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Rip-off merchants

Posted by: Michael Smith | 28 November, 2008 - 11:37 AM

It beggars belief but there are maggots amongst us who will use any opportunity - including the terrible storms last week - to go jack. To rip-off the rest of us.

There's clear evidence that dishonest Queenslanders are putting in dodgy claims for the emergency payments on offer for the victims of the storms.

This stinks to high heaven.

The Federal Government is providing $1000 per adult and $400 per child through Centrelink.

The state government is handing out cheques on a needs basis. So far Queensland taxpayers have handed over $4.7M

As you would imagine there's no great system in place to administer these payments. Let's cut to the chase, it's predominantly an honour system. State Government volunteers have been manning the 6 community recovery centres. They haven't been putting people through too many hoops to establish how badly their homes have been hit.

There's now very clear evidence of maggots gaming the system. Trying it on. Police are investigating allegedly fraudulent claims at the community recovery centre at Everton Hills. And volunteers at the other sites tell similar stories.

Residents have to fill in a form providing their name address and the damage caused by the storm.

There are lots of stories. People who have spun cock and bull stories. Dozens of callers yesterday to my program talking about people receiving hundreds of dollars improperly - money that's meant for storm victims.

Imagine walking into one of those centres. Amongst people who have genuinely lost everything. Roofs off the house. Water through everything that's left. And the small amount of money we as a community have decided we'll hand over - well rip-off merchants have been getting stuck into that.

We used to have pride. There's no way any Australian I know would go jack on his or her mates like that. No way. And decent Australians would sniff them out. If you got a sense that someone was ripping off the system - we'd be all over them.

Can we be trusted? Has our community changed so much that we can't be trusted not to abuse the community's generosity?

Many of my listeners call for us to name and shame people who've taken this money when they're not entitled to it. And why not? It's our money - the community is entitled to know who's got it. Today I'll speak with the minister Lindy Nelson-Carr and see what it will take to set that up.