MOSMAN ANZAC MEMORIAL HALL TRUST
WELFARE PROGRAMME

WELFARE ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME (December 2023)

 

General

 

1. The aim of the Mosman Anzac Memorial Hall Trust Welfare Assistance Programme (The Programme) is to provide assistance for eligible persons as defined by Section 21 of the Mosman Anzac Memorial Hall Trust Act.

2. The assistance is in the form of reimbursement of medical/dental/ pharmaceutical/optical/ancillary expenses, domestic support expenses, medical appliances, utilities relief, aged and home care expense relief, and/or mortuary expense relief.

Eligibility criteria

3. Eligible applicants are:

3.1 ‘Returned servicemen and women’ – current or former Australian Defence Force (ADF) members who have served overseas on an operational deployment; or

3.2 Current or former Australian Defence Force (ADF) members who are members of the Mosman RSL Sub Branch and who:

3.2.1 enlisted for service whilst residing in Mosman 2088; or

3.2.2 currently reside in Mosman.

3.3 ‘War widows/war widowers’ as defined by s 5E(1) of the Veterans’ Entitlements Act (Cth) 1986, whose late spouse or partner was a returned serviceman or woman; or

3.4 Dependants of eligible applicants as defined in rule 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 or dependants of deceased returned servicemen and women, as defined by s 3 of the Mosman Anzac Memorial Hall Act (NSW) 1938.

4. If claiming by virtue of a relationship with a deceased serviceman or woman, the deceased serviceman or woman must have either:

4.1.1 Enlisted for service whilst a resident of Mosman NSW 2088; or

4.1.2 Resided in Mosman NSW 2088 immediately prior to their death.

5. The Municipality of Mosman is defined as Postcode 2088. Applicants who are eligible only under rule 3.2.2. will cease to be eligible if they relocate outside of Mosman NSW 2088.

6. Notwithstanding rule 4, applicants who are residents of aged care facilities will be considered eligible if their residential address immediately prior to entry into the aged care facility was in Mosman NSW 2088.

7. Eligible applicants under 3.1 and 3.2 who are eligible for assistance under these rules may also claim assistance for their dependants.

8. For the purposes of rule 3.4, a dependant is defined as:

8.1 A child of the applicant (including adopted child, stepchild, or the child of the applicant’s de facto spouse), who is:

8.1.1Under the age of 21, or

8.1.2 Between the ages of 21 and 24, and is:

8.1.2.1 A full-time student, and

8.1.2.2 Wholly or substantially financially dependent on the applicant.

9. Eligibility under these terms and conditions does not guarantee that an applicant will receive welfare assistance. The resources of the Trust are finite and in applying those resources the Trustees are bound to observe the order of preference set out in s 21(2) of the Mosman Anzac Memorial Hall Act (NSW) 1938. The Trustee’s will determine the extent to which the Trust can reasonably fund the program and how far, in order of precedence as set by s21(2), the Trust is able to support the members.

Applications

Applications must be submitted using the current authorised Claim Form, which is available on the Trust website. Fully and correctly completed Claim Form with appropriate documentation and receipts are to be sent as ONE DOCUMENT attached to an email to trustees@mamht.com .

10. Applicants who are eligible for assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA), RSL, Legacy, or any other government or community assistance programs must apply to the relevant organisation/s before being considered for any category of assistance from the Trust. Applicants must provide evidence of prior applications and refusals from relevant organisations.

11. The eligible term for an application is six (6) months from the provision of the support.

12. Applications will be processed by the Trustees in the second week of September, December, March and June. Applicants must submit their applications by the seventh day of September, December, March and June in order to ensure payment is made before the end of each quarter.

13. The Trustees may, in their absolute discretion, process applications out of cycle if they are of the view that delay would cause extreme hardship to the applicant.

Categories of Assistance

A         Medical Expenses

14. The Trust will reimburse eligible applicants as defined in rule 3 the out-of-pocket cost of certain medical, dental, optical, pharmaceutical, and other ancillary products and services.

15. Types of expenses which may be eligible for reimbursement include:

15.1 Consultations with a General Practitioner or Specialist;

15.2 Massage, physiotherapy, or chiropractic services;

15.3 Pharmaceuticals;

15.4 Dental and orthodontic work;

15.5 Spectacle frames and lenses;

16. Applicants will be reimbursed the ‘gap’ amount for eligible goods and services, being the total cost of the good or service less the benefit paid by their private health insurance fund or MediCare gap. If no amount is payable by either Private health insurance or Medicare, then the full amount is able to be claimed for payment.

17. The Trust will not accept claims for:

17.1 Services for which Medicare provides no service identification number;

17.2 Cosmetic medical treatment, e.g. non-essential plastic surgery;

17.3 Cosmetic dental work including braces, scale and clean, or calculus removal;

17.4 Non-PBS pharmaceuticals which are not supported by a doctor’s prescription.

18. The Trust will not reimburse PBS pharmaceuticals.

19. The Trust may, in their discretion, reimburse claims for non-PBS pharmaceuticals that have been prescribed by a doctor, to a maximum of $1,000 per financial year.

20. Total reimbursement for Category A expenses is capped at $6,000 per applicant per financial year. The Trustees may, in their absolute discretion, exceed this limit in exceptional circumstances.

21. Within this category, reimbursement caps apply to specific goods and services.

21.1 The maximum limit for all dental claims is $2,000 per financial year.

21.1.1 Claims for dental crowns or bridges are capped at $1,800 and a maximum of one claim per financial year.

21.2 Claims for massage (doctor referred), chiropractic, and osteopathic treatments are capped at a total of $1,000 per financial year.

21.3 Claims for spectacle frames and lenses are capped at $600 per financial year.

22. Claims under this category must be accompanied by supporting documentation, which must include:

22.1 An invoice or receipt, as applicable, indicating:

22.1.1 Name/s of the Patient receiving the treatment;

22.1.2 The total cost of the good or service;

22.1.3 The amount of any benefit paid by DVA or Medicare;

22.1.4 The amount of any benefit paid by a private health fund;

22.1.5 A description of the good or service;

22.1.6 The date of purchase or payment;

22.1.7 The item number, if applicable, and;

22.2 Where a referral, doctor’s certificate, or prescription is required under these rules, a copy of that document.

B         Domestic Maintenance Support

23. Eligible applicants as defined in under Rule 3.1 and 3.3, may apply to be reimbursed for domestic support. This category of support is intended to assist eligible applicants to maintain their existing residence to a reasonable standard.

24. Reimbursement will only be granted if the Trustees are of the view that circumstances were urgent or necessary in order to maintain the residence to a reasonable standard.

25. Applicants must provide evidence that they have exhausted or been refused assistance from other agencies.

26. Types of expenses which may be eligible for reimbursement include, but not limited to: Maintenance

26.1 Lawn mowing and gardening;

26.2 Emergency plumbing and electrical repair;

26.3 Other essential home maintenance and repairs.

27. The Trust will not reimburse claims for domestic support provided by friends or family which would otherwise be gratuitous.

28. Total reimbursement for Category B expenses is capped at $2,000 per applicant per financial year.

C         Medical Appliances

29. The Trust may provide eligible applicants under Rule 3.1, 3.3 and their dependants, with essential medical appliances (or hire of items) on presentation of a specialist’s certificate.

30. Applications for medical appliances will be assessed by the Trustees on a case by case basis.

31. Medical appliances provided to applicants by the Trust remain the property of the Trust and are to be returned to the Trust when:

31.1 They are no longer required by the applicant, or

31.2 The applicant ceases to be eligible for welfare assistance under the Programme.

D         Utilities Relief

32. The Trust will reimburse eligible applicants under Rule 3.1 and 3.3, for electricity, gas, water, and Council rates. Eligible applicants for this category are: Returned servicemen and women’ – current or former Australian Defence Force (ADF) members who have served overseas on an operational deployment; including rule 3.2.1 or 3.2.2.

33. Applications for utilities relief may be made a maximum of four (4) times per financial year. Claims for multiple utilities should be batched into one application and submitted quarterly in accordance with the timing identified above.

34. Application for Council rates relief require the Applicant to provide documentation showing the ownership of the property for which the Claim is made. The Trust shall be notified of changes of ownership prior to any further claim being made. Where property is part owned with other third parties (non spouse) only a proportion of the rates matching the proportion of the ownership shall be paid (eg. Three named owners = 1/3 would be paid). If proportions differ from above appropriate ownership should be provided from the Land Titles office.

35. Eligible applicants who have a Pensioner Concession Card should claim the concession from the service provider prior to making their payment. All other applicants must attach either, a payment receipt or confirmation of direct debit notification to their application.

36. Total reimbursement for Category D expenses is capped at $5,000 per applicant per financial year.

E         Aged Care Relief

37. The Trust will reimburse eligible applicants under Rule 3.1 and 3.3, for aged care facility expenses or in-home aged care packages.

38. The Trust will only reimburse aged care provided by an accredited aged care provider.

39. Applicants who receive government subsidised care or are supported by private health insurance will only be reimbursed the ‘gap’ amount payable for the service. Evidence of eligible applicants contributions to co-payment plans is required.

40. Total reimbursement for Category E expenses is capped at:

40.1 For residential aged care facilities, $1,000 per month;

40.2 For in-home aged care, $1,500 per month.

F          Mortuary Relief

41. Where an eligible applicant under Rule 3.1 and 3.3 has previously received welfare assistance from the Trust, and has since passed away, the executor of their estate may claim reimbursement for reasonable mortuary expenses.

42. Total reimbursement for Category F expenses is capped at $5,000.

43. Claims under this category must be accompanied by supporting documentation, which must include:

43.1 A death certificate, and;

43.2 A fully itemised invoice and/or receipt, as applicable.

Frederick Peter Christian Kaad OBE, 100-years-old on 12 September 2020, is a revered beneficiary of The Mosman Anzac Memorial Hall Trust. Fred has been associated with the Mosman community and has been a member of the Mosman RSL Sub branch for almost 70 years. A distinguished Australian he has served in war and peace, and in the good times and the bad. He has experienced triumph and tragedy. And he has never failed or faded on this journey. We salute his wonderful achievements, his steadfastness and courage and his contribution to all our lives and to the lives of so many others.

Fred Kaad was always a leader and a competitor, traits he honed when representing Sydney Boys High in athletics, rowing and Rugby Union between 1937 and 1939. As an outstanding athlete, he broke long-standing records in sprinting, the broad jump and the 120-yard hurdles.

In 1940 Australia was at war against Germany and Italy. Kaad was keen to join the fray, but his parents refused to sign the papers that would allow him be posted overseas. Undeterred, Fred joined the Citizen Military Forces. On 4 August 1940, at the age of 19, he enlisted as N74666 Gunner Kaad, serving with the coastal artillery battery at Signal Head Fort near the entrance to Sydney Harbour.

In Australia at that time the war felt far away and perhaps, realising his athletics record and prowess as a Rugby Union winger, the top brass thought a Sydney-based Fred Kaad would be a valuable asset to help Army win the inter-service competitions against the Navy and the Air Force. But that was before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941 and the war began to rapidly move south towards Australia.

Suffering from the after-effects of concussion, Fred Kaad was discharged medically unfit from the CMF in January 1942. But just one month later he enlisted in the AIF, the Australian Imperial Force, neither revealing he had previously served in the CMF nor that he had been discharged medically unfit

It was at about this time, in January 1942, that Papua New Guinea was drawn into the war when the Japanese invaded Rabaul. Later that year, on 8 December 1942, as NX89868, Private Kaad embarked on the troopship SS Taroona at Townsville bound for Port Moresby. He did not know it then but Fred’s long association with Papua New Guinea had begun. By the following month, the Japanese Army was well on the offensive, moving towards Port Moresby and attempting to capture the town of Wau.

Kaad and his unit flew to Wau as reinforcements for the 2/7th Infantry Battalion, their aircraft landing on the town’s notorious uphill airstrip which was under enemy small arms fire. The Japanese invaders were repulsed, and Australian troops won the Battle of Wau.

Then in June 1943, Kaad was unexpectedly transferred to the Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit (ANGAU) and promoted to warrant officer. Later in 1943, accompanied only by a small detachment of police, he conducted two solo patrols. in Papua’s Northern Division. His task was to restore the local people’s confidence in the Australian administration following the withdrawal of Japanese forces.

In 1944 Fred Kaad was attached to Cole Force, a small ANGAU group led by Captain Bob Cole MC supporting the 17th Australian Infantry Brigade as it advanced through the rugged Torricelli Mountains towards Maprik against stubborn Japanese resistance.  ANGAU’s task was “to locate and destroy enemy in the area; to obtain intelligence of enemy movements, to contact and rehabilitate the local people, and to recruit native labour.”

Fred Kaad was commissioned as a Lieutenant on 24 February 1945, and Cole Force was with the 17th Brigade when it captured Maprik at the end of April and chased the retreating Japanese forces into the hills around Ulupu and Yamil. The Japanese laid down their arms in Wewak on 13 September 1945

The war over, eventually the Army let Fred return to civilian life on 18 July 1946. Three weeks later, on 9 August, he became a Patrol Officer in the Papua New Guinea administration.

in February 1949 and was posted to New Ireland. When District Officer and famed Coastwatcher Jack Read DSC sent him to Taskul in New Hanover, he told Fred that the patrol post “would afford ample scope for one of your keenness and experience.”

On 21 January 1951, Fred had just returned from leave in Australia when Mount Lamington, never previously known to be a volcano, savagely exploded. The eruption killed more than 3,000 local people, 35 expatriates and caused a swathe of destruction to sweep through what is now Oro Province.

Kaad, familiar with the area and its people from his ANGAU days, volunteered to fly to Popondetta where an emergency operations centre was established. He was on the second flight to land there the day after the eruption. As Assistant District Officer in charge at Ilimo, Fred Kaad led a team engaged in rescue and rehabilitation. The success of the relief and recovery phase was later attributed to “the strong leadership provided by [Administrator] Colonel Murray, Dr Gunther, Ivan Champion and Fred Kaad.”

Fred returned to Australia in December 1951 to attend the two-year Diploma Course at Australian School of Pacific Administration down the road from Spit Junction at Middle Head. Kaad and his 25 compatriots, all ex-servicemen, had commenced their association with Mosman RSL.

After the ASOPA ‘long course’, Fred returned to the Territory in February 1954, this time to Goroka in the Eastern Highlands. It was here in 1955 that, quite unexpectedly, Fred became a film star. He, police Sergeant-Major Somu Sigob and Qantas pilot Dick Davis played cameo roles in Walk into Paradise, a movie filmed in English and French which, in passing, preserved a vital segment of New Guinea’s colonial history.

Walk into Paradise introduced worldwide movie audiences to a glimpse of Papua New Guinea, including basic kiap patrolling and spectacular footage filmed in the Asaro Valley where hundreds of traditionally festooned villagers beat drums and waved spears as they stamped and danced to flatten a newly constructed airfield. Released in 1956, the film was a box office success in Australia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Its Sepik River premiere, at Angoram in 1957, was in the world’s first paddle-in theatre – a flotilla of canoes parked side by side and end to end, floating on the river between two anchored schooners.

In 1959, Kaad attended the University of Queensland as a full time student, completing a Bachelor of Arts degree, and in May 1960, back in Papua New Guinea, Fred became the first person to have joined the Administration since the war to be promoted to District Commissioner.

Fred Kaad had just returned to the Territory and settled into a new appointment as District Commissioner, Madang, when disaster struck. On 3 September 1964, he was seated alongside pilot Ray Jaensch in the front seat of a Dornier aircraft that crashed on take-off at Tauta in the Ramu Valley. Jaensch did not survive, and Kaad suffered damage to his spinal cord, rendering him a paraplegic, and he received extensive burns to his legs.

He was medically evacuated to Sydney and spent six weeks in the Intensive Care Unit at Royal North Shore Hospital followed by nine months in the Spinal Injuries Unit. Never one to waste time, it was there he commenced a postgraduate Diploma in Educational Administration by correspondence, again through the University of Queensland.

He displayed more of that indomitable spirit on 30 March 1965 when his medical team allowed him to attend a seminar on New Guinea in Canberra. Fred concluded his presentation saying, “One day I will get back as a District Commissioner. I am like MacArthur. I shall return.”

After his discharge from hospital, the Papua New Guinea Administration seconded him to Sydney to lecture at the Australian School of Pacific Administration (ASOPA) at Middle Head. The association with Mosman RSL strengthened, hindered only by the restricted wheel-chair access at the time.

In 1972 Fred retired from Papua New Guinea service on medical grounds and was appointed as a lecturer and course director at ASOPA, completing his master’s degree by correspondence – graduating in 1973 as a Master of Educational Administration (Hons)

He continued as a lecturer and course director when ASOPA was transitioned into the International Training Institute (ITI) in 1973 – the year Australia granted self-government to Papua New Guinea. His students now came from the developing countries of the Pacific, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean as well as PNG.

In 1980, the Queen made Fred Kaad an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) “for public service and services to the training of Papua New Guineans.” Papua New Guinea added to his OBE by awarding him its 30th Anniversary Commemorative Medal in 2005 and the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary Centenary Medal in 2008.

Fred’s family, friends and acquaintances look back over the last 56 years with wonder and amazement. Despite his injuries and constant pain, his enthusiasm was contagious. Fred spread happiness and encouragement wherever he went. The members of Spinal Injuries Unit of Royal North Shore Hospital – doctors John Grant AO, John Yeo AO and Dr Sue Rutowski, matron-in-charge Nancy Joyce and nurses Barbara Hoefnagels and Susie Hirst – became life-long friends.

Soon after leaving hospital, Fred was adding the challenges of the wider community to his endeavours. Among his other activities, he was International Commissioner representing PNG with the Scout Association of Australia (1966-1972); a Trustee of Airmen’s Memorial Foundation of PNG and a board member since its inception in 1969; a Member of Australia Council on New Guinea Affairs (1968-1975); Deputy Chair of the Organising Committee for the Far Eastern and South Pacific Games for the Disabled held in Sydney in 1974; and a director of the Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Association of NSW (ParaQuad) from 1966 and Vice President from 1975 to 1998.

Fred was also Pacific Area Consultant for the Commonwealth Council on Educational Administration (1976-1999); Chair of the Spinal Research Foundation (1991-2004) and a Director from 1977 to 1991; a member of the Committee of Management of Physical Disability Council of NSW (1994-1999); a director of the Spinesafe Education Program (now Youthsafe) (1995-1999); and a member of the Educational Advisory Committee for Spinal Injuries at the NSW College of Nursing.

In Mosman, he was a member of three of the Council’s Community Advisory Groups (1995-2009) and the Australian College of Education invited him to become a Fellow in 1980 and Life Member in 2002. He has been awarded life membership by the ParaQuad Association of NSW, the Papua New Guinea Association, Sydney High School Old Boys Union and he has received Rotary’s Shine on Award for outstanding support to other people with a disability.

That is a considerable array of success, commitment, and achievement, but 2000 may have been the standout year. The Governor-General awarded him the Australian Sports Medal and he was selected to be a Paralympic Games torchbearer. Fred Kaad thrilled the crowd when, instead of driving his wheelchair directly down Miller Street, North Sydney, as instructed, he made a complete circuit of the huge Victoria Cross intersection before passing the flame to the next bearer.

Fred Kaad has used his 100 years to the benefit of mankind. It has not been a century without personal hardship and tragedy, but it been a life of remarkable achievement and contribution. We thank him for being in our lives.

Sadly, Fred passed away on 9th February 2021.