According to the smh Cornelia Rau has been wandering around the middle east after eluding her carers and refusing assistance.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/cornelia-rau-locked-up-in-jordan-20090220-8dm6.html

This raises the question about her being awarded compensation for being wrongly detained. She apparently deliberately set out to deceive our authorities for a long time and yet she gets compensation for that.

The latest episodes prove she is cunning and quite caperble of deceiving her carers, so how can the carers be held responsible.

It is a sad case, but somehow I do not think we should be compensating her for her deceit.

Banjo I agree

All the bleeding heart refugee advocate whiners who got on their high horses and supported this "grifter" should pay the money back on her behalf.

Why should my taxes be squandered on giving a "look at me I'm out with the pixies" cheap con-bitch a free ride?

Answer

They should not... and nor should yours.

Banjo, I don't think that someone who has a mental illness can be judged so easily or harshly.

Many with mental illness evade health care, their carers/case managers and may go through stages where they refuse medication. Just ask anyone who has been involved with law enforcement - many with mental illness are well known to police. It is often police who arrange for assistance for those who have temporarily gone off the rails. This is the nature of some mental illness conditions, particularly schizophrenia.

The compensation in the Rau case was for being wrongfully detained at the Baxter Detention Centre.

Pelican is absolutely right Ms Rau was compensated for incompetance and inappropriate imprisonment by the immigration system and the operators of the Baxter camp proven under law.
What she has done subsequently is a seperate issue and has nothing to do with her compensation pay out.

Dear Banjo,

I fully agree with Pelican. Rau's compensation was for
wrongful detention. And as Pelly rightly points out
people with a mental illness should not be judged
so harshly.

Agree in full with Pelican, Examinator and Foxy.

If anything her wanderings are indicative of her mental state, all the money in the world won't buy her peace of mind.

Having my own difficulties with mental illness, I feel nothing but compassion for Cornelia and have to wonder why Banjo even raised this as an issue.

Ms Rau should never have got compensation in the first place. It was largely the Howard haters who achieved this stupidity. Now these haters have egg all over their face. Time to swallow a little pride. I won't be holding my breath.

The woman's mentally ill. As others have pointed out, her compensation was awarded because the ineptitude of government authorities failed to detect that, instead consigning her to the gulag of detention centres that were the hallmark of the appalling Howard regime.

I see the usual wingnut bastards want to put the boot into the poor woman.

Like any person with mental illnes, Cornelia Rau is deserving of sympathy, but not compensation. The Government should have appealed the case. She passed herself off, sucessfully, as an alien and was placed where aliens should be placed until her identity was established. Some seem to think that she should have been instantly identified when all the authorities had was what she was willing to tell them. It is odd that her family claimed to be appalled that she was placed in detention in Australia, but are now releived she is held in a Jordanian prisen. Must be five star!

Will the Jordan Government be sued for holding her? No their courts would tell her ambulance chasser lawyers where to go.

In my view she should only be entitled to the same as any other mental patient, a disability pension.

What pathetic, weak kneed Governments we elect! Which reminds me about that other parasitic bloke, a non-citizen, we brought back from Belgrade. Whats the betting that we are still keeping him as well, unless he is robbing some others to pay for his drug habit.

Banjo "What pathetic, weak kneed Governments we elect! Which reminds me about that other parasitic bloke, a non-citizen, we brought back from Belgrade. Whats the betting that we are still keeping him as well, unless he is robbing some others to pay for his drug habit."

Agree.. although my vote did not count toward the incumbent swill.

Rau was just an unworthy recipient of your and my taxes, supposedly too demented to tell anyone where she was from or who she was but smart enough to travel the world and maybe try it again in Jordan..

and the parasite from Yugoslavia should have been left to rot on the streets of Belgrade.

Rau's wrongful detainment led to many changes within Immigration including the establishment of a National Identity Verification and Advice Unit which was just one of the changes made in response to the Palmer Report.

Prison Guards at Baxter had reported Rau revealing her real identity a number of times, she displayed definite signs of mental illness/personality disorder and she spoke, as interviews of recordings revealed, in an Australian accent.

Surely enough here to warrant further investigation sooner rather than later. The Palmer report identified many areas of weakness in Immigration's processes and the department has made steps to overcome deficiencies.

I don't think we can, with any surety, make comments about Rau's intentions or motivations in this case because of her mental illness.

Had Howard been re-elected, the outcome would be no different based on the findings of the Palmer Report. The compensation claim was well into its journey by the time Rudd became Prime Minister.

Things are not always black and white.

Vanstone was responsible for the return of Jovicic (if that is who you mean) and while not a Vanstone supporter there was not much else she could do in the circumstances. This man had lived in Australia since he was two and had no ties with any other place, certainly not Belgrade. He was in effect stateless.

Trust me I have no sympathy for thieves even if it is to feed a heroin habit but I can understand why this case meant returning him to Australia. Apparently he has now kicked his drug habit and has a loving family to support him. Jovicic also has a mental illness but I can't comment whether this was bought on by his ordeal, heroin or unrelated.

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Deported_Australian_granted_visa_after_two_years_in_Serbian_limbo

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Jovicic-allowed-to-return-to-Australia/2006/03/02/1141191784460.html

I agree totally with the majority viewpoint here.

Col's post especially displays an incredibly bogan backwardness via the ignorant view and language expressed. Just pathetic.

I was referring to Col's pathetic first post.

TZ52HX “Col's post especially displays an incredibly bogan backwardness via the ignorant view and language expressed. Just pathetic.”

And

“I was referring to Col's pathetic first post.”

Maybe you could elaborate your opinion there, TZ52HX.

I am perfectly willing to justify my opinion…

I wonder if you can justify your criticism of my opinion…

Somehow I doubt it, but give it your best shot anyway

and I will be happy to respond in the same manner as your petulant dismissive of my perfectly reasonable view….

Abusing a severely mentally ill individual with the term "cheap con-bitch", displays an amazingly ignorant and bogan mentality from Col. Col my poor boy, if you don't like what's happening then do what's necessary to change the laws: Don't do what you're now doing, sitting on your lazy rear displaying your amateur, armchair ignorance regarding mental illness. Any idiot (Col's one of them) can blame people for their own intellectual disabilities; that doesn't take skill, insight or intelligence; what it does take is ignorance! The type of ignorance displayed by poor Col.

Col's pathetic first post deserves mere ridicule, for obvious reasons.

Col Rouge = Bogan.

Works for me.

Isn't assimilation grand?

pelican,
In the case of Cornelia Rau, Attempts to establish her identity were hampered by her being uncooprative and she was interviewed many times by medical and mental people. Therefore, in my view, did not deserve compensation. Decidedly different was the situation of Vivian Salon where there was incompedence at all levels, both State and Federal.

Thank you for giving me the name of Robert Jovicic as he was the one I was referring to. I should remember his name as it is a classic case of what Governmants should not do. He had 158 convictions and should have been deported after the second conviction, at least. Why let him get away with so many is unbeleivable. This situation went on for years. Likewise with Stefan Nystrom. He had a long list of convictions by the time he was 30 years old.

We are going to get the odd bad apple in the immigration programme.

I think it reasonable for us to expect Governments to act much sooner to protect the community interest.

I recall another case where a convicted drug dealer, non-citizen, won the right to stay here because he had supposedly fathered a child while here. No wonder we are considered a soft touch!

Banjo: "Cornelia Rau, Attempts to establish her identity were hampered by her being uncooprative (sic) and she was interviewed many times by medical and mental (?) people.."

Because:

She:

Suffers from:

Schizoprehenia:

And Bi-Polar

WHY Do

you

not

understand?

She was treated as suspicious because she had a mental illness and locked away against her rights as an Australian citizen.

Do you believe that people with mental illness have less rights than people who are healthy?

Anyone locked away under false circumstances, whether healthy or not, would be entitled to compensation.

Why do you expect people with mental illness to behave like people without such problems?

So should she now send a cheque for the full amount paid and then surrender herself to be locked up again?

Interesting to see where compassion lies. How long before they turn on those deliberately uninsured bushfire victims for being "grifters"?

Col, in order to alleviate you of your utter ignorance regarding mental illness, please read Fractelle's post 100 times.

You are clearly so ignorant of mental illness, it defies belief. You have shown yourself to be an idiot with bigotry towards mental illness.

Pointing out your idiocy regarding this subject matter, is not being a troll. If that's your only defence, then we can add paranoia to your idiocy.

You sir are simply an idiot, as shown by your backward posts, with no understanding of the ramifications of mental illness.

TZ52HX"You sir are simply an idiot, as shown by your backward posts, with no understanding of the ramifications of mental illness."

the ranting of the woeful and the intellectually and socially inadequate..

I suggest you try to make a contribution which does more than simply hurl abuse at me.

But if you want to keep it coming, I will start to dissect you for the fun of it... at the moment you are not worth the effort,

you noxious little toad.

Col my boy, read this Fractelle quote 100 times: No, make that 1,000 times:

She

Suffers from

Schizophrenia

And Bi-Polar

Why do

You

Not

Understand?

Col, what part of "mental" and "illness" don't you understand?

don't any of the bleeding hearts think that the Rau compensation amount was extremely excessive?

Lock me away for a few months then give me over 2 million - I'll be ecstatic.

Pity that the families of our servicemen killed in American wars are forced to live on paltry hand-outs. No millions in compensation for them.

I wonder what the bleeding hearts think of that.

Well, maybe you can stop being a bleeding heart yourself, and come to an understanding that "LIFE ISN'T FAIR". As soon as you stop whinging about what others get, and don't get, and move on with improving your "own" life, the happier you'll be. But hey, you sure sound like a typical bleeding heart to me.

I point out that families of AUSTRALIAN diggers are doing it tough while the government throws millions at a GERMAN fruitloop and I'm the bleeding heart?

Are you joking or are you a cupid stunt?

You're right though, life isn't fair. You're allowed to breathe my air.

Perhaps a reasonable approach to the question of compensation is to ask the following question:

Would an intelligent, well-informed, competent, reasonable person have locked Cornelia Rau up as a result of the information at hand?

If the answer is "yes", then no compensation is needed. If Rau was so incapable of looking after herself, then where were her carers at the time of her incarceration? How did they let her venture so far from safety? Perhaps they should be compensating the state for the waste of time and resources.

Alternatively, if the answer is "no", then by all means compensate the lady. It would not be her fault that incompetent officials put her away; the trauma that she suffered would be enormous and her arrival in this traumatic position would have been beyond her control.

I don't know the answer to my question. I do suspect, though, that the outcry surrounding her incarceration would have made compensation inevitable - we don't want to appear inhumane now, do we?

Otokonoko - most people wouldn't want to appear inhumane, but it's apparent from their comments that some people here wear their inhumanity like a badge of pride. My guess is that they confuse textual chest-beating with real life strength and courage.

Austin Powerless,
Fact: of life the case was heard and judged by people who know more than we do so and in context any comment you or the dissenters make are based on part information and therefore gratuitous and irrelevant.

Regarding the 'US' wars bit yes there is injustice there but...

Fact: Individuals join the military in full knowledge of what might happen.
Ms Rau didn't and was mentally ill. Her mental state was obvious the compensation came about because of departmental and site incompetence.

Fact: Mentally ill people with Schizophrenia and/or Bi polar aren’t always psychotic all the time both diseases tend to be episodic. These episodes SOMETIMES can be managed with medication. However there is a price to pay for being on meds. Suffers often delude themselves that they are well and no longer need the meds or find the meds inhibit essential parts of what is them…creativity… imagination…reduces the ability to think as clearly as they did once.

Fact: many mentally ill people are extraordinary bright or gifted in some way being psychotic doesn’t preclude these skills.Many great people have and do suffer from episodes of mental illness.

Fact: When in a psychotic even the individual usually doesn’t comprehend that they are in this state.

Fact: 5% of the population will suffer diagnosable mental illness in their life. The most common form is depression.

Fact: having a mental illness doesn’t necessarily mean that the person can’t function as a normal person.

It is one thing to have an opinion but it is unwise to voice it if it is based on ignorance.

If you want to run an argument that the compensation or the methods of awarding it wrong then do so but (my advice) you would be wise to stick to that point and avoid the areas you clearly know little about. You make yourself appear fearfull/foolish and insult others.

Cornelia Rau was handed over by our police, but held in a detention centre, run by a US company who carry their own insurance.
You can just imagine how the Government would want to sue them. That’s what ‘should have’ happened. The problem then would have been a bum fight between US and Australia as to who made the blunder in the first place. It would have led to even more expense and red faces and bad blood. If this lady didn’t suffer from mental illness before she would be now.

Let me put it this way. I have seen along with some friends years ago little old ladies tied up with a sheet and drugged to the eye balls! With a mini mental health test being carried out at the same time.
In fact we supported one lady to take her mother out of the hospital and hide her from the authorities. She then engaged a good lawyer and placed her mother under a new Dr.

It seemed the lady was very wealthy and her daughter when returning from overseas was shocked to find her mother in such a state.

She was suspicious right from the beginning so she saw the head of staff and said- Do not make ANY arrangements for my mother. I am her daughter and I will take her home and look after her.
They acted against her instructions.

I don’t think Cornelia Rau is safe and her family should be appointed to be in control of her.
Accidents happen out of your own patch and a 2 mill savings would be a big temptation to some very support people.

I wouldn’t trust her guardian as far as I could kick them if she were my relative.

examinator

Fact: the case was heard and judged by people who say that they know more than we do

Fact: 2.6 million is excessive. Don't you think so?

Fact: I did stick to the point and avoid the areas I clearly know little about - unless, of course, you know better and can elaborate. Can You?

The issue of whether the compensation was excessive is not the question that was raised by the OP.

Yes there are many other victims out there who are not so well compensated and certainly many veterans who have been let down by our various governments.

Compared to other types of compensation handed out, the Rau compensation could be seen as excessive but how does one establish what is fair recompense? The fact is that it was a high profile case, it was deemed to be a government blunder and so one might suspect the payout was influenced to some degree by political motivations.

This case also highlights the failure of our mental health system.

Pelican

That was an excellent summary. I agree that the amount of compensation Cornelia Rau received was definitely influenced by the high profile her case received.

Many others, who suffer from mental illness, are treated appallingly; whether it is in the workplace, government or by sheer bigotry as demonstrated by many on this thread and receive nothing in either compensation or assistance.

Attitudes towards mentally ill people have shifted little. There is no way I could or would admit to my incapacity except via the anonymity provided by forums like this.

Fractelle
I don't blame you, I would do the same if I stood in your shoes. Our society is still not confortable with disability (or what we label as disability). The same is for physical disability but probably less so than mental illness because of the associated stigma.

Fractelle - (I waited to see if the thread was going to continue so I wouldn't seem to be derailling it by this response.

While, like Pelican, I completely understand your view and don't blame you, I don't share it.

Since we left South Africa I've made no secret of being bi-polar and have found, from public talks I have given, that by talking about it and being seen to be still functioning ok, that its helped some people.

It was very, very difficult here, where mental illness is a giant no-no, to keep it secret for two years - even when I went through a bad patch and had to take some sick leave.

My HOD, when I finally made the decision to come clean last semester, was shocked and horrified and said that she wished I hadn't told her.

However, the next week or so, the University was notified that I was the first member of this Uni ever to be awarded a rather prestigious award by the Mayor's office.

My HOD's attitude changed then and it seemed I had helped to shake an ingrained mindset.

So for me, personally, I find that being a blabbermouth is something I kinda feel helps - if not to sway public opinion, at least to demystify the odd person here and there in regard to mental illness.

And if I'm wrong and I'm really shooting myself in the foot? Well hey, I'm a nutter, aren't I? Waddya gonna expect - perfect reasoning?