A quick lesson for MP in how not to deal with those odd-ball
emails which come by the office curtesy of Dr Mal Washer, Federal
Liberal Member for Moore in Western Australia.
Here’s a general rule of thumb electorate officers will share with
you. 33.3 per cent of the people who contact their local MPs are
mad, 33.3 per cent think the world owes them a living and 33.3 per cent
think the world owes them a living and are mad as well.

The remaining 0.1 per cent, however, can be problematical.

Half of them have bona fide complaints – and the other half are just plain sad.

The Federal Liberal Member for Moore in Western Australia, Dr Mal
Washer, is dealing with someone named Glynis who falls into the last
category- but not in a manner that reflects well on him or his staff.

Glynis claims to be the wife of a national serviceman left totally and permanently incapacitated by Vietnam.

She lives in New South Wales, yet has approached Washer over veterans’ issues.

Why? We’ll let the e-mails speak for themselves.

This is what Glynis has asked Washer:

From: glynis8
Sent: Saturday, 17 April 2004 7:45 PM
To: Washer, Mal (MP)
Subject: Fw: Please Mr Washer Can you explain this

Dear Mr Washer,
I have just been informed by a trusted source
I would like your honest reply.
Did the marbles land on your birthday???
In the Vietnam days

Why didn’t you go into the Forces..

I have been denied a life,as has our children

My TPI Veteran Husband who you and your governments have made a pauper through your cutting his most hard worked for Pension
Disability payment
$771 or is it $778 per fortnight for taking your place.
How have you denied so many Veterans
Which should automatically be giving.

I am personally contacting all the people who qualified for national service
Why you did not serve
Are you Medically unfit??? Or were you Medically Unfit at the time.

When my husband Returned home to cop your complete negligence and total ignorance that I existed.

He received his call up papers
I do remember that meant serve or sudden illnesses/sudden marriages and
of coarse working in the Government already (pencil pusher) Or gaol.
Which are you
I am in contact with a few TPI Veterans , who suffer just like allan
Rejected from the time they returned
You are a Total disgrace to allow this guilt
of conscience, to be so tragically and inhumanely played out every day…

Not to the Veterans betterment
But to your vanity
How can I trust again???
How can you ever make up for what you have deliberately, knowingly have done

I am glad I am the person I am
I will rest in peace

Heres to your wasted and vindicate life
You need your soul cleansed
As you have my husbands

kind regards
glynis

This was his staff’s tactful and sensitive reply:

From: Washer, Mal (MP)
To: glynis8
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 2:49 PM
Subject: RE: Please Mr Washer Can you explain this

Glynis:

Your very rude email does you no credit at all.

For the record, DOCTOR Washer was called up for National Service.
He was a third year medical student at the time and was permitted to
defer his NS because of his studies. Shortly after this, the war
ended.

S M Stiles
Electorate Officer to
DR MAL WASHER MP
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MOORE

This is the response it provoked from Glynis:

From: glynis8
Sent: Monday, 19 April 2004 2:08 PM
To: Washer, Mal (MP)
Subject: Re: Please Mr Washer Can you explain this
Importance: High

Hello Mr Mal Washer
Well weren’t you a lucky boy then
Don’t treat me with your comtemptious attitude

You have done NOTHING for myself or my husband and children
I shall send this on to my friends as you cannot even answer my emails

The Good Doctor
what have you done for Veterans???

have a day like I always have
glynis

And this is why Washer probably wouldn’t be considered for the vacancy
of Foreign Minister if Alexander Downer suddenly resigned tomorrow:

From: Washer, Mal (MP)
To: glynis8
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 4:18 PM
Subject: RE: Please Mr Washer Can you explain this

Treated many of them for years and well respected. Try 26 years.

As you do not belong to my electorate please remove my address from your contacts list.

Refer your complaints to the Member that represents you in Canberra.

Kind regards,

Dr Mal Washer.

Politicians and their staff have to deal with the bad, the mad and the
sad all the time. They don’t get credit for it and it gets
depressing – let alone bl**dy irritating.

Washer and his staff, however, seem to have done sod all to help Glynis.

She hasn’t exactly given them any reason to – but the least they could
have done is given her the name of her actual Federal MP and their
contact details.

A quick call to a minor minion in the office of Veterans’ Affairs
Minister Dana Vale would have given them some names and numbers that
may – may – have eased Glynis’ anguish, too.

There’s every chance that she may have treated the obvious frontline
people that are supposed to be there to support her the way she treated
Washer – but the woman clearly needs help and deserves some courtesy.

Washer’s seat of Moore lies next to the electorate of Cowan.

Its Member, Graham Edwards, went to Nam – and came back minus his legs.

It would be interesting to see how he would have responded.