Kurt MacKenzie was gassed aboard a Navy vessel and his lung capacity is now down to 37 per cent. Picture: Quinn Stuart Source: The Sunday Telegraph
A FORMER senior navy sailor has accused Defence of delaying his compensation claim as he battles a slow and painful death.
Now 44, Kurt MacKenzie was a fit 37-year-old member of the navy's elite ``green team'' training outfit when he was accidentally gassed with lethal Hydrogen Sulphide on board a poorly designed Armidale Class patrol boat off Darwin in August 2006.
After the gassing he was prematurely released from hospital and his treatment was so poor that he now has just 37 per cent lung capacity.
He also suffers from numerous other ailments, including curvature of the spine, narrowing of the oesophagus and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He is not eligible for a lung transplant.
Mr MacKenzie, who lives in Brisbane, is permanently on oxygen and will never work again. He was earning $100,000-a-year at the time of his gassing and today is paid a pension of $1900-a-fortnight.
Mr MacKenzie has a Veterans gold health card so his health care is free, but the Navy and the government have refused to pay him compensation.
``All I want is to be able to pay my mortgage and protect my family,'' he said.
His wife Sue and his two sons have been provided compensation payments, but Mr MacKenzie has been told for years that his claim was ``on the chief of navy's desk'' or ``on the minister's desk''.
News Limited has discovered that it is actually in the hands of faceless lawyers and bureaucrats in the Defence Legal Department.
Senior Navy officers are frustrated by the delay and the minister's office says it has not even seen a claim.
A former navy officer said authorities should make a decision so Mr MacKenzie could move on.
His father, John MacKenzie, describes his son's treatment as ``disgusting''. He said Kurt loved the navy and all he ever wanted as a boy was to go to sea with the senior service.
``We gave him to the navy as a healthy, A1, fit 17-year-old and we got him back a total wreck,'' he said.
``They are waiting for him to die but while ever I've got breath I will fight the bastards.''
The MacKenzie family demanded a board of inquiry into the gassing incident, but the navy refused and produced two ``secret'' internal reports that have not been given to the family. The latest report was handed to Navy chief Vice-Admiral Ray Griggs in December.
In typical bureaucratic fashion Defence refused to say what, if any, recommendations defence legal would make to government on the MacKenzie claim and two other high-profile Navy compensation cases.
``As these applications are currently under consideration, it is not appropriate to disclose what recommendations have been made in respect of the applications,'' it said.
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