N.Z. ban on sick woman

Press, 8 January 1982, Page 1

N.Z. ban on sick woman

NZPA staff correspondent Brisbane The Iftinister for Immigration (Mr Malcolm) refused to allow a bedridden and brain-damaged young woman to rejoin her family in New Zealand because she would be a burden on the taxpayer, the woman’s mother said yesterday. Mrs Dorothy Gunning, whose daughter, Jeanne, aged 24, lies helpless in a Brisbane geriatric hospital, said that a letter from Mr

Malcolm dated December 9 had given her this decision. “They do not want her and appear to think that we should write her off also.” she said. “I don’t know whether he has got a heart or what he has got.

“Two of the New Zealand nurses working in the hospital in Brisbane said this sort of bureaucratic decision w T as why so many people were leaving New Zealand.” Jeanne Gunning was given a heroin overdose at a Bris-

bane party in August. A former model, she was planning to join her family living in Christchurch with her son, Shannon, aged two, when the accident happened. Her sister in Christchurch, Mrs Dorothea Strong, has said that Jeanne was not a heroin user and that two persons had since been jailed for their part in administering the drug. The family, originally from England, emigrated to Australia and eventually settled in New Zealand, although a sister still lives in Brisbane and another brother is in Perth.

Mrs Gunning said that her daughter would not have to be totally cared for at New Zealand taxpayers’ expense. The Australian Government had agreed to the transfer of her invalid pension, where both countries had reciprocal arrangements, and also the family contributed to a private health insurance scheme which would partly cover medical and hospital costs. “At least it is something, and we as family would be willing to do what we can,” she said.

Mrs Gunning, who is living at Brisbane’s Mount Olivet Hospital to be with her daughter, said that the family was split by Jeanne’s not being able to return with her to New Zealand.

“I know she is getting good treatment here but I cannot leave her,” Mrs Gunning said. “Her brother is in Perth, and that is further away than New Zealand. ” Her sister in Brisbane had had enough of it all and “just wants to be cut off from the family.” Mrs Gunning has not given up hope that her daughter may recover.

“We saw the neurosurgeon on Tuesday and he said that clinically they had done all

they could,” she said. “But we have met people who have helped brain-injured children. We have also met people who have recovered from brain injury. “Miracles do happen and I have faith that something is going to happen to Jeanne. “We are going to start to fight to get her back to New Zealand. We are not going to let go.” The Director of Immigration (Mr D. D. Bond) said from Wellington last evening that the law prohibited any mentally defective person entering New Zealand and also required serious consideration of any application where the person was likely to become a charge on the State.

He was not aware of the full facts but said that those were two possible reasons for Mr Malcolm’s decision.

Mr Bond was not prepared to comment on whether refusing entry to Miss Gunning was the type of bureaucratic decision which was making people leave New Zealand.