee offices. A team of forensic accountants helped Four Corners work through their financial documents, revealing mismanagement and extraordinary fees.
- Brisbane man Chris Pearson, who has a memory disorder, is estimated to be about $1 million worse off following four and a half years under the office of Queensland's Public Trustee. The 72-year-old was charged about $250,000 in nursing home fees even though he told authorities he did not want to be there. He has since returned home after a legal battle.
- A 66-year-old man with a brain injury, Peter Ristic, was charged more than $59,000 in fees by the same Queensland office over four years. Included in those charges was $14,000 in "realty fees" to manage four empty blocks of bushland on the NSW Central Coast valued at just $20,000 in total.
- In 2019 Perth woman Siham Benz was accused by WA's Public Trustee of stealing from her dementia-stricken mother. She was acquitted but found out last week that the had Trustee's office deducted $10,000 in legal fees from her mother's estate to gather evidence and help police build a case against her.
The Disability Royal Commission has told the ABC there will be hearings into the guardianship and trustee system later this year, saying that while the process serves some people, it has received submissions that "it may limit some people's decision making rights and can amount to, or lead to, violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation."
Christine Dalas, from the grassroots advocacy group Australian Association to Stop Guardianship and Administration Abuse, said state governments were turning a blind eye to the known problems.
"The main concern for me is the Public Trustee has an open chequebook. It's an open chequebook to your finances and there's no checks and balances," she said.
The Public Trustee system is similar to the conservatorships in the US which pop star Britney Spears was under for almost 14 years. Our investigation focused on the state government agencies that take over the affairs of Australians deemed to no longer have capacity.
The Tasmanian government has been under pressure since a scathing independent review last year found that its Public Trustee office had misunderstood its legislative role for over 26 years by making decisions without consulting its vulnerable clients.
Before the Four Corners' program went to air and with prominent publicity about the ABC investigation, the chair of the Public Trustee of Tasmania, Mark Scanlon, resigned unexpectedly on Friday.
CEO of Your say Advocacy Tasmania Leanne Groombridge is calling for a compensation scheme for those who have had their finances mismanaged.
"People who have suffered at the hands of the Public Trustee, lost everything, left with a few hundred dollars after having things taken to the tip or sold off at auction, had cars disappear, their belongings, no inventories made — why should they have to battle to get some level of compensation?
"We want a system where people can actually get some form of compensation so that they can start trying to regain the lives that have been destroyed by the Public Trustee," she said.
'Not there to protect you'
Clinton Vandenberg had a car accident at age 14 which left him with a brain injury. When he was 23 he finally received a compensation payout of more than $715,000 which the court ordered be managed by Queensland's Public Trustee office. The money was supposed to last him into his 60s.
Each year, Mr Vandenberg was charged by the Public Trustee for advice about how to invest his money. There was $380,000 in cash to be invested in managed funds. An external wealth management firm, Morgans, gave advice to the Public Trustee about how to grow Clinton’s money.
It was the same strategy given to virtually every client under the Queensland Public Trustee: Invest the money in financial products managed by the Public Trustee office itself, earning it yet another management fee.
Lawyer Jeff Garrett describes it as a "huge conflict of interest".
"We don't know what the agreement is between the Public Trustee and Morgans but every advice that they give, with few exceptions, says that the assets (of clients) are to be liquidated and invested in one or all of those three funds held by the Public Trustee," he said.
After 17 years, Mr Vandenberg had the Public Trustee orders revoked. However, by then he had less than $1,500 left.
Mr Vandenberg needed to withdraw large amounts of money for the upkeep of his house and medical expenses. But the Public Trustee made the withdrawals at inopportune times which whittled his investment away to nothing.
Overall, he paid $72,000 in financial administration and asset management fees.
"They're not there to protect you. They're there to fill their own pockets. They're there to actually make money for themselves," he said.
"They would just say, 'Oh, you need to cut down on your spending, 'cause you're spending too much.' and I'd say to them, 'How? The things I'm paying for are medical or have something to do with medical,'" Mr Vandenberg said.
"I was already cutting back as much as possible, to how much in groceries I would get, on how much power I would use, how much water I would even use."
The Queensland government has been under increased pressure following a two-year investigation of its Public Trustee office by another government agency — the Office of the Public Advocate.
Queensland's Public Advocate, Mary Burgess, released her report last year, finding serious issues about the level and complexity of fees, its lack of transparency and " the Public Trustee earning revenue from clients' funds".
The Public Trustee announced a review of the fees and charges, which is due by June 2022. Ms Burgess's contract as the Public Advocate was not renewed by the government last year, just months after she delivered her critical report.
Gold Coast-based lawyer Jeff Garrett, legal practice director of Attwood Marshall Lawyers, said he received calls "every day" from people not just in Queensland, but under the control of Public Trustee offices across the country.
"Quite often you've got people who have problems getting sufficient money for food, clothing, other essential items. They quite often withhold payment and the main excuse they use is that they need to preserve that person's funds for the future," he said.
"[But] they don't – they mismanage the funds, they don't invest them properly, and quite often they take a large component of the funds that are available in fees."
Neither the Public Trustee of Queensland nor Queensland's Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman would be interviewed nor answer specific questions before the program aired.
However, in a statement, Queensland's Office of the Public Trustee said: "Four Corners has brought to the Public Trustee's attention matters not previously raised. We acknowledge the experience of the individuals and have commissioned a priority review of these matters."
Ms Fentiman released a statement after the program, saying: "The allegations featured on Four Corners highlighted a number of damaging past practices by the [Office of the] Public Trustee stretching back decades."
"I can assure Queenslanders that, practices such as charging customers for legal fees when complaints are made have ended and, as a matter of practice, the Public Trustee no longer opposes any client wanting financial independence."
Almost impossible to escape
There are Public Trustees in every state and territory of Australia. They take control when someone is deemed by a doctor to no longer have the capacity and it is decided there is no suitable family member or friend to manage their money. They are appointed by quasi-judicial bodies called civil and administrative tribunals.
"When people with disability approach me as a lawyer, they express a sincere and genuine fear of "the government", as they call it, which refers to … the Public Trustee, coming to make decisions for them, " said Natalie Wade, founder and principal lawyer at Equality Lawyers.
Lawyers say it is almost impossible to escape the Public Trustee because it controls a person's bank account and can refuse to release funds for them to hire a lawyer.
"They are up against a government department with all of the resources that it entails, including representatives from the Crown Solicitor's Office, some of the best lawyers in the land," Ms Wade said.
"If you're going to have a law that is going to actively offend the human rights of people with disabilities, you would really want to have a system in place that supports those people to defend their human rights. And at the moment, we don't have either. We have a law that breaches their human rights, and we have a system that does not allow them to defend them."
The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability is encouraging people to share their story regarding their experiences of guardianship by going to disability.royalcommission.gov.au or calling 1800 517 199.
If you or anyone you know needs help, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
