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December 12th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda BRISBANE, Australia — The premier of Australia’s Queensland state abolished its troubled health department on Monday after one of its top executives allegedly embezzled Aus$16 million (US$16.3 million).
Anna Bligh said she would split Queensland Health into separate hospital and administrative arms after finance manager Hohepa Morehu-Barlow was accused of defrauding the huge department of millions to support a lavish lifestyle.
She described it as the “final chapter in the life of the ailing agency”, which underwent a major overhaul in 2005 after a number of patients died or were maimed in botched surgeries performed by Indian doctor Jayant Patel.
Patel, 60, is serving seven years in prison for criminal negligence.
“This latest failure has made it clear to me that we need a new beginning for the administration of health services in Queensland,” Bligh said.
“No more reviews, no more taskforces or committees. Queensland Health as we know it will be abolished.”
Morehu-Barlow, also known as Joel Barlow, was arrested Monday after a three-day manhunt in connection with the missing Aus$16 million, allegedly siphoned from health department coffers.
The New Zealand-born public servant, 36, used the money to buy a luxury waterfront apartment and sports cars and passed himself off as a Tahitian prince in Queensland social circles, according to The Australian newspaper.
Police caught him at his riverside home early Monday and he was being questioned over the alleged fraud. Charges have not yet been laid.
Bligh said “large sums” of the stolen money had gone undetected for a number of years and she was no longer prepared to tolerate the “sick administrative performance of this mammoth organisation”.
“We have done everything possible to turn this ship around. We have doubled the budget, implemented every reform and accepted every recommendation of a Commission of Inquiry and extensive reviews,” she said.
The department has an annual turnover equivalent to major Fortune 500 companies and is larger than Australia’s five biggest companies.
It will be demolished by July 1 next year and a hospitals and health care agency and separate administrative support unit created in its place.
Queensland Police Minister Neil Roberts earlier described Morehu-Barlow’s case as “probably one of the most significant fraud cases certainly in Queensland and indeed Australia’s history.”
His alleged misconduct was uncovered after a departmental officer noticed an unusual payment on Thursday. Morehu-Barlow failed to turn up for work on Friday.
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.
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