Chapter Three - The Sixth Damning Letter
Corruption in Arbitration
Corruption in the COT government endorsed arbitrations, including non-government self regulators undermined the credibility of that arbitration.. It eroded trust by the claimants who were then left without guidance. Bribery and Corruption is the cancer that destroyed the government endorsed arbitrations.
On 17 February 1996 Dr Hughes wrote to Laurie James, President of the Institute of Arbitrators (see point 3 above) attaching a copy of John Rundell’s letter of 13 February 1996 to the TIO). In this letter, Dr Hughes advised Laurie James:
“I consent to you disclosing this letter to Mr Smith, save that I do not consent to the disclosure of the attached correspondence from third parties.” (See Prologue Evidence File No/8-E)
Long before Mr Rundell and Dr Hughes wrote their letters in February 1996, AUSTEL, the government communications regulator, officially advised Mr Pinnock (see Open letter File No/46-K, dated 3 October 1995) and Mr Rundell (see Open letter File No/45-A, dated 15 November 1995) my concerns were completely valid and that NONE of the billing claim documents I legitimately raised in my 1994/95 arbitration process was investigated (or even addressed) during my arbitration process. Still, however, Laurie James was deliberately misled and deceived, not just by the arbitrator but also by the official administrator of the same arbitration. Mr James was the very person who could have asked so many seriously disturbing questions about why my arbitration was not conducted according to the ambit of the arbitration procedures.=
Anyone reading my letter to Gareth Evans, dated 4 January 1996 (see Open Letter File No/49), will conclude I raised some very serious issues, which affected all the arbitrations still in progress.
Dr Hughes’ letter to Laurie James, under the heading “Letter to Senator Evans,” states:
“Mr Smith provided you a copy of a letter to Senator Gareth Evans dated 4 January 1996. I presume you require me to comment on those aspects of the letter which reflect upon my conduct as an arbitrator.
“The letter to Senator Evans is littered with inaccuracies. Some examples are:
contrary to Mr Smith’s assertion on page 3, his 24,000 (sic) documents were all viewed by me, Ferrier Hodgson Corporate Advisory, DMR Group Inc (Canada) and Lane Telecommunications Pty Ltd in accordance with the arbitration procedure.”
Mr Smith's assertions on page 4 that a technical expert, Mr Read refused to discuss technical information at his premises on 6 April 1995, is correct - in this regard.Mr Read was acting in accordance with his interpretation of my direction which prohibited him from speaking to one part in the ansence of the other party at any site visit. (See Open letter File No/45-G and Open Letter File No/49)
Why did Dr Hughes (the arbitrator) deceive Mr James (the President of the Institute of Arbitrators Australia) about these 24,000 documents which Telstra withheld from me because I assisted the AFP with their investigations into Telstra's interception of my telephone conversations and fax transmissions? Dr Hughes and his team could not have read and collated these late received documents because 70% of those 24,000 documents were re-couriered by Golden Messenger to Brisbane to COT Cases Ann Garms (see Chapter 3 - The Sixth Damning Letter). Why did the arbitrator tell Mr James that all those documents were assessed?
The 17,000 documents couriered to Brisbane were related to the Ericsson AXE telephone equipment used in the Fortitude Valley telephone exchange in Queensland, not the Portland Ericsson AXE telephone equipment which serviced my business.
The Canadian and Australian technical consultants’ 30 April 1995 reports, under the heading “Cape Bridgewater Documentation,” states “More than 4,000 pages of documentation have been presented by both parties and examined by us.” (See Arbitrator File Nos/29 and 30) These reports are covered more thoroughly in other pages.
And at point 2.2 on page 4, in Dr Hughes’ final award, dated 11 May 1995, he notes, “In all, I have read in excess of 6,000 pages of documentary evidence submitted by the parties.” (See Prologue Evidence File No/9-A)
If either Mr James or Senator Evans were provided with the truth surrounding these 24,000 documents, my arbitration matters could have been completed in early 1996. So far, the arbitrator and the TIO office have managed to avoid being called to account for their devious and unethical conduct. Will they ever be held accountable?
Arbitrator File No/45 shows that on 30 March 1995 – 11 months before the arbitrator’s letters to Mr James – the arbitrator’s own resource unit wrote to the TIO outlining the progress of my arbitration. The timeline shows I advised them I received my discovery documents via the agreed-to FOI process after my claim was finalised and after Telstra had submitted their defence of that claim.
John Wynack, Director of Investigations for the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s Office, and Tony Morgan, a National Chief Adjuster for GAB Robins (Australia), are both fully aware that most of these 24,000 documents were not related to my Cape Bridgewater business in any way. Not only did they not have any identification or schedules to explain where they were sourced from, but it was quite clear that some belonged to the Fortitude Valley and Lutwyche Ericsson AXE telephone exchanges in Brisbane, more than 1,200 kilometres from the telephone exchange my business was connected to. Clearly, this delivery of so many useless documents was deliberately designed to cause me as much heartache as possible.
More than 16,800 of those FOI documents were meaningless without the schedule detailing their relevance; I had only 13 days to address Telstra’s defence, with documents I had no way of reading.
When I advised Warwick Smith, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (and administrator to my arbitration) about this terrible situation, being left with only 13 days to decipher what documents belonged to me and which belonged to the two other COT cases, he said to contact Dr Hughes, the arbitrator. However, the arbitrator’s office informed me that Dr Hughes had taken his usual Christmas break, which meant the 13 days left for me to answer Telstra’s 12 December 1994 defence would be over by the time Dr Hughes returned from leave. Warwick Smith’s response to this was: do the best you can.
Log Book
There was also no mention in Dr Hughes’ letter to Laurie James concerning the documents provided by Telstra were not intended for me or that Telstra had continued to withhold the main arbitration requested document namely the Portland/Cape Bridgewater Ericsson AXE telephone exchange logbook, which was requested under FOI and through the process of discovery. Dr Hughes was aware Telstra had not released the exchange logbook, which had the working notes of all my telephone complaints and those of other local Telstra subscribers for the period of my claim. The veracity of logbooks is irrefutable, yet Dr Hughes would not request the Cape Bridgewater exchange logbook for me. The Commonwealth Ombudsman’s office also requested this logbook to be supplied but was unable to obtain it. (See Home Page File No 10 -A to 10-B)
My facsimiles and subsequent follow-up telephone conversations, on 4 and 5 May, advised Dr Hughes of the nightmare these late 24,000 FOI documents caused for me and I asked for an investigation into why so many FOI documents, without proper FOI schedules, had been dumped on me to late to submit into arbitration, actually belonged to Ann Garms and Maureen Gillan and therefore were useless.
On 5 May 1995, Dr Hughes wrote,
“I refer to your telephone message of 4 May and your facsimiles of 4 and 5 May 1995 and advise I do not consider grounds exist for the introduction of new evidence or the convening of a hearing at this stage.” He also reiterated his previous instructions: “any comments regarding the factual content of the Resource Unit reports must be received … by 5:00pm on Tuesday 9 May 1995” (See Arbitrator False Evidence File 1).
Dr Hughes cared little about the justice he denied me by not allowing me to submit those of the 24,000 FOI documents I could decipher. He also refused to convene a hearing to determine why Telstra’s threats – to withhold all future relevant FOI documents from me – came to fruition. Two of the questions I raised in my telephone messages of 4 May 1995 and facsimiles of 4 and 5 May 1995, was why had the arbitration technical report not been signed off and why had it only assessed 11% of my claim documents. It is clear from this letter and Dr Hughes 11 May 1995 award that he ignored both those questions.
Dr Hughes knew that, by not considering grounds did exist for the introduction of the evidence that was originally disallowed to be submitted while the AFP was investigating Telstra’s monitoring of my single-club patrons, he was saving Telstra thousands upon thousands of dollars in compensation.
What is so important concerning the two mini-reports I had compiled from these non-submitted 24,000 documents which Dr Hughes would not allow me to submit into arbitration is when Dr Hughes submitted his final findings in his award at 2.1 d he notes:
"...I considered it essential that both parties had every reasonable opportunity to place relevant material before me, regardless of the time frame set out in the arbitration"
If this was true, then why did Dr Hughes refuse to allow me the extra time on 4 and 5 May 1995, to submit these two mini-submissions?
Part of the submission I wanted to submit to Dr Hughes was proof beyond all doubt that the Cape Bridgewater BCI tests had never taken place at any time as shown in the BCI report. I even discussed this latest BCI issue in my conversation with Dr Hughes on the 4 May 1995. It is clear, there is more to Dr Hughes not allowing me to submit this late received BCI material.
My pleas to the arbitrator, to bring Telstra to account for their actions when I had still not received my requested discovery documents amazingly, he refused to take calls as his secretary Caroline Friend is aware. Even though the Commonwealth Ombudsman had to be brought into the arbitration in order for Telstra to obey the Freedom of Information (FOI Act) and the government solicitors took control of the delivery of my arbitration documents which then never arrived until 23 May 1995, two weeks after the conclusion of my arbitration the arbitrator had the gall to write in his draft award at point 2.23:
"...Although the time taken for comSenate Hansard Evidence File No-1 )
These official statements in the Senate occurred months before Dr Hughes and John Pinnock spread falsehoods concerning my FOI issues to Laurie James, as is shown below in chapter four.
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