THE DARWIN FESTIVAL

THE DARWIN FESTIVAL

A few of the mister men attended the Prison Songs documentary which was shown during the recent Darwin Festival. The general consensus was that it wasn't bad, apart from the awful grating dirge described in the programming as the 'Songs' bit. Take that out and it would have been watchable.

After two hours it had worn a bit very thin. With ringing ears and jangled nerves we sojourned to our rent free health department supplied unit for a coldie on the balcony. Despite being located high up we didn't feel uplifted at all.

Over our beers one of the mister men confessed that before becoming a medico he was for a short, dark period in his life, a prison officer. It was a thankfully not for very long. Sometimes he didn't know who he should be locking up; the screws or the inmates. Probably both, he decided and then quickly resigned before he carried out what his inner voice implored him to do.

One of his jail stories was quite interesting. It concerned a notoriously violent prisoner who had invented and perfected the art of the 'cigarette punch'.

This is how it worked. The violent offender would offer his target a smoke and then once the target's guard was down, he'd break the man's jaw with a single punch. We can all but imagine the hours of practice and planning that went into perfecting that original signature move. Tobacco addiction can indeed be a dangerous thing.

But we digress.

Most people with a passing interest in the comings and goings at the northern territory department of health will know exactly what Michael Kalimnios is all about: Himself.

Kalimnios moved over to to the northern territory department of health and was appointed to a senior finance position during an alleged lull in normal appointment procedures thanks to the 2012 territory election. At least, that is what they tell us.

Having cigarette punched us all with a murky and secretive appointment, bean counter Kalimnios' dodgy past slowly began to emerge.

The Queensland Health pay débâcle for which he was substantially responsible led to him being given the sack. That's right. A co architect of the biggest financial public sector scandal ever, estimated to have cost hundreds of millions to put right, was given a position in finance with the northern territory department of health. 

fat cat

On top of that, get sacked in the public sector and if you are a senior manager, you get a fat cat pay out.

In Fat Cat Kalimnios' case it amounted to $141,000. It didn't matter that Queensland clinicians waited years for their pay to be fixed thanks to his screw up. Fat Cat made sure he had his wallet stuffed to the gills so there was no problem as far as he was concerned.

And it didn't end there. Fat Cat Kalimnios then returned for second helpings on top of his massive pay out. A few weeks after his payout for getting the sack, Fat Cat was back at Queensland Health drawing off another massive wage, this time on a wallet padding private consultancy.

In other words, he got sacked and then got rehired. And all of his victims got cigarette punched again in the process.

To reiterate;

One of the main architects of the financial misery imposed upon clinicians in Queensland Health got a massive bonus for being completely and utterly shit at his job.

And then he was rehired via a consultancy until the Queensland media found out and forced the government's hand.

And then he came and cigarette punched us in the northern territory.

Rather than alarm bells ring, the northern territory department of health gave him a job on another massive salary in of all places the finance department. And no doubt, we'd guess, there will be another Fat Cat payout if or when he gets sacked again.

Yes, we have heard the rumours flying around Block 4. It might not be looking too good for Fat Cat.

A bloke who can't count, who screwed up the wages of thousands of dedicated clinicians and whose muck up took years and cost millions to put right, got a job as a senior bean counter in the northern territory department of health. Go figure.

Just imagine what would happen if a clinician got an S8 drug count wrong. Fat Cat would probably sack them. They wouldn't get a bonus. The health department wouldn't re hire you as a better paid locum. It would be game over.

There are, by comparison to Fat Cat, years later, nurses and other health professionals still financially embarrassed by the Queensland Health pay débâcle affair which was jointly caused by Fat Cat. One nurse we know almost had her property repossessed because she couldn't get paid properly. A former ambo colleague had a mental break down and gave up her job thanks to the stress of having her pay so messed up.

Clinicians lived on Struggle Street for considerable periods of time whilst Fat Cat copped a bonus for his shoddy work which put them there. It just shows the contempt people like him have toward coal face clinicians and patients through their actions and deeds.

Any decent human being would have refused to accept his ill gotten bonus until every person affected by the problem he caused had received satisfaction. A true leader would have led by example. Fat Cat didn't. He took the ca$$$$h.

And then after he took his money he didn't run. He went back for seconds. For more.

Clinicians reading this will be shaking their heads in dismay. Because here, is a perfect example of everything that is wrong in the health department in the northern territory.

And tellingly, Fat Cat never publicly apologised to a single one of our esteemed colleagues in Queensland. And we think that says a lot about what kind of a leader of people Fat Cat is.

Once a Fat Cat, always a shameless Fat Cat, we suppose.

Since that initial northern territory department of health appointment Fat Cat has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer in the top end. That's inevitably another pay rise for possibly the Fattest Cat in the Australian health industry today. And that's another cigarette punch to patients and us.

We bet his pay has never been messed up. We bet his bank have never called him up threatening eviction because he wasn't paid and couldn't pay his mortgage. We bet he has never had to go without food because his boss screwed up his pay.

The latest promotion was approved by Teflon Len, the former president of the CLP who already has valid questions being asked about his integrity after allegedly handing out jobs to his CLP and media mates. We won't take the credit for that. Don't thank us, see the amazing team over at CARDFIGHTBACK for it. 

unanswered questions; Teflon Len

In our opinion, that's another good reason why the northern territory needs an ICAC. Not the low calorie version supposedly wannabe judge Elferink proposed a couple of weeks ago where the idiots at the top will be investigated by their direct subordinates. (nice try Elf, you cheeky monkey).

We need a proper fully fledged ICAC with an integrity branch to stop these dodgy bureaucrats delivering cigarette punches.

Something like Tasmania. See it in action last year HERE

And HERE.

And HERE.

And HERE.

Whilst managers were finally being held accountable in Tasmania, Elferink appointed his biggest political donor as a judge. Talk about abuse of power!

See it HERE.

And HERE.

And HERE.

More public money being spent to protect the interests of the CLP elite? Surely not!

More sneaky cigarette punches? Come on there!

We think so. We really do.

See for example, HERE.

That's another secret fly under the radar politically motivated appointee by 'judge' Elf.

And there is more to come in the health department;

Now Teflon Len wants a deputy CEO AS WELL AS his two Chief Operating Officers AND his personal executive director AND his director of risk management ANDRaelene Burke, senior director of the the dreadful human resources department.

You can ead about the disgraceful HR department HERE and HERE in the only independent surveys ever undertaken about them.

Teflon's non stick alright.

But the question remains - And how will theyWE pay for it?

By reducing workers compensation benefits and blaming the victims of bullying according to 'judge' Elferink.

Because Elferink has decided that people who have been bullied are making it up. So work here in the NT at your peril, folks. Elferink will shrink your benefits, write a bully's charter in order to pay the wages of his cronies and tell you it's better than dying in the gutter.

That's several cigarette punches all at once.

And here is a quote about Elferink again blaming everyone but himself and his CLP crony mates for the world's woes;

The Northern Myth asked Sarah Brown if she could elaborate on the causes of kidney disease. She said of Elferink’s comments that they were typical of the sort of “blaming the victim crap” that was unfortunately all too often spouted by politicians and the ill-informed and that:

The causes of renal failure are complex. But what we do know is that the highest rates of kidney disease are found in fourth-world communities. This is the situation we face in central and remote Australia. Renal failure is a post-colonial disease, short and simple.

Self interest with 'judge' Elferink is the name of the game. And we can all pay for it with reduced workers compensation benefits, cover and protection.

Because of it, you cannot ever take what the health department management say at face value. They are just setting us all up for another cigarette punch.

And as as we all know, nothing is ever what it seems in Teflon Len's northern territory department of health. He'll say one thing but do another.

It's cigarette punch after cigarette punch with this rag tag bunch of useless has beens.


We'll be back soon with another story inside the sinister world of the northern territory department of health. 

They are in our view, the worst health department in the country.

By far.


And smokers, please stop smoking.

until next time

the mister men