When Health and Safety issues are ignored by people in high places and then the accidents become crimes against those who expected to be protected…Disabilities incidents of harm always a smoking gun…
Commenting on the recent accidental shooting by Alec Baldwin on his movie set of “Rust” a cowboy western it was noted by the Guardian that film-makers showed complacency about safety on the set, by the looks of it had been as a result as reported by CNN (25th October 2021, Wagner, Rocher, Mahtani, Macay and Hayes) of the assistant director not checking the guns to make sure they held blank rounds. Alec Baldwin unwittingly picked up the gun which was meant to have blanks in it to practice drawing and shot the photography director who died, and another person seriously injured on set by accident. The Cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, a young woman, was killed and the whole thing is a tragedy. Not only was David Halls, assistant director, called into question but also the armourer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who was in charge of weapons on the movie set. Reed’s attorneys say that she doesn’t know where the live rounds of ammunition found there came from, and workers blamed producers for unsafe working conditions. Industry experts say live rounds should never be on set. Reed herself fought to have training regarding the safety of the guns but was overruled by the producers. Attorneys say “the whole production set became unsafe due to various factors including lack of safety meetings.”
In a scenario this is similar to what happens in disabilities organizations when things go wrong, when vulnerable children get hurt or abused, or die, if it cannot be swept under the carpet then the blaming goes on, but at the bottom of it is the complacency of those who run organizations for disabilities services and the incidents are usually due to lack of safety practices and procedures being carried out or adhered to. Of course the policy is no abuse of those in disabilities yet it still happens…because it is never checked up on a d neither are the workers. Added to this are the absence cctv cameras to keep workers accountable. Cameras that are used everywhere else in society to keep the public safe but not our vulnerable children. The standards expected by workers are also very low and rely on the good will patience and character of the workers, also on low wages. Running disabilities places of care, programs and accommodation like this is an accident waiting to happen or should I say incident if a support worker decides they cannot take the stress and will verbally physically and emotionally abuse those who cannot defend themselves. These kind of support workers should not be allowed but anything goes when it comes to disabilities when some of the most vulnerable are ignored, treated badly or harmed, or neglected. How dare they.
Someone is slack someone is not worried or willing to spend the time and money making sure everyone is safe they are meant to be caring for. Those who are put in charge of things should always be checked for past incidents and for experience in handling more complex behaviours in disabilities people, yet anyone is allowed to come in and work in disabilities to the demise of those vulnerable children of ours who suffer. Even when people say they worked 10 years in the industry does not take away from the hit to my sons forehead by a so called experienced worker who obviously was getting burnt out or stressed now. Due to the disabilities system the wrong people are being put in charge of disabilities persons and children. A lot of them only motivated by the money they make from our children who need extra skilled people to care for them not just greedy money makers.
It has also been revealed in the Alec Baldwin accidental killing incident, that the person who was meant to be in charge of safety of guns on the movie set, David Halls had also been the cause of an accident in another movie set two years ago. Why was he allowed to then work in this movie set with Alec Baldwin? The armourer girl then felt she was not able to carry the job and told the movie people this
     Didn’t they check David Halls background or know his background? Its too late when someone dies or someone is injured for the rest of their lives with trauma forever affecting them. In disabilities when health and safety regulations are not followed people die, people are harmed and it seems the workers who caused the harm purposefully or through neglect of safety or care can continue to work in the disabilities field regardless.
        Like the SNAPs case recently attended to in court here in Sydney Australia, the young 23 year old support worker was not told to have someone sit next to the little boy in her care for transporting, was not given a harness to hold him in the seat while driving because he was known to get out of seat belts and open the doors of even a sliding van. Actually why was there no kiddi lock activated on the door? I suspect because of the possible rules at the time that called using a kiddi lock to stop someone getting out of the van a ‘restrictive practice’ and not allowed to do that! As a result the boy got out on the pacific highway when they were parked at the traffic lights and ran along highway, and the worker stopped the van and chased him and both were fatally killed by a truck. The protocols were not followed to protect that worker or that little boy of eight. The worker was also pregnant so it was a triple fatality. Adhic, the government organization in charge of disabilities, was prosecuted and fined and so was the SNAPS disability organization but you cannot bring back the young worker her unborn baby or the boy in her care.
     That is why I bristled when the worker (who ran a new disability company) recently said to me if I wanted a car with a kiddi lock when he took my son out that would be a ‘restrictive practices issue’. Would you rather he fell out the door and then was run over by a car on the road ? I asked (my son will try to open the car door when you drive so I always put the kiddi lock on). The worker didn’t answer, he was annoyed that his borrowed car did not have a kiddi lock and he would have to use another one.

     I terminated the contract with his company. He should have been willing to protect my son, he was pretty willing to send in his invoices for payment and had also put wrong dates, wrong transport amounts, and wrong hours on every invoice I had to approve and keep sending back to the plan manager and to the support worker to correct!
      When protocols are not followed you cannot trust anyone with your precious disability child who cannot speak for themselves and are at the mercy of how that worker treats them or fails to protect them. What of Merna? the 19 year old girl who died at Afford disabilities, in a bath unsupervised, when any person having a bath who has a disability should always be supervised and yet this organization had not told the workers in the house (or did they?) that Merna was susceptible to seizures and should never be left in the bath alone. Surely it would also be common sense? The worker had gone off to make sandwiches and apparently the door of the bathroom was locked (from the inside?). Afford disabilities has not been been prosecuted for this. Merna died by drowning in the bath alone. For shame. Where was duty of care? Why is this company not charged? Lack of evidence again? No cameras to prove what happened?
      As we can see from the situation of the Alec Baldwin accidental killing in the making of a movie, he is still at possible risk of being criminally charged for the cinematographers death even though it was an accident. By not following procedures put them to protect all those involved deaths can occur and people are culpable including companies who do not follow health and safety procedures.
       Why was the worker rehired on the set of “Rust” after having caused an accident at the previous movie? This is what happens when health and safety protocols not being followed and those who cause accidents and are a bad risk are still allowed to keep working in their field. What of Anne Marie Smith, the support worker in Adelaide who allowed Anne Marie to die through neglect still got work a week after she let that girl die horrifically through not caring for here properly for a whole year. Now on manslaughter charges, but Anne Marie is dead. Hopefully this worker will get convicted properly and should not be allowed to work in disabilities ever.
     The recent abuses committed at Sunnyfields against the vulnerable disability people there should have made that organization culpable but without cctv cameras evidence and even though there were eye witness accounts by other workers the charges were dropped against the two workers who committed the abuses. They were sacked. Yet they probably are still working in disabilities how would we know as parents trying to protect our children? They will have no police record because they were not convicted of the crimes. Someone approached me on a disability agency and said they could work with James and said they used to work at Sunnyfields. Why would I take the risk even if they were not the persons who hurt the vulnerable people at Sunnyfields? I would not take the risk and will not. We expect those who we pay with NDIS funding, to give us support with our children and will adhere to health and safety risks. We entrust our children’s care to them and then when they actually harm them on purpose or fail to protect them from harm, it is a crime against our children. It is assault and abuse. The providers like Sunnyfield baulk at cameras wanting to protect their staff (from what? Being found out?) when providers and the NDIS too should be protecting our children.
      Again in the movie incident of killing, there are reports that the person who was in charge of the firearms, David Halls, the assistant director, had been sacked from a previous movie set in 2019 when a gun ‘unexpectedly discharged’ and that it had been detailed that conditions were unsafe on that movie set before Halls was fired from the project. Three crew members who had been on that previous movie set “Freedom’s Path’ where an 1800s style rifle unexpectedly fired during a scene and causes the boom operator to suffer inner ear injuries due to the sound of the explosion recalled the details. These crew member did not wish to be identified for fear of industry reprisal and said they were concerned for the safety of crew and cast members on set even before the gun backfired on that movie set.
     All three crew member said the production did not hold regular safety meetings, contrary to typical industry practice. They are noted as saying that David Halls, “was a person with enough red flages that his career should have been done with already. Yet he was still out there putting crew into outrageous situations. Its tough to think that Halyna ( the person shot on Rust movie last week) could have just as well been one of our crews…” According to the three crew members, an armorer was not on set at the time of the 2019 incident, a break from protocol, and instead a background actor in the production was put in charge of handling the firearm scene. In a statement to the CNN, Rocket soul studies denied that a background actor was hired as an armourer, saying that an armorer was to be on set in every instance a gun was present.               The company said Halls was removed from the set and fired from the 2019 production. Just like in disabilities the person was allowed to be rehired after being the cause of an incident of harm or failure to prevent harm or thoroughly check the guns in the movie case.
        Now in this recent accidental shooting on the movie set of “Rust” The same David Halls told investigators ‘he should have checked all’ the rounds (ammunition) as officials confirm gun contained live bullets (The Guardian Article, quoting New York Oladipo, 27 October 2021) It was described by law enforcement that the antique gun used on the set was not a prop gun and was not thoroughly before being given to Baldwin, who fired the lead bullet. Too late now. Someone will have to be held responsible and someone will have to be charged. Its always a matter of safety protocols not being carried out, when things go wrong in movies and everywhere else including disability services.
          Too bad no one is properly held responsible in disabilities when a vulnerable or nonverbal person is harmed because they can get away with it and in disabilities the crime is always a smoking gun with the truth never revealed for the vulnerable person or regarding the workers behind it if they are because of the lack of CCtv footage to prove who did it. Parents rightfully are angry and haunted by what may happen to their children every time they are sent to a day program or respite while the laws are not working to protect those in disabilities properly.
        Disabilities need to be more regulated just like childcare is. NDIS commission is not doing its job which is it does nothing basically even when there is an incident of harm. They do as little as possible. They should be culpable for every act of cruelty and neglect that happens to those innocent ones who cannot defend themselves against the abusive actions of support workers so called who in reality are not supporting at all. The NDIS commission does not even visit and check up on all disabilities respite houses or day programs by surprise if ever in person. They live in a virtual world where nothing can bother them. How slack. If the NDIS and those who run disabilities organizations do not do the right things and put in safety protocols from the start and then do not stick to their procedures which are few and far between but are demanded of parents then one day it will come back to bite them. If they do not put in cctv cameras they and can keep protecting bad quality workers from their actions against our children who suffer, and those most be hurt are those most vulnerable and those who cannot fight back or speak about it.                  There will be a reaping one day for those organizations when they do finally get found out. We need them accountable now. Without the cctv cameras nothing changes and more children will be harmed or die. These organizations must be held to account.

Anndrea Wheatley x
sign my petition: change.org/disabilitycameras

Stand with me and march from Sydney Town hall 12pm on 3rd December 2021 for change to happen and to make cameras mandatory in disabilities places of care...We must speak up and make it public!
#disabilitylivesmatteroz
#ifjamescouldtalkactiongroup
#cctvcameras4disabilities