Another senior doctor from the Canberra Hospital has lodged a case in the Federal Court, opposing an investigation by the hospital into claims of bullying and misconduct.
Key points:
Court documents lay out details of findings from several inquiries which drew on allegations from staff in the hospital’s cardiology department
Dr Alasady was told in March that he would be suspended, during a formal investigation
He says he has been treated unfairly and has been denied the opportunity to practice his profession
Cardiologist Muayad Alasady has been suspended by the hospital while the investigation takes place.
His statement of claim reveals he wants the Federal Court to revoke his suspension and stop the investigation, on the grounds he has been denied procedural fairness under his enterprise agreement.
The documents lay out details of findings from several inquiries that drew on allegations from staff in the hospital’s cardiology department.
The initial report, commissioned in 2020, listed allegations of inappropriate behavior by some people working in the department, with claims of bullying and outbursts, including swearing, kicking doors and throwing objects, and consultants shouting and screaming at each other.
The report found there was a culture of blame and a lack of respect for co-workers by some doctors.
And the report also noted there was a clash between Dr Alasady and another doctor.
But the court documents point out that managers considered the report and took no action against Dr Alasady.
The fact they didn’t tell him what they had considered was a breach of the enterprise agreement and a denial of procedural fairness, the documents claim.
The documents outline how the same thing happened with later inquiries that detailed similar allegations, to which he wasn’t able to respond.
Dr Alasady was told in March that he would be suspended, during a formal investigation.
In their submissions to the court, his lawyers said he had been treated unfairly.
“The effect of the suspension decision is that the applicant has suffered reputational harm and denied the opportunity to practice his profession,” the submission states.
Last month, intensive care doctor Bronwyn Avard took her case to the Federal Court after she was subjected to an investigation for misconduct, including allegations of bullying, and urged not to come to work.
Dr Avard said she believed she was the target of retaliation for raising safety concerns over several years.
From a room filled with unopened birthday presents, to framed photos and videos on phones, the Spadafora family’s home is filled with sweet and painful reminders of the little girl they lost.
Key points:
Rozalia at first seemed to recover from an infection, but then her condition deteriorated
She was taken to Canberra Hospital, where her family say they were ignored for hours before she died
The ACT Coroner is investigating the circumstances surrounding her death
For the mother of five-year-old Rozalia Spadafora, who died earlier this month at the Canberra Hospital, bedtime is the worst.
“I sleep with the little pajamas that she had on at hospital because that’s the only thing I have,” Katrina Spadaford said.
“My son, he doesn’t even want to come out of his bedroom… he’s just distraught.”
‘No help ever came’
In the days before her fifth birthday, Rozalia became unwell with what the doctor at first thought was an ear infection.
It was initially believed Rozalia Spadafora had an ear infection.(Supplied)
“It was just like a thing that many kids have been through before: a fever, sore throat,” Katrina said.
“With antibiotics, within a couple of days she was back to almost her normal self.”
But the weekend before her birthday she took a turn for the worse.
She awoke pale and lethargic with a swollen face.
On the recommendation of a doctor, Katrina and her mother took Rozalia to the Canberra Hospital’s emergency department.
What followed was a long order, through which Rozalia was left waiting for hours with what the family described as only the most cursory of examinations.
Even when Rozalia began throwing up, Katrina said their calls for help weren’t answered.
“No help ever came,” she said.
“My mother went to find more bed linen and blankets.”
Emergency helicopter diverted to airport
Rozalia’s family say they want to know more about how and why she died.(ABC News: Harry Frost)
Eventually the family were told Rozalia had Influenza A, and there was swelling around her heart.
However, because no pediatric cardiologist was available, she would need to be flown to Sydney.
It took several more hours for a helicopter to arrive and, even then, the family were told it wasn’t able to land at the hospital because the “tarmac was damaged” and it was diverted to the airport.
Katrina said medical staff struggled to get monitoring equipment to work so Rozalia could be driven to the airport.
But by then it was too late. Rozalia went into cardiac arrest.
“Her eyes rolled back and I could tell that that was it,” Katrina said.
“They rushed me, my mom and my dad out of the room.
“They came to give updates while they were doing [cardio pulmonary resuscitation] — giving us false hope. I knew it was false hope.
“They tried for about an hour but they couldn’t bring her back — she passed away.”
Katrina said they had around 20 minutes with Rozalia’s body before police arrived to take statements.
Rozalia was too unwell to open her birthday presents, and died the day after her birthday.(Supplied)
The family were left in shock, but Katrina said they weren’t contacted by the hospital until the day that ABC News reported a coronial investigation was underway.
Katrina said the family has serious concerns about Rozalia’s treatment in the lead-up to her death.
“I want to know what exactly happened,” Katrina said.
“When did they know my daughter was that sick and why wasn’t I told?”
“And I want to know why we don’t have the equipment here to deal with these problems.
“Why do we need to go to Sydney?
“We’re in the nation’s capital – this is a joke.
“No other family should have to go through this.
Canberra too small for some specialized services, Chief Minister says
An investigation has been launched into the circumstances surrounding Rozalia’s death at the Canberra Hospital.(ABC News: Penny McLintock)
Speaking on ABC Canberra on Friday, Chief Minister Andrew Barr said attracting and maintaining specialist medical services to the capital was difficult, given the ACT’s population, compared to that of Sydney and Melbourne.
“That is a reality of a city of 450,000 people as opposed to a city of five million people,” Mr Barr said.
“The range of health services is always going to be larger [in bigger cities].
“There are certain things where even Australia, with 26 million people, is too small to be able to sustain really highly specialized services for very rare health conditions.
“We’re all very, very sad about that news [of Rozalia’s death] and obviously we’ll take any recommendations from a coroner with the utmost seriousness.”
Health Minister Rachel Stephen Smith also offered condolences this week and said staff involved in the incident were being supported.
Katrina said her family had received no direct correspondence from the government.
In the aftermath, they are left with the birthday presents Rozalia was too unwell to open, the day before her death.
“I have to live with this and I’m not getting any support. I didn’t receive a phone call,” she said.
An investigation by the ACT Coroner has been launched.
A happy child, who loved the game and her teammates, and was “totally focused on winning a gold medal.”
So, when she was singled out and made to feel special about her ability by a coach, she didn’t see anything but encouragement.
“I had no clue grooming was a thing,” Karen said.
“I was completely oblivious.
“I didn’t see anything wrong in what was happening.”
Karen was 14 years old when she first met the person she says groomed her over several years, before the situation turned sexual.
She’d been flattered by phone calls and letters and encouraged to move interstate for her sport.
But then she found herself under someone else’s control, and was even forced to lie to her parents about the situation.
“It was almost as though a switch was turned off and from that moment any relationship with anybody … was just wrong because there was this lie,” she said.
‘They said they didn’t have insurance for that’
Karen eventually found her way out of the situation and built a new life, but the anguish of the grooming and abuse resurfaced when her own child began playing softball.
And that’s when she says she struck a brick wall.
Karen says the person who abused her was an Australian softball coach, and she believes Softball Australia is liable.
Softball Australia was not part of the National Redress Scheme set up after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, so she sought help from lawyers for a civil claim.
But she has accused the organization of stonewalling.
“They were approached and they pretty much denied any responsibility,” she said.
“They said they didn’t have insurance for these sorts of things and there was nothing they could really do.”
Karen says she was blocked in her bid for redress when she approached Softball Australia. (ABC News: Nickoles Coleman)
The National Redress Scheme says Softball Australia is now in the process of joining and has been included in a list of hundreds of others who’ve lodged an interest in being part of the scheme.
But lawyer Simon Brook from KnowMore, who works with survivors of child sexual abuse who are trying to get access to the scheme, says it remains a problem that some of the smaller sports have not signed up until now.
“Unfortunately, it is a serious issue and it does seem to be widespread across a number of sports,” he said.
He has suggested there could be some encouragement.
“The Australian government could consider further options for encouraging sport institutions to sign up to the National Redress Scheme,” he said.
‘Zero tolerance’ for behavior that puts young people at risk
But while Softball Australia is still working its way forward to join the redress scheme, it has taken other steps to deal with any contemporary allegations.
In a statement, the organization says it has zero tolerance for any behavior that puts the wellbeing of children and young people at risk.
“Softball Australia has a dedicated senior staff member to handle member complaints, and any complaint – whether historical or contemporary – must be treated in a timely and sensitive manner,” the statement outlined.
The organization also says it has adopted the National Integrity Framework, which aims to protect children in sport and is run through Sport Integrity Australia.
Sport Integrity Australia is better known for its drug monitoring, but now has a child protection policy, which includes a court system.
Karen says a softball coach started grooming her when she was just 14. (Supplied)
For Karen, nothing can change the past, but she says some things could make a difference.
“An apology would be amazing, for myself and my family, my parents,” she said.
“So I could move forward.”
And she has a message for any young players and their families about the warning signs to watch out for.
“That special attention [or] being singled out, especially in a team kind of environment,” she said.
“If it doesn’t feel right and if someone is telling you to lie about something.
“It’s something that is very difficult to get out of, once it’s started.”
* Karen has chosen not to include her surname in this story.
House prices in Australia are dropping at their fastest pace since the global financial crisis — and market conditions are “likely to worsen” as interest rates continue to rise, according to property analytics firm CoreLogic.
Key points:
Economists predict Australian house prices could fall between 12 and 20 per cent
The median property value dropped 8.5pc during the GFC
Rents have arisen 9.8pc in the past year
The latest data shows that the nation’s median property value has dropped by 2 per cent since the beginning of May, to $747,182 (a figure which includes houses and apartments).
“Although the housing market is only three months into a decline … the rate of decline is comparable with the onset of the global financial crisis (GFC) in 2008, and the sharp downswing of the early 1980s,” said CoreLogic’s research director Tim Lawless.
But he noted that, on average, prices had jumped 28.6 per cent from mid-2020 (the low point of the housing market during the COVID-19 pandemic) to April 2022 (when national prices hit their peak).
Regional Australia had an even bigger surge, with prices up 41.1 per cent in two years — as smaller towns outside the capital cities experienced a huge influx of city-dwellers seeking better lifestyles (as working remotely became the new normal).
“In Sydney, where the downturn has been particularly accelerated, we are seeing the sharpest value falls in almost 40 years.”
Property prices in Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart fell sharply in July.(CoreLogic)
The median price in Australia’s most expensive city fell by 2.2 per cent in July (taking its quarterly loss to 4.7 per cent). Despite that, an average house in Sydney still costs around $1.35 million, while an average unit may fetch about $806,000.
Melbourne and Hobart also recorded steep falls, with prices in both cities down 1.5 per cent last month, while Canberra prices dropped 1.1 per cent.
Prices in Brisbane and regional Australia fell 0.8 per cent (their first monthly decline since August 2020).
At the other end of the spectrum, Darwin, Adelaide and Perth were the only capitals where prices actually went up in July (by between 0.2 and 0.4 per cent). However, it has been a sharp slowdown since May, when the Reserve Bank began to aggressively lift the cash rate from its record low levels.
short and sharp
“I think this downturn will be similar to the global financial crisis in that it will be quite short and sharp,” Mr Lawless told ABC News.
Australia’s median property price fell by around 8.5 per cent over an 11-month period during the GFC, according to CoreLogic.
Adelaide property prices jumped 3.6pc in the past three months.(CoreLogic)
Mr Lawless said the property downturn is “accelerating”, and that he would not be surprised if “the current decline gets worse than what we saw during the GFC”.
He noted the main difference is that governments and central banks are currently determined to withdraw trillions of dollars worth of stimulus, in a desperate bid to lower inflation (instead of pumping it into the global economy, liked they did after the 2008 crisis).
Many analysts are predicting Australian property prices, on average, will fall between 10 and 20 per cent (from peak to trough) — with the two most expensive cities Sydney and Melbourne likely to suffer the biggest declines.
But even if the worse case scenario eventuates, it will not drastically improve housing affordability.
“If we saw say, a 15 per cent drop in national housing values, it would take prices back to where they were in about April 2021.”
How quickly (and by how much) prices fall will depend on how aggressively the RBA decides to lift its cash rate target in the next few months.
Brisbane and Adelaide tenants are experiencing the sharpest rent increases.(CoreLogic)
Since May, the RBA has lifted its cash rate target from 0.1 to 1.35 per cent.
If the central bank delivers another double-sized rate hike on Tuesday (0.5 percentage points), as widely expected, that would bring the new cash rate up to 1.85 per cent.
Buyers’ market and surging rents
“The market has moved to being very much more in favor of buyers over sellers now, especially in markets like Sydney and Melbourne,” Mr Lawless said.
“Buyers are getting back in the driver’s seat. They have more choice, and there’s less urgency.
“But for sellers, it means they need to be much more realistic about their pricing expectations, and they should expect there’s going to be more negotiation.”
Renters are also disadvantaged in the current property market. As their landlords’ mortgage repayments increase (and more foreign workers and students) return to Australia, rents have surged rapidly.
“Rental markets are extremely tight, with vacancy rates around 1 per cent or lower across many parts of Australia,” Mr Lawless added.
“If you consider the history of rents, it’s very rare to see dwelling rents rising at more than say 3 – 4 per cent per annum.”
But in the past quarter, the national average rent jumped 2.8 per cent — and they are up nearly 10 per cent in the past year.
Looking forward, Mr Lawless said renters may be under increasing pressure to rent out any spare bedrooms to more flatmates, look for cheaper rents in apartments (rather than houses), or “stay at home with mum and dad longer.”
“There’s definitely going to be some negative social outcomes from such high rents, which aren’t showing any signs of slowing down at the moment.”
