MEDIA RELEASE, 18/11/24
Aged and disability rights advocates are calling for an urgent Royal Commission into the systemic abuses and exploitation of the elderly, their families, carers, and service providers under South Australia’s Guardianship regime.
Disability advocate and Director of KSM Disability Consultancy (KSM), Ms. Ksenija Kristo, has condemned the South Australian Government, stating, "The government and its bureaucracy have become incapable of protecting our most vulnerable. Instead, they’ve created a system that deliberately isolates the elderly, exploits their finances, and subjects their families to relentless legal warfare."*
Adding to this, former National Secretary of Whistleblowers Australia and Forensic Social Worker, Matilda Bawden, highlighted the profound corruption, "The rot within South Australia’s public sector has spread so deep that it has crippled the entire government structure - from Attorney-General’s office to Police, SA Health, Courts SA, and beyond. This decay not only harms public trust but also destroys the lives of countless South Australians."
Shockingly, most South Australians remain blissfully unaware of the frightening power nursing homes wield. Unlike in other states, nursing homes can apply for Guardianship Orders over elderly residents, granting the Public Trustee unchecked authority to sell their homes - often leaving family members homeless and destitute. Immediate relatives, including children and grandchildren, are left powerless, as the South Australia Civil and Administrative Tribunal (SACAT) often rubber-stamps these life-altering decisions based on nothing more than questionable diagnoses.
90-year-old Kathleen was murdered by full SACAT orders in under 6 months and now the Attorney General (AG), Kyam Maher, is spending enormous resources to snuff any chances of her son holding the government to account, despite the fact that the AG was warned repeatedly of the imminent risk to Kathleen many months earlier. “If Kyam had spent just an hour or two heeding the warnings, instead of spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer funding fighting her son, Kathleen would still be alive,” Ms. Bawden said. “Instead, the AG is arguing that since Kathleen is now dead and the orders against her are also “legally dead”, any liability and responsibility against the State also died with her.
"What happened to Kathleen was nothing short of criminal," said Ms. Bawden. "Her rights and liberties weren’t just taken by accident; this was a calculated, deliberate act, planned and executed by the Office of the Public Advocate (OPA) and subsequently covered up by the Attorney General’s department. Even more disturbingly, Supreme Court Judge Bampton ruled for Kathleen’s body to be cremated, despite an ongoing Coronial investigation into her suspicious death. This decision has silenced critical questions, leaving her advocates searching for answers that may now never come.”
Kathleen was unjustly taken from her son’s care with absolutely no justification—an appalling yet common tactic by the OPA which will seize on any “opportunity to do so”. Once out of her son’s care, Kathleen’s daughter directed "DNR" to be recorded in her mother's medical file, despite being admitted for no terminal or life-threatening illness. This instruction was never in Kathleen's Advanced Care Directive. When her mother didn't die, the daughter swiftly ordered an unnecessary Cognitive Assessment which she could weaponise for Guardianship Orders. Although Kathleen was discharged with only "mild" impairment (whilst recovering from UTI and delirium), the daughter was later able to engineer: all three occupants of the family home to be removed; the immediate institutionalisation of her parents; criminal charges to be laid against her brother by false allegations to police (charges were later dropped); and, the family home to be prepared for sale while Kathleen was still alive.
The Late Kathleen is far from an isolated case. Every day, countless individuals are forcibly removed from their family homes under the guise of authority. Meanwhile, families and carers are silenced - gagged by fear of retaliation that could sever their contact with their elderly parents or disabled children. This systemic abuse continues unchecked, leaving families powerless and voiceless.
Ms. Kristo shared a harrowing example, "KSM knows of two siblings in their 60s, both dealing with their own disabilities and health issues, who are facing imminent homelessness because their 90-year-old mother was placed in a nursing home. The nursing home director applied for guardianship over their mother, and now these siblings will be evicted while the State turns its back, with no offer of rehousing. Meanwhile, the daughter is banned from even seeing her mother to bring her flowers."
This state-sanctioned exploitation isn’t just a crisis—it’s a public scandal that refuses to be swept under the rug. The government’s unbridled power to devastate families sets a dangerous precedent. As Ms. Bawden grimly warned, "The day may come when a nursing home director sets their sights on the affluent homes of bureaucrats, judges, or politicians themselves. No one is immune to this cottage industry of greed and power."
The call for justice grows louder as South Australians demand accountability. Will the Malinauskas government listen, or will it continue to drag its "weight of chains" like a badge of shame for decades to come?
Ms. Ksenija Kristo is available for comment any time at ksmdisabilityconsultancy@