~Why I'm running

The History of Why I Have Decided To Contest the forthcoming Federal Election as an Independent Senate Candidate For Queensland

My commitment to stand as an Independent Senate Candidate at the Federal Election this year is as strong now as it was when I contested the Queensland State Election on the 7th February, 2004. I was going to contest the last state election in 2006, but due to Governments and Politicians being able to call an election when they feel it is in the best interest of their political Party to win, I was unable to contest that election because of the time constraints which an early election caused. It was only four weeks from the time the election was called to the day the election was held. That decision by government and politicians has allowed me to now contest the Federal Election this year.

All governments and political Parties elected to run each State and Australia have called elections early, I expect the Federal Election due this year to be called earlier rather than latter. This contempt from within political parties and the ability to call an election when they see fit has to be withdrawn from their Party Political minds. The only way this can occur is to deny the Political Parties this mindset. We in Australia, us the electorate have to demand that elections be held on the same day of the same month every four years. Fixed four year terms in Government will eliminate the present contempt which currently exists emanating from within the political parties which we elect to run our great Nation.

Six and half years ago, I found myself in a situation which no person should find themselves and no person should ever have to experience ever again. It was August 2000, when my wife, spouse and Next of Kin, the woman I loved was found dead in Cairns. Her body was released by a Coroner to a person I did not know and had never met. My wife’s body was cremated and her ashes scattered One month before I knew my wife had been found dead. I had become a Widower and did not even know.

Once the shock of my wife’s death had subsided and I then realised that not one person notified me about my wife’s death. I began to ask questions of the authorities who were responsible and had the duty of care to ensure the Legal Next of Kin be notified about the death of a loved one.

The authorities were the Queensland Police Service and the Queensland Coronial System. When I received contradictory information from the Queensland police and the Coroner refused to meet with me about my concerns, I contacted the Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney General, who showed no concern or interest in rectifying the tragedy and unequivocal judicial blunder I had endured concerning the death of my wife.

An Inquest was never held and the solicitor I employed at the time when I accidentally became aware of my wife’s death, never once informed me that I as a Husband had the Right to ask for an Inquest. This was the first time in the last six and a half years a solicitor did not act responsibly and omitted to do the right thing on my behalf.

The Coroner decided not to hold an inquest even though at the time he released my Wife’s body he did not know my wife and I were married and in contact with each other. The Coroner only became aware of me when I contacted the Coroners Office in Cairns. I only became aware about the death of my wife by way of a family friend notifying a member of my family about a memorial ad placed in the Courier Mail in September of 2000. If this person did not notice the memorial ad, to this day, I still would not know that my wife had been found dead. I was so disgusted by the decision of the Coroner not to hold an inquest that I wrote to the then Chief Magistrate to lodge my complaint against the Coroners decision.

With hindsight this was not going to be the first or last time I would contact the Chief Magistrate about a decision a Coroner would make regarding the death of a Loved One.

It is hard to believe that such an injustice was possible let alone it ever occurring. A person, my wife, my spouse, my Legal Next of Kin, the woman I loved was found dead and I was never notified.

It happened to me, it can happen to any family when a loved one moves away from their home for what ever the reason.

Nine months after my wife’s death I was still trying to identify my Wife’s body. The only way possible for me to identify my wife was by way of the photographs taken at the scene by the Queensland Police Service, at the time of my wife’s death. I asked the Queensland Police to be able to identify my wife, they refused. I could not believe that the Queensland Police Service refused to allow me, a husband the ability to identify his wife. From the first day I contacted the Smithfield Police Station in Cairns I was given the run around while the Police tried to get their story right. I received conflicting statements from the Police every time they opened their mouth about the circumstances surrounding the fact that I was not notified by them about the death of my wife.

From that day onwards in September 2000, I have been fighting for the truth, without much luck. The more I fought, the more people I spoke with the more obstacles placed before me the harder I fought and more determined I became. Everything that has happened in the last six and a half years here in Queensland has lead to my standing as a candidate, firstly in the State election in 2004 to this day in 2007. Placing this web page onto the internet and standing as an Independent Senate candidate for the election to be held this year, everything that has happened from August 2000 should never have occurred. Unfortunately it has and I will continue to fight for the truth so ordinary hard working people know what can happen to them when the truth is denied, from a Husband, a Spouse, a legal Next of Kin by authorities who are intrusted by society to protect the legal rights for all who live in our society today.

The Queensland Police refused to allow me to identify my wife, the Coroner decided not to hold an Inquest and I still had not identified my wife the woman I loved. At the time I accidentally became aware about the death of my wife I was actually waiting on a reply from my wife to my last letter.

After the police refusal and the Coroner directing me to the Department of Justice and Attorney General I naturally contacted the Attorney General. Thinking that justice would immediately allow me to identify my wife, nothing could have been further from the truth. Upon writing directly to the Attorney General and expecting a prompt reply from the Attorney General, I waited and waited. One month after sending my letter I received a written response from a bureaucrat, the internal Manager for the Freedom of Information for the Department of Justice and Attorney General, who notified me that my request to be able to identify my wife had to be submitted as a Freedom of Information request. My first thought, unbelievable; the Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney General just requested, for me to be able to identify my wife I had to submit a FOI application.

I immediately replied firstly by phone and then by letter to this abhorrent request from the Department of Justice and Attorney General to no avail; if I wanted to identify my wife I had to submit a FOI application with the fee of $31.00 to allow this disgusting process to proceed. In May 2000 this bureaucrat denied my request to identify my wife. If this was not bad enough, my life was about to undergo a further traumatic death in my family. Just days after receiving the letter of denial concerning my request to identify my wife, my father disappeared.

The moment I realised my father was missing I knew, I would never see my father alive again. I told the investigating Police the same thing. Two months later a body was found under an overpass here in Brisbane and identified as my father. Due to not being notified about my wife’s death and being denied the ability to identify my wife, I was determined to identify the body which was found at Bowen Hills. I told the investigating Detective that I wanted to identify my father. Initially the detective refused my request because he told me the body was far to decomposed for a visual identification, only after I told the detective exactly how I would be able to identify my father and that I would be able to identify my father in two seconds, was I permitted to identify my father just a few days after the body was found.

The judicial incompetence I experienced concerning the death of my wife was only the beginning of an experience which was about to get even worse. As I will explain here so every person who reads this will understand what can happen when the authorities and people in a position of trust ignore their responsibility. We have to live with the consequences of an arrogant belief that they the authorities are always right and we just have to trust them to do the right thing. People in a position of trust do not like being questioned about their decisions because they believe that they can never be wrong.

Questioning the system we all live with can only make the system evolve to ensure that only the wrong, inept or corrupt attitudes and decisions are removed from the intrusted positions of our society which are there to protect our Law and Democracy. This is something which should be encouraged by all in the positions of trust, from elected members of Parliament to the bureaucrats to the Legal System. In the last six years I have had the opportunity to meet with and speak with a lot of people questioning but not seeing the appropriate response by our politicians.

The law is far from infallible and it is time the law realised it. I have asked a lot of questions in the past six and a half years and not received one answer that can be considered by me, to relax the fears of where our legal system is heading. Why, is it when ever a question is raised about the legal system it is summarily dismissed by the legal profession as an attack on the independent judicial process.

The people of Queensland and Australia have every right to ask questions about their legal system. It is up to the legal system to instil a sense of equality for all who have found themselves disheartened by the very system in place to protect all our legal rights. I am just one of the people asking questions and I have every right to ask questions when two people I loved are both found dead within twelve months of each other here in Queensland. My wife found dead in Cairns and then my father who disappeared and was found dead here in Brisbane.

When the Department of Justice denied my right to identify my wife I decided to contest their FOI decision in the Supreme Court, so I employed a solicitor who I thought would question everything, sadly in hindsight I was wrong.

I had been discussing my wife’s case with this solicitor when my father disappeared.

When a body was found and the former Coroner asked me to supply him with a list of witnesses that I would like to call at my fathers Inquest I thought it best to let this solicitor handle the request by the Coroner. This solicitor requested the Police brief from the Coroners Office, at our next meeting this solicitor told me that the Coroners Office had refused to hand over the Police Brief. My response to this statement was how can a Coroner refuse to supply a solicitor the Police Brief regarding an Inquest into the death of my father. Within two weeks of the solicitor telling me about this, the Coroner was removed from his position as Coroner. This was after I had met with the then Coroner and viewed the photographs which the Queensland Police had taken at the scene, where the body was found.

In September of 2001 just two days after 9/11 my brothers, sisters and I held a funeral for my father. To this day I do not know who was buried on that day, it is my view it was not my father.

In March 2002 an inquest was held into my fathers death. The previous Coroner had been removed from his position and another appointed. I was never asked again to submit a list of witnesses by the solicitor or the new Coroner. Prior to the inquest I asked the solicitor whom I had employed to act as the legal representative at the inquest, to organise a time for me to view the photographs which were going to be submitted as evidence to the inquest. On the first morning of the inquest adjacent the court room this solicitor passed me the photographs.

I looked through the photographs which the solicitor handed me. Upon looking through them I noticed some photographs which I had not seen the first time at the Coroners Office. In this one photograph I immediately saw that this body in the photograph was not the body of my father which I had identified at the morgue within the John Tonge Forensic Centre just days after the body was found. I could not believe it I was absolutely astonished by what I had just seen. I told the solicitor, he asked for the photographs got up walked outside. I did not know what was going to happen as this was the first inquest I had ever attended, I thought the start of the inquest would be delayed or postponed, I did not know what was going to happen.

I was going to post here part of one of the Photographs I received from the photographs which were presented to the inquest, so I could show everybody the reason I believe; the body identified as my father in the photographs is not the Body which I identified at the morgue situated at the John Tonge Forensic Centre. I decided against that as the photograph is far to graphic.

The inquest went ahead and for the next two days I watched and listened as witnesses were called.

Two Police officers stated that I had identified my fathers body
DNA evidence was submitted
The photographs were submitted as evidence

Not once did the solicitor tell the inquest about my evidence to him on the first morning when I said to him, the body in these photographs is not the body of my father which I have identified. No where in the transcript of proceedings for the inquest does it state this fact, which I told my solicitor.

I was told by the John Tonge Forensic Centre that my request to have my fathers body tested for a drug related death was impossible.

I mentioned this impossibility to the solicitor on the day we both went down to the scene where the body was found. His immediate reply was –“ that’s bullshit.” So when it was time for the Forensic Pathologist to be called about the Post-mortem report (Exhibit-1) which was submitted as evidence, I awaited a reply about why a Toxicology report was not done and what was the cause of my fathers death.

The Police sergeant assisting the Coroner says – as per transcript “I see. All right. Doctor, you say in your report that cause of death was undetermined?--Yes, that’s correct, remains undetermined, perhaps.” The Forensic Pathologist goes onto say
“I simply couldn’t find any evidence that directed me towards an accurate cause of death.”
The Police sergeant then states, “So, that was mainly as a result of the decay of the body?--Yes.”
The Police sergeant then states, “I see. And bearing that in mind with respect to toxicology type samples, was that impeded?-- Again, there was no fluid. There was very little – there was no normal tissue left, very little tissue left at all, and that which did remain was badly decomposed.”
The Police sergeant also goes onto say “ Doctor, did you take any samples for the purpose of DNA ?—Yes. For DNA, yes, I did, and I believe there was a sample of blood – sorry, spinal marrow, I’m sorry.”
And what was the procedure you followed in relation to that? -- Can I say in this case it was relatively easy since the spinal bone was exposed and we take a small wedge, probably one inch by one inch, making sure it incorporates the marrow area inside the bone.”

As per transcript, the sample was delivered to “ Presumably forensic biology at the John Tonge Centre.” At the end of the Police sergeants questioning after he says
“Your Worship, I’ve got nothing further”
The Coroner then says “ Perhaps if you could just take it back to the issues of the possibility of toxicology reports being available given decomposition, et cetera.”
The Police sergeant assisting goes onto ask the Forensic Pathologist, “And the normal procedure, just briefly for that, what samples do you normally take?-- My routine is , if we can get them, blood, urine if you can get it, a piece of liver and a sample of stomach contents. It depends on availability, of course.”
“So, in this particular situation, there was nothing of that nature that existed-----?--No. ----- that could help you?-- That’s correct.”

The solicitor I employed to act as the Legal Representative at the Inquest held into the death of my father then had his opportunity to ask the Forensic Pathologist questions. The following is all the solicitor says in regard to the toxicology test not being performed, as per transcript -- “ Now, you said on the issue of toxicology that nothing was to be gained from doing toxicology tests, and went onto say that the normal body samples that you extract for toxicology, blood, liver, stomach contents, urine, et cetera, were not present. By saying, “nothing was to be gained in respect of toxicology samples being extracted for testing”, do you say it just simply couldn’t be done?—You can always test. Whether you’ll get an answer or not is a different story. You can always test.”
So do you say that with the state of decomposition of the body, some body samples could be taken, but you decided because of the state of decomposition there really was no point? -- That’s correct, yes.
Right. And do you say that the normal body samples that are needed for toxicology, the ones I listed before: urine, blood, liver, stomach contents, they weren’t available? -- That’s correct.”

This was all the solicitor had to say about toxicology tests not being performed after our conversation when we visited the place where the body was found, when I mentioned to him about the John Tonge Centre telling me that the testing for a drug related death was impossible. His reply back then was, “ that’s bullshit” how his attitude had changed from that comment to the time of the inquest, was remarkable.

The next person called before the Inquest to give evidence was the Forensic Biologist who performed the DNA tests. To my surprise the Forensic Biologist states that he also received a head hair sample with the lower lumbar vertebra bone sample from the body, along with a buccal swab to compare the DNA typing. The Forensic Pathologist did not mention that he provided a head hair sample for testing. The Forensic Biologist then states “due to the lower lumbar bone was quite moist due to decomposition, it essentially gave a quite moist gluggish sort of texture.” He then states, “I considered it may be pertinent at that stage to get another piece of femur bone.”

The Forensic Pathologist, the person who performed the post mortem did not mention in his evidence to the inquest, anything about a second bone sample being extracted from the body. This was the first time the second bone sample was mentioned.

When the time arrived for the solicitor I employed to question the Forensic Biologist he questions the conclusion drawn by the biologist, the remains are about 1490 times more likely to be my father. The solicitor only questioned the second bone sample and the DNA procedure on my request after I asked him to. As I was unsure as to which bone sample he used for the DNA sample. The solicitor did not question how and when the second bone sample was extracted or why the hair sample was not tested for drug markers. He did not question the fact of the hair sample being supplied.

Long before there was any inclination of an inquest being held, from the day after the body was found, I was on the phone to the John Tonge Forensic Centre to ensure the body was tested for a drug related death. The reason I wanted these tests performed was because I saw symptoms of what I thought were drug related symptoms back in October 2000, when my sister and I actually took my father to his Doctor to get Dad tested for drugs. This was seven months before our father went missing. The ad here was placed in the Courier Mail on the Saturday, the 2nd June 2001.

Newspaper clipping

After the Inquest held into the death of my father I was very disillusioned by the entire process concerning the Coronial System even further then when the Coroner in Cairns decided not to hold an Inquest into the death of my wife.
After the inquest was over I wrote to the Coroner informing her about the evidence which was not presented to the inquest by the solicitor I employed to act as the Legal Representative at the inquest into the death of my father. I requested the body buried to be exhumed and for another Inquest to be held. The Coroner refused my request and forwarded my request to the Attorney General for his consideration. Needless to say he also refused to exhume the body and denied my request for another inquest. Again I found myself writing to the Chief Magistrate to complain about a decision and the Finding a Coroner had made. We all know what happens when a Chief Magistrate made a decision regarding other Magistrates. She was imprisoned by a mistake from within the very Legal System she was Responsible for and practised a Duty of Care to ensure the Legal System operated correctly on a Bureaucratic level which is important to all of us.

It is now 2007, and nothing has changed.

Queensland, as we all know there are still problems with the Coronial System and the people responsible have a Duty of Care to ensure that everything concerning this system is rectified. My experiences with the Coronial System occurred before the new State Coroners Office was implemented, when a previous Attorney General did not care about the problems I encountered, did not want to see or speak with me and still formulated two Law Reforms. One of which is now operating as the State Coroners Office. The second is still ongoing I think, and that is the Information Paper WP No 58 before the Queensland Law Reform Commission it is called,
A Review of the Law in Relation to the Final Disposal of a Dead Body.
Did you know such a proposal was actually occurring and may affect you at a time when you least expect it.

All Governments should inform us, the public about these important matters which affect all of us. Why is it, Governments choose to spend our taxes on self promotion on full page ads and never place a full page ad in the papers to inform us about proposed Law Reforms.

Two people I loved were both found dead here in Queensland within twelve months of each other, my Wife and my Father. Every person who is found dead deserves the respect that their lives warranted. We all expect some difficulties to occur, we should never expect the Legal System or the Elected Representatives to our Parliament to ignore their responsibility and Duty of Care to us the ordinary, hard working, caring, kind hearted people who sometimes need their help.

In Memory and Dedicated to my Wife, Peteena and my Father, Bruno.

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