Anne Connolly

The NDIS regulator commissions an independent inquiry after an ABC investigation found providers had unlawfully restrained children with disabilities in a manner that amounted to a breach of human rights.

The minister for the NDIS says an investigation may be needed following a Four Corners story that revealed children continued to be secluded in small, windowless rooms at a controversial autism service in Melbourne.

A speech pathologist says Irabina Autism Services in Melbourne was running controversial practices as late as February last year.

Children with autism spent hours with staff in padded rooms, where they were sometimes sat on and held down by adults as part of a controversial NDIS-funded therapy.

People living with disabilities are being coerced into rented accommodation by unscrupulous operators who can drain their NDIS funding and leave them with little, if any, support.

Confidentiality laws have long kept the plight of people whose finances are controlled by the state hidden from view, but there are growing calls for the agencies these vulnerable people depend on to be subjected to greater scrutiny.

Across Australia, more than 46,000 clients under state control are prevented by law from being identified, but there are growing calls for change. Some say gag laws that were designed to protect vulnerable people are shielding the agencies involved from scrutiny.

When Dan started suffering from memory loss and anxiety, it kicked off a chain of events that left him living in a nursing home against his will with little say over his future.

The disability royal commission hears of a woman who was given monthly injections of anti-psychotics and suffered shocking neglect over seven years in a facility, but received just one visit from the government agency that put her there.

Australians who have been silenced by secretive guardianship and trustee systems will this week give their accounts of life under "state control" to the Disability Royal Commission. Their stories will no doubt be shocking, and it's crucial they're heard, writes Anne Connolly.

Last year, Queensland's Public Trustee was accused of overcharging its vulnerable clients in a damning report. Now a review it commissioned says it needs to lift fees. 

Across most of Australia it's a criminal offence to identify someone under the Public Guardian or Trustee, but the Queensland government is under pressure to change that.

Queensland's Public Trustee office faces accusations of excessive charges and fees for no service, while others say its business model contains an inherent conflict of interest.

Despite additional government funding, almost 900 aged care homes are still spending less than $10 a day per resident on food — and operators have been told they don't need to provide "evidence" of how much they're spending to receive the extra cash. 

Canberra gynaecologist Omar Adham has received the all clear to continue practising by the medical watchdog. However, several of his former patients say the investigation was incomplete and are demanding answers.

For anyone who thinks the stories of struggles with guardianship are an aberration, here's a taste of the hundreds of emails I've received from around the country since Four Corners aired, writes Anne Connolly.

The Queensland government orders two separate investigations into the state's Office of the Public Trustee, after a Four Corners report revealed exorbitant fees and dire financial mismanagement.

When the Public Trustee is given the keys to your life, speaking out publicly is illegal, and it can block you from trying to regain your freedom. Four Corners went to the Supreme Court to reveal the hidden ordeals of those who have escaped the system.

Siham Benz was acquitted of stealing from her dying mother, only to discover a government agency took $10,000 of her inheritance to help build the police case against her.

For Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck, perhaps it won't be the deaths of hundreds of elderly people that will put his position at risk, but instead three days watching wickets fall at the 2022 Ashes series, writes Anne Connolly.

Today, there are tens of thousands of elderly people sitting alone in their bedrooms in nursing homes — some with COVID, more being tested, others stuck there because of management's well-founded fears, writes Anne Connolly.

The Canberra gynaecologist at the centre of an ABC investigation has stopped working at one hospital, and has promised he will no longer perform laparoscopic surgery at another without a senior clinician present.

These women’s lives have been turned upside down by gynaecological surgeries. Now they’re going public on their private pain.

The Department of Health issues an executive update telling the aged care industry that "it is voluntary for workers to be vaccinated and to disclose if they have received a COVID-19 vaccination".

It seems the residents themselves have been fair game in the hunt for scapegoats for the aged care vaccination rollout shambles, writes Anne Connolly.