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Open Seminar: The alleged Greek Social Security Conspiracy of 1978
Location: The Delphi Bank Mezzanine, The Greek Centre, 168 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Date: THURSDAY 22/8/2019 @ 7:00pm
Presenters: Con Vaitsas
Language of Presentation: English | R.M.L.G.*: 0 - No knowledge of Greek required.
Entry: FREE
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Synopsis
Today, few people remember the events of April 1, 1978, when 181 people had their homes raided in the early hours of that day by the then Commonwealth police and charged with conspiring to defraud the federal government department of Social Security by obtaining invalid pensions to which they had no legal entitlement. They allegedly did this by using medical certificates and reports that fabricated or exaggerated their illnesses and or injuries. As well, 5 doctors were also charged with facilitating and assisting the fraud.
Within days hundreds more were rounded up and faced similar charges to those arrested earlier, the Commonwealth police with Social Security staff investigated them and had their only source of income, the invalid pension, stopped.
All of these people apart from the doctors had one thing in common. They were all Greek immigrants.
The media went into overdrive accusing Greeks of being lazy and welfare cheats with calls to send them back to their country of origin.
Unfortunately some of the mud stuck to the whole Greek community within Australia, for some years.
The committal hearing of the conspiracy case became the longest running in the English speaking world.
A decade later all the criminal charges were withdrawn or dismissed.
Unfortunately there were victims, including attempts of suicide, one successful
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Bio
Con Vaitsas worked for the then Department of Social Security for a total of 17 years under various governments including Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke and Keating.
He was involved in the investigation of interviewing many of those charged with conspiracy to defraud and therefore recounts his time working there and reflects what type of an affect it had on the victims of the case he had contact with.
This is a part of the Australian migrant history that is long forgotten but needs to be known.
Con now works in the medical legal field.
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Sponsors
We thank the following donors for making this seminar possible: Jeffrey Conaghan.
During the course of the year considerable expenses are incurred in staging the seminars. In order to mitigate these costs individuals or organisations are invited to donate against a lecture of their choice. You too can donate for one or more seminars and (optionally) let your name or brand be known as a patron of culture to our members, visitors and followers, as well as the broader artistic and cultural community of Melbourne. Please email: info@greekcommunity.com.au or call 03 9662 2722. We also thank the following corporate sponsors:
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* Recommended Minimum Level of Greek in order to enjoy this Event, on a scale of 0 to 5.
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The Greek Community of Melbourne is registered as a charity with the Australian Charities and Non-Profits Commission ABN 14004258360
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