VERNON WILSON and REPATRIATION COMMISSION

Administrative Appeals Tribunal

DECISION AND REASONS FOR DECISION [2009] AATA 955

ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS TRIBUNAL      )

)          No 2007/0900

VETERANS' APPEALS DIVISION		)
Re		VERNON WILSON

Applicant

And REPATRIATION COMMISSION

Respondent

DECISION

Tribunal Deputy President D G Jarvis  

Date15 December 2009

PlaceAdelaide  

Decision The tribunal affirms the decision under review.

D G Jarvis

(Signed)
  (Deputy President)  

6.      I have reached the conclusion, for the reasons set out below, that Mr Wilson has not satisfied the requirements of s 24(1)(c) of the VE Act, and so is not entitled to a pension at the special rate.

Background

7.      The following background facts are based upon Mr Wilson’s evidence, and were not in dispute.

8.      Mr Wilson is now aged 59.  He left school when he was aged 15 and joined the Navy.  He trained as a mechanical engineer in the engine room and boiler room departments.  He became qualified as a fitter machinist, a recognised trade.  He also qualified to operate certain machinery and engines, and attained the rank of Petty Officer.

9.      During his time in the Navy he served on a number of ships.  A large portion of his time was spent at sea.  His area of work was the engine room and boiler room.  At times the conditions in the boiler room were extraordinarily oppressive and extremely difficult to cope with.

10.     After 20 years’ service he left the Navy and undertook a three-month course in driving heavy equipment such as bulldozers and earthmoving equipment.  He attained licences to do this, but did not in fact undertake that sort of work.

11.     After he left the Navy he worked with the Tweed Shire Council as a fitter/machinist for 11 months.  He then returned to sea in the Merchant Navy as a greaser.  He enjoyed that employment, and continued it for about five years.  He had begun to drink heavily during his Naval service, and continued to drink heavily in his subsequent employment.  He had unrestricted access to alcohol during his time with the Merchant Navy, because he was the bar manager on board a ship.  His first marriage broke up because he was spending too much time at sea, and because of his drinking problems.

12.     He left the Merchant Navy in 1993 because he was not prepared to become a member of the union, and so was unable to go to sea.  He had remarried, and then became a house husband, assisting with household tasks and with bringing up his children, so as to enable his wife to work.  He once tried to work as a cleaner, but gave this up after only one night.

13.     Mr Wilson’s drinking problem has been in remission since February 2003.  He and his wife have lived in South Australia since returning there in 2003.

14.     Just before he returned to South Australia, Mr Wilson became aware of pain in his feet.  This gradually got worse, and he was eventually diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy at the Repatriation General Hospital.  He…