This website absentjustice.com / absentjustice.com.au and promoteyourstory.com.au is a work in progress, last edited in December 2025

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Learn about Horrendous Crimes, Unscrupulous Criminals, and Corrupt Politicians and Lawyers Who Control the Legal Profession in Australia.

Shameful. Hideous. Treacherous.

These words only begin to describe the lawbreakers who have tarnished Australia’s legal system. Unscrupulous, vile, and corrupt actions within the government have undermined the arbitration process, a system the government once endorsed. The pressing question is: Is the Institute of Arbitrator Mediator Australia (IAMA) fundamentally biased and lacking in transparency? Click this link—representing the eleventh remedy pursued—and judge for yourself.

The Long Journey
The long journey to my forthcoming ebook, The Arbitraitor, to be launched on www.promoteyourstory.com.au on 17 or 28 December 2025, underscores why understanding “the first remedy pursued” is essential. It lays bare the foundations of our struggle and the devastating implications for all who have suffered under institutional silence and betrayal.

The Book as Reckoning
Our forthcoming book, The Arbitraitor, slated for release on 17 or 18 December 2025 (see www.promoteyourstory.com.au), is the culmination of years of relentless struggle. It endured four brutal rounds of writing and editing, each peeling back another layer of deception. What emerged was not a simple timeline but a labyrinth of corruption entangling Telstra, government officials, and arbitration insiders. The narratives were so convoluted — riddled with secrecy, intimidation, and underhanded tactics — that a straightforward chronological account became impossible.

The Evidence Files
Each betrayal twisted itself around multiple arbitrations, sometimes ensnaring three or four cases at once. To untangle the chaos, we dissected these accounts into separate sections. Our journey was further obstructed by the daunting challenges posed on absentjustice.com, where we fought to weave together a multitude of dark mini‑stories (see Evidence File 1, Evidence File 2, Evidence File 3, and potentially Evidence File 6 or 7, depending on whether the Australian government admits my arbitration was grossly mishandled).

One of the fourteen government and non‑government agencies I reached out to — armed with a staggering 45‑page document and over 67 pieces of compelling evidence — has fallen silent. Within this trove, I meticulously detailed how Telstra knowingly orchestrated a crime, with evidence categorised from A to K. Some blocks alone contained ten incriminating documents. This extensive report, dispatched to the Chairman of Australia’s ACCC on 16 September 2010, remains unaddressed, underscoring Telstra's insidious grip on Australia’s regulatory bodies.

The Treacherous Web
The complete lack of action in response to allegations that should have triggered an immediate investigation only highlights the treacherous web of influence and power Telstra has woven throughout government. To that end, I will soon unveil the harrowing details in Evidence File 2. Watch for this file on www.promoteyourstory.com.au — by Christmas Day.
The truth will not remain buried forever.

The Weight of Treachery
At the age of 81, I stand defiant, yet crushed beneath the monstrous weight of treachery that has stalked me for decades. My life has been twisted into a grotesque theatre of corruption, where the darkest chapters spill into the open like poisoned ink. What plunges me into despair is not merely betrayal, but the insidious machinery of a malevolent legal firm in Melbourne — a nest of corruption, deceit, and moral rot. At its helm lurks Dr Gordon Hughes, a man whose ethics are not merely questionable but grotesque, revealed to me in 1996 when he chose treachery over honour, deceit over truth, annihilation over justice.

Rather than confront the horrifying reality that he had lost control over four arbitrations involving me and three other Australians, Hughes orchestrated a campaign of calculated destruction. He did not stumble into dishonour — he engineered it. With his wife either a willing conspirator or a silent accomplice, they twisted a trivial moment into a monstrous fabrication: a grotesque lie that I had made a 2:00 AM phone call to her. This was no misunderstanding. It was a weapon forged in malice, designed to paint me as a predator in the night, a demon to be feared, and to suffocate any investigation into Hughes’s own corruption within the Institute of Arbitrators Australia.

The abyss deepened when John Pinnock, Australia’s second Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, joined this insidious conspiracy. In a deceitful letter to Laurie James, President of the Institute of Arbitrators Australia, Pinnock shamelessly implicated me, alleging I had confessed in writing to the fabricated call. I never wrote such a letter. The lie was pure invention, a phantom conjured to dismantle my existence. And yet, Pinnock never produced this supposed confession — because it did not exist. The truth was buried beneath layers of deceit, and the silence of institutions became their accomplice.

This was not incompetence. It was a deliberate, orchestrated campaign of lies, betrayal, and character assassination. It was corruption weaponised, treachery institutionalised, deceit sanctified by those entrusted with justice. Their actions were not isolated — they were systemic, a coordinated effort to erase truth and protect the guilty.

Haunted by this web of lies, traumatised by the profound damage inflicted upon my life, I reached out in desperation in June 2011 to The Most Hon. Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, pleading for recognition of the horror I endured. I copied my entreaties to Robert McLelland, Federal Attorney General, and Robert Clark, Victorian Attorney General, clinging to the faint hope that truth might pierce the cold indifference that enveloped me. I sent my pleas to government officials, begging for validation against the chilling grip of Hughes, the malicious deceit of Pinnock, and the false witness statements manufactured by Telstra to defend their corruption in my 1994/95 arbitration.

I implore you to read my COT story. It is not merely a personal account — it is a revelation of systemic horror. It exposes corruption so insidious, treachery so malignant, that it leaves scars not only on my life but on the integrity of justice itself. The malicious lies of Hughes, Pinnock, and Rundell from 1995 and 1996 are not forgotten. They loom like a grotesque spectre, an elephant in the room that refuses to be ignored. Their deceit is a cancer that festers still, protected by silence and cover-up.

It is this urgency — this relentless need for justice — that compels me to speak. My story is not just mine. It is a warning, a testament, a cry against the insidious treachery that still holds power to cover up its crimes.

“On some significant issues, the Australian Parliament has ceased to be a place of effective lawmaking by the people, for the people”

 

"It has become commonplace for Parliamentarians to see a marathon supernuanced career out with ideals sacrificed for ambition" 

•  Who were the government bureaucrats who condoned the bugging during the COT arbitrations?

•  Were they the same individuals—or perhaps their successors—who approved the bugging of Timor-Leste’s offices?

Echoes of Betrayal: Wheat Sales to China
The betrayal is not new. Reflecting on Australia’s wheat sales to Communist China in 1967, the hypocrisy becomes clear. Bureaucrats knowingly allowed grain to be repurposed to fuel North Vietnam’s war effort against Australian, New Zealand, and American troops. This act of negligence and complicity demonstrates how detached decision-makers, insulated by theory and bureaucracy, can transform potential solutions into catastrophic consequences. It is a reminder that betrayal often comes not from enemies abroad, but from incompetence at home.

 The People's Republic of China 

Murdered for Mao: The killings China ‘forgot’

The Letter, the Truth, and the Waiting

In August 1967, I found myself in a situation so precarious, so surreal, that it would etch itself into the marrow of my memory. I was aboard a cargo ship docked in China, surrounded by Red Guards stationed on board twenty-four hours a day, spaced no more than thirty paces apart. After being coerced into writing a confession—declaring myself a U.S. aggressor and a supporter of Chiang Kai-shek, the Nationalist leader in Taiwan—I was told by the second steward, who handled the ship’s correspondence, that I had about two days before a response to my letter might reach me. That response, whatever it might be, would be delivered by the head of the Red Guards himself.

It was the second steward who quietly suggested I write to my parents. I did. I poured myself into 22 foolscap pages, writing with the urgency of a man who believed he might not live to see the end of the week. I told my church-going parents that I was not the saintly 18-year-old they believed I was. I confessed that the woman they had so often thanked in their letters—believing her to be my landlady or carer—was in fact my lover. She was 42. I was 18 when we met. From 1963 to 1967, she had been my anchor, my warmth, my truth. I wrote about my life at sea, about the chaos and the camaraderie, about the loneliness and the longing. I wrote because I needed them to know who I really was, in case I was executed before I ever saw them again.

As the ship’s cook and duty mess room steward, I had a front-row seat to the daily rhythms of life on board. I often watched the crew eat their meals on deck, plates balanced on the handrails that lined the ship. We were carrying grain to China on humanitarian grounds, and yet, the irony was unbearable—food was being wasted while the people we were meant to help were starving. Sausages, half-eaten steaks, baked potatoes—they’d slip from plates and tumble into the sea. But there were no seagulls to swoop down and claim them. They’d been eaten too. The food floated aimlessly, untouched even by fish, which had grown scarce in the harbour. Starvation wasn’t a concept. It was a presence. It was in the eyes of the Red Guards who watched us eat. It was in the silence that followed every wasted bite.
 

A Tray of Leftovers and a Silent Exchange

After my arrest, I was placed under house arrest aboard the ship. One day, I took a small metal tray from the galley and filled it—not with scraps, but with decent leftovers. Food that would have gone into the stockpot or been turned into dry hash cakes. I walked it out to the deck, placed it on one of the long benches, patted my stomach as if I’d eaten my fill, and walked away without a word.

Ten minutes later, I returned. The tray had been licked clean.

At the next meal, I did it again—this time with enough food for three or four Red Guards. I placed the tray on the bench and left. No words. No eye contact. Just food. I repeated this quiet ritual for two more days, all while waiting for the response to my letter. During that time, something shifted. The Red Guard, who had been waking me every hour to check if I was sleeping, stopped coming. The tension in the air thinned, just slightly. And I kept bringing food—whenever the crew was busy unloading wheat with grappling hooks wrapped in chicken wire, I’d slip out with another tray.

To this day, I don’t know what saved me. It was certainly not the letter declaring myself a U.S. aggressor and a supporter of Chiang Kai-shek, the Nationalist leader in Taiwan. Maybe it was luck. Or perhaps it was that tray of food, offered without expectation, without speech, without condition. A silent gesture that said, “I see you. I know you’re hungry. I know you’re human.”

And maybe, just maybe, that was enough. British Seaman’s Record R744269 -  Open Letter to PM File No 1 Alan Smith's Seaman. 

Australian Federal Police Investigation File No/1

The AFP believed Telstra was deleting evidence at my expense. 

During my first meetings with the AFP, I provided Superintendent Detective Sergeant Jeff Penrose with two Australian newspaper articles concerning two separate telephone conversations with The Hon. Malcolm Fraser, a former Prime Minister of Australia. Mr Fraser reported to the media only what he thought was necessary concerning our telephone conversation, as recorded below:

“FORMER prime minister Malcolm Fraser yesterday demanded Telecom explain why his name appears in a restricted internal memo.

“Mr Fraser’s request follows the release of a damning government report this week which criticised Telecom for recording conversations without customer permission.

“Mr Fraser said Mr Alan Smith, of the Cape Bridgewater Holiday Camp near Portland, phoned him early last year seeking advice on a long-running dispute with Telecom which Mr Fraser could not help.” 

In May 1994, John Wynack, the Director of Investigations for the Commonwealth Ombudsman, demanded answers from Telstra regarding their suspicious surveillance of my phone conversations with former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. What sinister motives lie behind their actions? Why did they redact crucial portions of their files that documented my discussions with Fraser over twelve months? Telstra’s silence spoke volumes, as they repeatedly evaded Wynack's inquiries.

I had written to Fraser on September 18, 1967, exposing a treacherous wheat deal that was not just a business transaction; it was clandestinely fueling the enemy that was ruthlessly attacking our troops, as well as those from New Zealand and the USA, entrenched in the jungles of North Vietnam.

What dark purpose drove Telstra to monitor my phone calls between April 1993 and April 1994 about events that unfolded in August and September 1967, decades earlier? The implications are chilling.

Why didn't Dr Hughes, as arbitrator to my arbitration demand the same answers from Telstra as the Commonwealth Ombudsman was asking? 

I spoke with the former Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, to discuss events I witnessed, along with other seamen, when our ship unloaded Australian wheat from the holds of the MV Hopepeak. I wonder if, when he was the Minister of the Army on 18 September 1967, he remembers my two-page letter to him detailing what we had seen. Our precious cargo of wheat was sent to China on humanitarian grounds to alleviate hunger among the Chinese people. However, some of this cargo was being reloaded and redirected to North Vietnam, where it would feed the army that was killing and maiming Australian, New Zealand, and U.S. troops in the jungles of Vietnam.

I relayed to Mr Fraser my profound and unsettling concerns about the disturbing experiences I suffered at the hands of the government-owned Telstra Corporation, both in the lead-up to and during my arbitration. These included insidious and manipulative threats from Telstra, accompanied by a glaring absence of any governmental investigation into these menacing actions or any genuine effort to hold Telstra accountable for its transgressions.

Open Letter dated 25 September 2025 → "The first remedy pursued"

In 2025, Dr Gordon Hughes is Principal Lawyer of Davies Collison Cave's Lawyers Melbourne → https://shorturl.at/L4tbp

😈 The Devil's letters → the first remedy pursued

What dark motives drove the arbitrator, Dr Gordon Hughes, Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman John Pinnock, and arbitration project manager John Rundell to engage in such treachery? These so-called "pillars of society" conspired to weave a web of deceit, crafting letters laden with malicious lies. It is nothing short of appalling that Dr Hughes allowed his wife’s good name to be manipulated by John Pinnock in their desperate attempt to hide their malevolent actions from Laurie James, President of the Institute of Arbitrators Australia. This act of betrayal is among the most contemptible imaginable.

John Pinnock’s second dishonest letter, one of four authored by this unscrupulous trio, effectively halted an investigation that could have validated my claims of persistent telephone problems. Instead, their calculated deceit has festered for over three decades. In this letter to The Hon. David Hawker MP, Pinnock falsely claimed that my billing issues had been resolved during arbitration by May 11, 1995. However, the information available on absentjustice.com starkly reveals that these problems continued until at least November 2006—eleven long years after my arbitration had concluded.

✍️When Pinnock wrote this misleading letter to The Hon. David Hawker MP in March 1996, he had already received damning evidence from AUSTEL, the government communications authority, in a letter dated August 3, 1995 (see 46-K Open letter File No/46-A to 46-l). This letter clearly stated that my ongoing 1800 billing arbitration issues had not yet been addressed, yet Pinnock chose to ignore it, perpetuating a reign of deception. The depth of this corruption is alarming, highlighting a willingness to sacrifice integrity and truth.

In fact, neither John Pinnock nor Telstra would investigate my ongoing complaint through to 2001, telling the government my 1994/95 arbitration had fixed my ongoing telephone problems. In desperation, my partner and I sold the business in December 2001 for land value only, because there was no goodwill left sell. Darren and Jenny Lewis took the gamble and lost, as the following exhibit shows → See Chapter 4 The New Owners Tell Their Story.  

The False Award

The arbitrator, fully aware of the deep-rooted corruption pervading the case, chose to turn a blind eye before issuing his formal award on May 11, 1995. In a betrayal, he deceitfully presented the DMR & Lane technical report as a definitive set of findings, despite the glaring fact that only 23 assessments had been conducted by the consultants. This misrepresentation was not an oversight; it was a calculated ploy to obscure the truth.

“Continued reports of 008 faults up to the present. As the level of disruption to overall CBHC  service is not clear, and fault causes have not been diagnosed, a reasonable expectation that these faults would remain ‘open’,”  (Exhibit 45-c -File No/45-A)
 

​Confronting Despair is a continuation of the above homepage, which we have now condensed for easier reading and will shortly be condensed further.

Telstra-Corruption-Freehill-Hollingdale & Page

Corrupt practices persisted throughout the COT arbitrations, flourishing in secrecy and obscurity. These insidious actions have managed to evade necessary scrutiny. Notably, the phone issues persisted for years following the conclusion of my arbitration, established to rectify these faults

Confronting Despair

The independent arbitration consultants demonstrated a concerning lack of impartiality. Instead of providing clear and objective insights, their guidance to the arbitrator was often marked by evasive language, misleading statements, and, at times, outright falsehoods.

Flash Backs – China-Vietnam

In 1967, Australia participated in the Vietnam War. I was on a ship transporting wheat to China, where I learned China was redeploying some of it to North Vietnam. Chapter 7, "Vietnam—Vietcong," discusses the link between China and my phone issues.

A Twenty-Year Marriage Lost

As bookings declined, my marriage came to an end. My ex-wife, seeking her fair share of our venture, left me with no choice but to take responsibility for leaving the Navy without adequately assessing the reliability of the phone service in my pursuit of starting a business.

Salvaging What I Could

Mobile coverage was nonexistent, and business transactions were not conducted online. Cape Bridgewater had only eight lines to service 66 families—132 adults. If four lines were used simultaneously, the remaining 128 adults would have only four lines to serve their needs.

Lies Deceit And Treachery

I was unaware of Telstra's unethical and corrupt business practices. It has now become clear that various unethical organisational activities were conducted secretly. Middle management was embezzling millions of dollars from Telstra.

An Unlocked Briefcase

On June 3, 1993, Telstra representatives visited my business and, in an oversight, left behind an unlocked briefcase. Upon opening it, I discovered evidence of corrupt practices concealed from the government, playing a significant role in the decline of Telstra's telecommunications network.

A Government-backed Arbitration

An arbitration process was established to hide the underlying issues rather than to resolve them. The arbitrator, the administrator, and the arbitration consultants conducted the process using a modified confidentiality agreement. In the end, the process resembled a kangaroo court.

Not Fit For Purpose

AUSTEL investigated the contents of the Telstra briefcases. Initially, there was disbelief regarding the findings, but this eventually led to a broader discussion that changed the telecommunications landscape. I received no acknowledgement from AUSTEL for not making my findings public.
&am

A Non-Graded Arbitrator

Who granted the financial and technical advisors linked to the arbitrator immunity from all liability regarding their roles in the arbitration process? This decision effectively shields the arbitration advisors from any potential lawsuits by the COT claimants concerning misconduct or negligence.<

The AFP Failed Their Objective

In September 1994, two officers from the AFP met with me to address Telstra's unauthorised interception of my telecommunications services. They revealed that government documents confirmed I had been subjected to these violations. Despite this evidence, the AFP did not make a finding.&am

The Promised Documents Never Arrived

In a February 1994 transcript of a pre-arbitration meeting, the arbitrator involved in my arbitration stated that he "would not determination on incomplete information.". The arbitrator did make a finding on incomplete information.

Chapter 1

Learn about government corruption and the dirty deeds used by the government to cover up these horrendous injustices committed against 16 Australian citizens

Chapter 2

Betrayal deceit disinformation duplicity falsehood fraud hypocrisy lying mendacity treachery and trickery. This sums up the COT government endorsed arbitrations.

Chapter 3

Ending bribery corruption means holding the powerful to account and closing down the systems that allows bribery, illicit financial flows, money laundering, and the enablers of corruption to thrive.

Chapter 4

Learn about government corruption and the dirty deeds used by the government to cover up these horrendous injustices committed against 16 Australian citizens. Government corruption within the public service affected most if not all of the COT arbitrations. 

Chapter 5

Corruption is contagious and does not respect sectoral boundaries. Corruption involves duplicity and reduces levels of morality and trust.

Chapter 6

Anti-corruption policies need to be used in anti-corruption reforms and strategy. Corruption metrics and corruption risk assessment is good governance

Chapter 7

Bribery and Corruption happens in the shadows, often with the help of professional enablers such as bankers, lawyers, accountants and real estate agents, opaque financial systems and anonymous shell companies that allow corruption schemes to flourish and the corrupt to launder their wealth.

Chapter 8

Corrupt practices in government and the results of those corrupt practices become problematic enough – but when that corruption becomes systemic in more than one operation, it becomes cancer that endangers the welfare of the world's democracy.

Chapter 9

Corruption in government, including non-government self-regulators, undermines the credibility of that government. It erodes the trust of its citizens who are left without guidance are the feel of purpose. Bribery and Corruption is cancer that destroys economic growth and prosperity. 

Chapter 10

The horrendous, unaddressed crimes perpetrated against the COT Cases during government-endorsed arbitrations administered by the Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman have never been investigated. 

Chapter 11

This type of skulduggery is treachery, a Judas kiss with dirty dealing and betrayal. This is dirty pool and crookedness and dishonest. This conduct fester’s corruption. It is as bad, if not worse than double-dealing and cheating those who trust you.&a

Chapter 12

Absentjustice.com - the website that triggered the deeper exploration into the world of political corruption, it stands shoulder to shoulder with any true crime story.