Woman 'body-charged' Centrelink worker

[Banker]

A WOMAN threw a chair and "body-charged'' a Centrelink worker after she was asked to file an updated medical history, a court heard today.

Kerry Pendergast, 41, assaulted the staff member with her handbag and yelled "I'm coming to get you'' during the incident in Caboolutre Centrelink last month.

She pleaded guilty to one charge of common assault when she fronted Caboolture Magistrates Court today.

Prosecutor Sergeant Richard Chedzey told the court Pendergast attended the Caboolture Centrelink office around lunchtime on March 8.

He said Pendergast was told she needed to update her member profile by visiting a GP to obtain an updated medical certificate.

But things quickly turned ugly and Pendergast swung her handbag at the Centrelink worker's desk, knocking her things to the floor, Sgt Chedzey said

She then picked up a chair and threw it across the office before swinging her handbag at the staff member, hitting her in the ribs.

Sgt Chedzey said Pendergast then "body-charged'' the staff member, swinging her handbag at the worker's neck.

He said Pendergast then picked up the worker's keyboard, and threw it to the ground before yelling "I'm coming back to get you'' and casually walked out of the office.

Defence solicitor Christine Linklater said her client was upset because the Centrelink worker wouldn't let her see a manager.

"She was upset because she believes they made a mistake, they wouldn't get a manager and that's when she lost her temper,'' she said.

Ms Linklater said her client was a divorced mother of two children and the incident was ``out of character''.

She said Pendergast had since gone to see a psychiatrist to help bring her behaviour under control and had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression.

Ms Linklater said her client's mental state was related to pain caused by an old motorcycle injury, when she broke her back and neck.

Magistrate Mark Bucknall said Pendergast's behaviour was "completely unacceptable''.

"People who work at Centrelink or any other similar position don't have to tolerate that kind of behaviour,'' he said.

"It's not their fault if something is wrong.''

Pendergast was fined $350.

A conviction was not recorded.

goo.gl/SBDdO

[spaceyone]

Sounds like she got so bit sick of trying to prove her illness to them in the beginning, that even the idea of having to submit one more new form for a review, was just too much for her to bear.

Poor lady. Shame on the magistrate who didn't consider her side of the story.

Maybe they had kept loosing all of her previous paperwork, or telling her to provide the wrong stuff. A little trick we all know they like to employ.

[latindancer]

There are actual REASONS why people from one end of the country to the other (literally to Hobart) are assaulting Centrelink employees. But the government seems unable to see it yet. Admittedly people like this lady have serious personal issues.....but then so do WE, the disabled. And we're getting screwed at both ends by current Centrelink / government policy.. THAT is what causes us to occasionally erupt.

[Banker]

I would say going by the story that this woman might have been on DSP. They have brought her in for a re assessment and this is what has happened, she lost the plot because she felt that she was being victimized.

Just my 2 bobs worth........

[spaceyone]

More like she knows that the process of proving one's eligibility for DSP has become a farse. She knows that it doesn't matter what the GP writes on the new form they requested, that it will be discounted by uneducated Centrelink counter staff, and she will have to appeal all the way to the AAT just to keep what she is medically entitled to.


* * * * *

I have just been banned from entering any Centrelink office in Australia for a period of three months

I am not usually an angry or spiteful person, but I have had a gutful of this situation. While On-Q Human Resources and Centrelink staff were allowed to get away with acts of forgery, and misconduct, myself and family are still harassed by all government departments we have to attend, and it has been going on for 18 months now. All I asked was for that to stop.

The Centrelink employee directed by the Minister of Human Services office to write to me about my complaints, failed to do so within in a reasonable time frame.

So I sent an email to the Minister's Office suggesting that I just give up on ever being granted a meeting to resolve the dispute between myself and them, or an apology, that maybe I should resort to the new Australian custom of taking a cricket bat with me to Centrelink instead.

Well, I finally got some action then. Seems the Centrelink employee has suddenly remembered how to write a letter, and is going to send me one, outlining my ban in writing.

She should have just done her job, and written the first letter. She should have also tried to cover the sneer in her voice the day she phoned to tell me that she had been instructed to do so.

Its not me who keeps this war going, it is them. Everytime they attack me and mine, they instigate another round of rudely worded complaints from myself.

I attended the police station today, and picked up some fraud forms. I will lodge a complaint myself about On-Q Human Resources forging my signature onto consent forms myself, and keep the game going.

[latindancer]

Apr 17, 2012 9:51:55 GMT 7 spaceyone said:

Its not me who keeps this war going, it is them. Everytime they attack me and mine, they instigate another round of rudely worded complaints from myself.

Banned ? Hey, that's great ! Quite an achievement

Speaking from experience elsewhere, I think it's often a situation that's been going around and around so much already that it's difficult for either party to get off.
However the difference is that for you, it's personal and affecting your life on a very personal level......whereas for them it's part of their PAID job and they can go home every day and weekend and forget about it. So you are more likely to get upset about it, but they don't have much of an excuse, really.

[rowdy]

Apr 16, 2012 18:35:32 GMT 7 Banker said:

I would say going by the story that this woman might have been on DSP. They have brought her in for a re assessment and this is what has happened, she lost the plot because she felt that she was being victimized.

Just my 2 bobs worth........

You mean 2 bahts worth.

[Banker]

Nah I'm still working in quids mate.

[Banker]

Sorry to hear about your troubles spacey......Have you got skype working yet.

[spaceyone]

Hey Banker, thanks, but I am not having a problem with them, it is them who are now on the receiving end of having problems from me - again.

Their harrassment started months ago, when we moved into town to try to get my son into work, and to have some independence from me. All they have done since, is harrass and inconvenience us, making my health deteriorate further due to the stress of it all.

Then in a few months time, they will cut me off DSP, claiming that I should have been out seeking work, and attending GP's who have already been warned not to diagnose or treat me.

I know a lot of you choose to believe that Centrelink and the government is basically honest and wanting to do their jobs. I no longer believe that at all, and I don't intend to hold back on saying so. I am sick of their exploitation of our passive resistance.

I haven't posted much lately, as my attitude has become more and more distainful of the whole idea of government, and this isn't the place to vent it.

However, I do plan to spend the next few days creating a new website focussing on the corruption at Centrelink I experienced, and scan their records to display and demonstrate same.

I had asked them for a private meeting to sort this shit out once and for all, and instead they are playing a different game against me, behind my back.

As they ramp up their campaign to make the Australian public hate welfare recipients, I will ramp up my campaign to enlighten same as to the money wasted, by way of their corruption and stupidity.

[spaceyone]

I don't mind being banned from Centrelink, I see that as more of a blessing. I don't have much need to go in there while on DSP. If they put me on the dole again, they will get to see me fortnightly

However, I did have occassion to go in there twice last week, when I used their computers to print out an income statement so that I could get a food voucher and an electricity bill voucher.

I saw that the Manager I had complained about recently, now seems to be working full-time out of my local branch. Now I see why my son's payments are suddenly being sabotaged again.

They are close to opening their new building here, so Mr Corruption has been sent to oversea the move, I would say. So, I am banned, while he works there.

My son had an appointment scheduled for next month. I have asked the minister's office to arrange to have that cancelled, since I don't allow him to attend appointments there without my supervision, and to be a witness to any tricks they try to play on him. I reminded them that they managed to not pay him last time, even with me sitting there keeping an eye on things.

This same manager, Mr Corruption, was instructed to investigate my initial complaints, at the outset of my ordeal. Instead he covered it all up, played mind games with me and coded me as aggressive and abusive, when in fact he had been all of that to me. I would also guess that he was the same person who pulled all the strings to have my DSP application thwarted at every level. He was definately the one who cancelled my second application the day after I had lodged it, and instructed his team not to scan any of the new medical evidence to their computers.

It makes me sick in the stomach to look at him. I had stopped at his usual office once while up that way, to print out something, a few months ago. I had the same response to him then, physical sickness. Now he is here. I do not wish to go in there, as I am sick enough, without having to deal with being in the presence of a monstrous and pathetic excuse for a human being.

[spaceyone]

But mainly ... the longer I go without having a relationship with my daughter, we no longer even speak to each other, nor have we for several months now ... the more I hate the man who co-ordinated the break up of my family just to protect the corrupt disability employment agency - On-Q Human Resources.

[Banker]

I know a lot of you choose to believe that Centrelink and the government is basically honest and wanting to do their jobs.


I for one do not believe that for one minute, as I have said many times that staff at Centrelink, change files and put lies on our files just to get a pat on the back from their boss not caring how they have screwed up peoples lives.

[spaceyone]

Yes, Banker. I know that you also know the real score there.

It is the new, and still innocent ones, who inadvertently let information slip to us, which alerts us to the fact that something not right is happening. God bless them!

However, they must leave, learn to shut their mouths or eventually join in, to gain advancement through the ranks of corruption.



PS: Skype works on my son's compie, but I don't go in it much now. I have my old beast set up in front of the tv, since I have been couch ridden for the past few months. Had a bad flu last week, and still weak from that, and caring for son with same. I will try to call you in a few days, if I can feel better. Thanks for caring, I am really down at the moment.