Ericsson’s nefarious dealings in terrorism 

A Continuation: The Same Pattern of Institutional Failure
The pattern that played out in the Ericsson scandal and the Vietnam‑era wheat trade is the same pattern that defined the COT arbitrations: institutions acting in secrecy, protecting their own interests, and leaving ordinary Australians to carry the consequences. Whether it was a multinational corporation operating in conflict zones or a government trading wheat during wartime, the underlying behaviour was identical — silence, denial, and a refusal to confront the truth.

In the COT Cases, that same institutional instinct to protect the powerful was on full display. Telstra withheld raw BCI test data that was essential to our claims. Lane Telecommunications, supposedly independent, was quietly absorbed by Ericsson while still acting as the arbitrator’s technical advisor. DMR Group Canada, fully aware of the missing data and the compromised testing, conducted no investigation. And the Australian government — the very body that should have ensured fairness — allowed the process to proceed as though nothing was wrong.

The institutions involved behaved as though transparency was optional and accountability was negotiable. They operated behind closed doors, confident that the public would never see the documents, the correspondence, or the evidence that revealed the truth. And for years, they were right. The silence held.

But the pattern was unmistakable. Just as the wheat trade continued during the Vietnam War despite its moral contradictions, and just as Ericsson continued operating in Iraq despite the risks and the questionable payments uncovered years later, the COT arbitrations proceeded under a veneer of legitimacy while the core evidence was withheld, manipulated, or ignored.

For us — Ann Garms, Maureen Gillan, Graham Schorer, and myself — the consequences were not theoretical. They lived. They were financial, emotional, and deeply personal. We were small business operators fighting for survival, and the institutions that should have protected us instead protected themselves. They protected Telstra. They protected the process. They protected the narrative.
The missing BCI data was not a clerical oversight. It was a structural failure. The acquisition of Lane by Ericsson was not an unfortunate coincidence. It was a conflict of interest of the highest order. And the refusal of DMR Group to investigate, despite knowing the evidence was incomplete, was not an administrative lapse. It was a breach of duty.

These were not isolated events. They were part of a continuum — a long, well‑documented history of institutions prioritising their own interests over the truth. The Ericsson scandal and the wheat trade are reminders that this behaviour is not new. It is systemic. It is entrenched. And it is always the ordinary citizen who pays the price.

The COT Cases were not just about faulty phone lines. They were about a system that failed — deliberately, repeatedly, and at every level. And the legacy of that failure still echoes today.

In light of these parallels, I am compelled to present a condensed version of my China-Vietnam wheat saga as part of my arbitration case. Disturbingly, documents obtained from Telstra through a Freedom of Information request suggest I was still under electronic surveillance after discussing China-related documents with former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. This raises unsettling questions: Is there a sinister link, or is it simply a treacherous coincidence that I received those documents?

 

 

In the bush, we were still standing beside a crackling landline, hoping the connection would hold long enough to complete a single transaction.
The institutions responsible for telecommunications liked to talk about “equity of access,” but the lived reality was anything but equitable. Rural customers paid the same rates as city customers, yet received a fraction of the service. Complaints were logged, but rarely resolved. Faults were reported, but often dismissed as “intermittent” or “unconfirmed.” And when the system failed entirely, the burden fell on the small operator — not the institution — to absorb the cost.

For many rural businesses, this wasn’t just inconvenient. It was economically damaging. Missed calls meant missed income. Unreliable lines meant lost contracts. And the absence of mobile coverage meant no backup, no redundancy, no safety net. You were left exposed, and the institutions that should have protected you simply looked the other way.

What made it worse was the silence. The silence from regulators who should have enforced standards. The silence from ministers who should have demanded accountability. The silence from executives who knew the network was failing but insisted publicly that everything was “within acceptable limits.” That phrase — acceptable limits — became a kind of insult. Acceptable to whom? Certainly not to the people trying to run a business on a line that worked only when it felt like it.

This pattern of institutional neglect didn’t just inconvenience rural operators; it shaped their lives. It forced them to work harder, travel further, and absorb losses that city businesses never had to consider. It created a two‑tiered system of communication — one for the cities, and one for everyone else.

Looking back, it’s clear that the struggle for reliable phone service was never just about technology. It was about fairness. It was about accountability. It was about institutions that promised universal service but delivered something far less.

And for many rural Australians, that failure left scars that still haven’t fully healed.

 

 

The type of corroded copper wire that I, along with approximately 120,000 other COT-type Australian citizens, experienced reflects the serious shortcomings in the government's investigation of our claims. My concerns, including those related to the government regulator, AUSTEL (now ACMA), were warranted, especially given that the arbitrator and Telstra did not resolve my ongoing billing claims during the arbitration. This situation highlights the significant issues within Australia's copper network, and in sources like Delimiter’s "Worst of the worst: Photos of Australia’s copper network | Delimiter. 

In the ongoing debate about political and media misinformation surrounding the National Broadband Network (NBN), one glaring issue remains shamefully overlooked: Did Australia's copper network truly meet the mandatory government regulatory requirements at the time of Telstra's privatisation? During my arbitration case, I received nine sworn statements from Telstra witnesses claiming that my service met network standards—assertions intended to suggest there were no ongoing telephone issues.

The critical question looms: Were these nine sworn statements made under oath genuine or fabricated? A truthful answer could have far-reaching consequences, potentially affecting billions of dollars in Commonwealth spending and exposing the possibility that Telstra deliberately misled the arbitrator to evade accountability for their actions towards me. The evidence clearly shows that my phone issues continued for eleven years after the arbitrator ruled in favour of Telstra, falsely asserting that they had resolved the network problems.

On 23 June 2015, I maintain that if the arbitrator had thoroughly examined all the evidence I submitted regarding my arbitration claims, he would have recognised my ongoing problem as legitimate rather than merely historical, as suggested in his final award. This is an egregious failure of justice that raises serious ethical concerns about the integrity of the entire process. It is clear from the following link dated > Unions raise doubts over Telstra's copper network; workers using ... that when read in conjunction with absentjustice.com and  which was released in March 1994, these copper-wire network faults have existed for more than 24 years.

9 November 2017: Sadly, many Australians in rural Australia can only access a second-rate NBN. This didn’t have to be the case: had the Australian government ensured the arbitration process it endorsed to investigate the COT cases’ claims of ongoing telephone problems been conducted transparently, it could have used our evidence to start fixing the problems we uncovered in 1993/94. This news article  https://theconversation.com/the-accc-investigation-into-the-nbn-will-be-useful-but-its-too-little-too-late-87095, again, shows that the COT Cases' claims of copper-wire-ailing network were more than valid.  

28 April 2018: This ABC news article dated 28 April 2018 regarding the NBN see >NBN boss blames Government's reliance on copper for slow ... needs to be read in conjunction with my own story going back 20 1988 through to 2025, because had the arbitration lies told under oath by so many Telstra employees had not occurred then the government would have been in a better position to evaluate just how bad the copper-wire Customer Access Network (CAN) was just 7-years ago.

 

 

Call for Justice 

My name is Alan Smith, and this is the story of my battle with a telecommunications giant and the Australian Government. Since 1992, this battle has unfolded through various institutions, including elected governments, government departments, regulatory bodies, the judiciary, and the telecommunications behemoth Telstra—or Telecom, as it was known at the time this story began. The quest for justice continues to this day.

My story began in 1987, when I decided that my life at sea—where I had spent the previous 20 years—was over. I needed a new, land-based occupation to carry me through to retirement and beyond. Of all the places I had visited around the world, I chose to make Australia my home.

Hospitality was my calling, and I had always dreamed of running a school holiday camp. So imagine my delight when I saw the Cape Bridgewater Holiday Camp and Convention Centre advertised for sale in The Age. Nestled in rural Victoria, near the small maritime port of Portland, it seemed perfect. I conducted what I believed was thorough due diligence to ensure the business was sound—or at least, all the due diligence I was aware of at the time. Who would have thought I needed to check whether the phones worked?

Within a week of taking over the business, I knew I had a problem. Customers and suppliers were telling me they had tried to call but couldn’t get through. That’s right—I had a business to run, but the phone service was, at best, unreliable, and at worst, completely absent. Naturally, we lost business as a result.

 

 

The Camp was profoundly reliant on phone communication. It was our vital link to city dwellers eager to connect with our services. One of our most significant oversights—blinded by the charm of this coastal haven—was failing to investigate the existing telephone system. At the time, mobile coverage was virtually nonexistent, and business was conducted through traditional means—not online, and certainly not by email.

We soon discovered we were tethered to an antiquated telephone exchange, installed more than 30 years earlier and designed specifically for 'low-call-rate' areas. This outdated, unstaffed exchange had a pitiful capacity of just eight lines.

•  My fight began simply: to secure a working phone service.

•  Despite compensation promises, the faults persisted. I sold my business in 2002, but the new owners suffered the same fate.

•  Other small business owners joined me—we became known as the Casualties of Telecom.

•  All we ever asked: acknowledgement, repair, and fair compensation. A working phone—was that too much?

During a typical week, the picturesque Cape Bridgewater was home to 66 residential families—not including those who used their coastal retreats to escape the bustle of city life. This created a significant challenge, especially considering many of these families had children.

The eight service lines struggled to support a growing census of 130 adults and children. By the time a modern Remote Control Module (RCM) was finally installed in August 1991, twelve children had been added to the mix, bringing the total population to 144. However, various weekend visitors often brought that figure to 150 or more. 

The Hidden Cost of Cape Bridgewater’s Failing Lines

No wonder I was financially broken by the end of 1988—barely a year after taking over the business in late 1987. The reality was brutal: Cape Bridgewater’s telecommunications setup was catastrophically inadequate.

In stark terms, if just four of the 144 residences were making or receiving calls, only four lines remained for the other 140 residents. That’s not just poor planning—it’s a systemic failure. My business was strangled by a network that couldn’t support even the most basic communication needs. Every missed call was a missed opportunity. Every dropped connection was another nail in the coffin of a venture I had poured everything into.

We stepped into this complex landscape of limited connectivity and coastal beauty with ambition and optimism. The Camp was more than a business—it was a dream made real. A serene retreat where the stress of city life could dissolve into the ocean mist. However, as we quickly learned, dreams require infrastructure to thrive.

Our phone lines became both our lifeline and our most significant obstacle. Booking inquiries, supply orders, emergency calls—even simple conversations with clients—all had to pass through those eight fragile channels. During peak times, the lines were constantly engaged. Guests complained they couldn’t reach us. Suppliers missed confirmations. Opportunities slipped through our fingers like sand.

The two Telstra FOI documents that were concealed from the arbitrator during my arbitration process clearly demonstrate that my claims are not merely a figment of my imagination. These documents contradict the statements of nine Telstra employees, who testified under oath to the arbitrator that my claims were frivolous.

 

 

“Our local technicians believe that Mr Smith is correct in raising complaints about incoming callers to his number receiving a Recorded Voice Announcement saying that the number is disconnected.

“They believe that it is a problem that is occurring in increasing numbers as more and more customers are connected to AXE.” (See False Witness Statement File No 3-A)

To further support my claims that Telstra already knew how severe the Ericsson Portland AXE telephone faults were, can best be viewed by reading Folios C04006, C04007  and C04008, headed TELECOM SECRET (see Front Page Part Two 2-B), which state:

“Legal position – Mr Smith’s service problems were network related and spanned a period of 3-4 years. Hence Telecom’s position of legal liability was covered by a number of different acts and regulations. … In my opinion Alan Smith’s case was not a good one to test Section 8 for any previous immunities – given his evidence and claims. I do not believe it would be in Telecom’s interest to have this case go to court.

“Overall, Mr Smith’s telephone service had suffered from a poor grade of network performance over a period of several years; with some difficulty to detect exchange problems in the last 8 months.”

📠 The Vanishing Faxes: A Calculated Disruption

By the middle of 1993, people had become interested in what they had heard about our battle. Several articles had appeared in my local newspaper, and interstate gossip about the COT group was growing. In June, Julian Cress from Channel Nine's 'Sixty Minutes' documentary television programme faxed me:

Just a note to let you know that I had some trouble getting through to you on the phone last Thursday. Pretty ironic, considering that I was trying to contact you to discuss your phone problems.

The problem occurred at about 11 am. On the 008 number I heard a recorded message advising me that 008 was not available from my phone and your direct line was constantly engaged.

Pretty ironic, all right!

A special feature in the Melbourne Age Newspaper gave my new 'Country Get-A-Ways' program a great write-up. It was marketing weekend holidays for over-40s singles in Victoria and South Australia: an outdoor canoe weekend, a walking and river cruise along the Glenelg River, a Saturday Dress-up Dinner Dance with a disco, a trip to the Coonawarra Wineries in South Australia, and a Saturday morning shopping tour to Mt Gambier. I began to feel things were looking up for the Camp.

It was too much to hope for that my telephone saga was ending. A fax arrived on 26 October 1993 from Cathine, a relative of the Age journalist who wrote the feature:

Alan, I have been trying to call you since midday. I have rung seven times to get an engaged signal. It is now 2.45 pm.

In response to my request for feedback between May and October of 1993, I received 36 letters from different individuals and more than 40 other complaints from people who had unsuccessfully tried to respond to my advertisements (File - 9-A AS-CAV Exhibit 1 to 47). The Hadden & District Community House wrote in April 1993:

Several times I have dialled 055 267 267 number and received no response — dead line. I have also experienced similar problems on your 008 number.

Our youth worker, Gladys Crittenden, experienced similar problems while organising our last year's family camp, over a six month period during 1991/1992.

From April 1990 through December 2001, I prioritised sponsoring underprivileged groups to stay at the holiday camp, even during the weeks when the camp was experiencing phone problems. Various charitable organisations coordinated food deliveries for these groups, and coach companies provided a 46-seater school bus, with my endorsed vehicle covering the necessary provisions when I drove. This sponsorship brought in much-needed revenue for the business and helped spread the word, as visitors shared their positive experiences. It's worth noting that the organisers of these groups were so committed that they would drive for hours to make a booking.

The organisers of these groups would drive for hours to make a booking, as Loreto College did (see below).  

The holiday Camp could sleep around 90 to 100 persons in fourteen cabins.  I arranged sponsored food purchases through the generosity of several commercial food outlets, and these groups then just used the camp facilities. It didn’t cost me anything other than a small amount of electricity and gas.  Around May 1992, I organised a charity week for kids from Ballarat and the South West, including Warrnambool, Hamilton and Portland.  This group was organised by Sister Maureen Burke IBVM, the Principal of Loreto College in Ballarat, and I am sure she would not be offended to know that I think of her as the ‘mother’ of the project.

Arrangements regarding food, transport, and any special needs the children might have had to be handled over the phone, and of course, Sister Burke had enormous problems making phone contact; calls were either ringing out, or she was getting a deadline or a message that the number she was ringing was not connected to the Telstra network. Sister Burke knew otherwise. On two occasions in 1992, after trying in vain for a week, she drove the 3½ hours to make the final arrangements for those camps.

Just as she arrived at the Camp, Karen took a phone call from a furious man who wanted information about a singles weekend we were trying to set up. This caller was quite abusive. He couldn't understand why we were advertising a business but never answered the phone. Karen burst into tears. She had reached the end of her tolerance, and nothing I could say was any help. When Sister Burke appeared in the office, I decided absence was the better part of valour and removed myself, leaving the two women together. Much later, Sister Burke came out and told me she thought it was probably best for both of us if Karen left Cape Bridgewater. I felt numb. It was all happening again.

But it wasn't the same as it had been with Faye. Karen and I sat and talked. True, we would separate, but I assured her that she would lose nothing because of her generosity and that I would do whatever was necessary to buy her out. We were both relieved at that. Karen rented a house in Portland, and we remained good friends. Without her day-to-day assistance at the Camp, which had given me space to travel, I had to drop my promotional tours.

Twelve months later, in March of 1993, Sister Karen Donnellon, also from Loreto College, tried to make contact via the Portland Ericsson telephone exchange to arrange an annual camp.   Sister Donnellon later wrote:

“During a one week period in March of this year I attempted to contact Mr Alan Smith at Bridgewater Camp.  In that time I tried many times to phone through.

Each time I dialled I was met with a line that was blank.  Even after several re-dials there was no response.  I then began to vary the times of calling but it made no difference.” File 231-B → AS-CAV Exhibit 181 to 233

Some years later, I sent Sister Burke an early draft of my manuscript, Absent Justice My Story‘, concerning my valiant attempt to run a telephone-dependent business without a dependable phone service. Sister Burke wrote back,

“Only I know from personal experience that your story is true, otherwise I would find it difficult to believe. I was amazed and impressed with the thorough, detailed work you have done in your efforts to find justice”  File 231-A → AS-CAV Exhibit 181 to 233

Of course, Sister Maureen Burke and Sister Karen Donnellon persisted with their continuing battle to find a way to get a proper telephone connection for the holiday camp, partly because it was a low-cost holiday for all concerned but also because these incredible women were well aware that my business was continuing to exist, albeit ‘by the skin of its teeth, even though Telstra’s automated voice messages kept on telling prospective customers that the business did not exist or the callers simply reached a dreaded silence that appeared to indicate that the number they had called was attached to a ‘dead’ line.  Either way, I lost the business that may have followed if only the callers could have successfully connected to my office via this dreaded Ericsson AXE telephone exchange.

 

 

A letter dated 6 April 1993, from Cathy Lindsey, Coordinator of the Haddon & District Community House Ballarat (Victoria) to the Editor of Melbourne’s Herald-Sun newspaper,  read:

“I am writing in reference to your article in last Friday’s Herald-Sun (2nd April 1993) about phone difficulties experienced by businesses.

I wish to confirm that I have had problems trying to contact Cape Bridgewater Holiday Camp over the past 2 years.

I also experienced problems while trying to organise our family camp for September this year. On numerous occasions I have rung from both this business number 053 424 675 and also my home number and received no response – a dead line.

I rang around the end of February (1993) and twice was subjected to a piercing noise similar to a fax. I reported this incident to Telstra who got the same noise when testing.” Evidence File 10 B 

During this same period, 1992 and 1993, Cathy Lindsey, a professional associate of mine, signed a Statutory Declaration, dated 20 May 1994, explaining several sinister happenings when she attempted to collect mail on my behalf from the Ballarat Courier Newspaper office (File 22 Exhibit 1 to 47).  This declaration leaves unanswered questions about who collected my mail and how they knew there was mail to collect from the Ballarat Courier mail office.  On both occasions, when a third party collected this mail, I telephoned Cathy to inform her that the Ballarat Courier had notified me that mail was waiting to be picked up.

On pages 12 and 13 of the transcript from the AFP inquiry into my allegations that Telstra unlawfully intercepted my telephone conversations, the AFP states at Q59 Australian Federal Police Investigation File No/1:-

“And that, I mean that relates directly to the monitoring of your service where, where it would indicate that monitoring was taking place without your consent?” File 23-A Exhibit 1 to 47

I also provided the AFP Telstra documents showing that Telstra was worried about my telephone complaint evidence. If it ever reached an Australian court, I had a 50% chance of proving that Telstra had systemic network problems. In simple terms, Telstra was operating outside its license to provide a telephone service, charging its customers for a service it was not providing.  

Astonishingly, one letter, dated 17 May 1993, was from a senior Telstra technical engineer, who wrote regarding his own experience of trying to ring me:

"On the 24/2/93 I received a phone call from a technician at Portland who stated he had been given a fault from (1100 fault dept.) indicating a customer in Ballarat had trouble calling your business 055 267 267. I then attempted to ring 055 267 267 myself, the ring was tripped after several bursts, i.e. ‘answered’ and I received a loud noise similar to a radio carrier noise and a very faint ‘Hello’."

At last, a second person inside Telstra acknowledged that I had a problem with the phone service! The engineer had even given me his name. Yet in the course of their defence of my arbitration claims, Telstra proffered a Witness Statement from this man (made in December 1994) that included no reference to this (see Summary of events/ Chapter Two to Five)   

On 9 June 1993. A TV news program was also a target for Telstra's executives to muzzle the media regarding the validity of the COT Cases claims and that of three single members from Ballarat who had spoken to Jason Cameron (Channel Nine TV reporter) regarding their failed effort to reach the Cape Bridgewater Holiday Camp by telephone from Skipton and Scarsdale.  This Telstra internal email dated 16 June 1993 FOI folio A04646 (AS 956) reports:

"Good news re channel nine news. Haven’t checked all outlets but as it didn’t run on the main bulletin last night, we can be pretty certain that the story died the death. I wish I could figure which phase it was that convinced Jason Cameron not to proceed. Might have been one of Jim Holmes' pearls..."

As the Telstra Corporate Secretary, Jim Holmes, the reader by now may well be asking themselves: what type of pearl had been cast by Jim Holmes? Were they pearls of wisdom, financial pearls, or a different kind of pearl that convinced a respected journalist to drop a story? 

On 12 July 1993, a newspaper article from the Portland Observer Newspaper, headed ‘Network Complaints Taken Up by MPs’ and notes:

“Problems highlighted by Cape Bridgewater Holiday Camp operator Alan Smith, with the Telecom network have been picked up on by not only other disgruntled customers but Federal politicians. Having suffered a faulty telephone service for some five years, Mr Smith’s complaints had for some time fallen on deaf ears, but it now seems people are standing up and listening. Federal Member for Wannon, David Hawker, described the number of reports of faulty and inadequate telephone across Australia as alarming. Mr Hawker said that documents recently presented to him showed that the problems people had been experiencing Australia wide had been occurring repeatedly in the Portland region.” (See Cape Bridgewater Chronology of Events File No -17)

The pressure on all four COT cases was immense, with TV and newspaper interviews and our continuing canvassing of the Senate. The stress was telling by now, but I continued to hammer for a change in rural telephone services. The Hon David Hawker MP, my local Federal member of parliament, has been corresponding with me since 26 July 1993.

“A number of people seem to be experiencing some or all of the problems which you have outlined to me. …“I trust that your meeting tomorrow with Senators Alston and Boswell is a profitable one.” (See Arbitrator File No/76)

On 18 August 1993, The Hon. David Hawker MP wrote to me again, noting:

“Further to your conversations with my electorate staff last week and today I am enclosing a copy of the correspondence I have received from Mr Harvey Parker, Group Managing Director of Commercial and Consumer division of Telecom. “I wrote to him outlining the problems of a number of Telecom customers in the Western Districts, including the extensive problems you have been experiencing.” (Arbitrator File No/77)

One of these letters, dated 23 August 1993, is particularly interesting. It came from a company of Insurance Loss Adjusters in Ballarat, a rural city in Victoria. It was sent to the producer of “Real Life”, a TV current affairs program then broadcast on Channel 7.  The Loss Adjusters wrote:  “Re Problems with Telstra.”

"I have watched with interest the shorts leading up to tonight’s program as I have similar problems to the man at Cape Bridgewater.

Our office is located in Ballarat and due to Telecom structure the majority of our local calls are STD-fee based. (STD calls are charged per time)

On many occasions we have been unable to get through to numbers we have dialled, often receiving the message “this number is not connected” or similar messages which we know to be untrue.

Clients report that they often receive the engaged signal when calling us, and a review of the office reveals that at least one of our lines was free at the relevant time.

We have just received our latest Telecom bill, which in total is up about 25% – 30% on the last bill.  This is odd because our work load in the billing period was down by about 25% and we have one staff member less than the previous billing period.” (AS 1008)

In the first twelve months of 1993, I received another eleven written complaints about Ballarat tourists and single club patrons who, like Loretto College, had problems connecting to my holiday camp. 

 

Children's lives could be at risk

Comments made from the Herald Sun newspaper dated 30 August 1993 confirm just how damaging some of these newspaper articles were to my already ailing business, with statements like:

“The Royal Children’s Hospital has told a holiday camp operators in Portland that it cannot send chronically ill children there because of Telecom’s poor phone service. The hospital has banned trips after fears that the children’s lives could be at risk in a medical emergency if the telephone service to the Portland camp continued to malfunction”.

The centre’s stand follows letters from schools, community groups, companies and individuals who have complained about the phone service at Portland’s Cape Bridgewater Holiday camp.”

Youths from the Royal Children’s Centre for Adolescent Health, who were suffering from “chronic illnesses”, visited the camp earlier this year.   

Group leader Ms Louise Rolls said in a letter to the camp the faulty phones had endangered lives and the hospital would not return to the camp unless the phone service could be guaranteed” Arbitrator File No/90

After the Melbourne Children's Hospital recorded a near-death experience with me having to rush a sick child with cancer to the Portland Hospital, 18 kilometres away from my holiday camp, Telstra finally decided to take my telephone faults seriously. None of the 35 children (all with cancer-related illnesses) had mobile phones, nor did the six or so nurses and carers. Mobile telephones could not operate successfully in Cape Bridgewater until 2004, eleven years after this event. 

(AUSTEL’s Adverse Findings), dated 4 March 1994, confirmed that my claims against Telstra were validated (see points 2 to 212 in that report). Unfortunately, I did not receive a copy of these findings until November 23, 2007, 12 years after the 23termination of my arbitration process. Moreover, the government officials had already validated my claims as early as March 4, 1994, six weeks before April 21, 1994, when I signed the arbitration agreement.

But despite that, I was still required to pay over $300,000 in arbitration fees to prove something the government had already established.

Three of those points, 2 to 212 in (AUSTEL’s Adverse Findings, are recoded below and might prompt yoy to download the whole 212 points, i.e.,

Point 115 –“Some problems with incorrectly coded data seem to have existed for a considerable period of time. In July 1993 Mr Smith reported a problem with payphones dropping out on answer to calls made utilising his 008 number. Telecom diagnosed the problem as being to “Due to incorrect data in AXE 1004, CC-1. Fault repaired by Ballarat OSC 8/7/93, The original deadline for the data to be changed was June 14th 1991. Mr Smith’s complaint led to the identification of a problem which had existed for two years.”

Point 153 –“A feature of the RCM system is that when a system goes “down” the system is also capable of automatically returning back to service. As quoted above, normally when the system goes “down” an alarm would have been generated at the Portland exchange, alerting local staff to a problem in the network. This would not have occurred in the case of the Cape Bridgewater RCM however, as the alarms had not been programmed. It was some 18 months after the RCM was put into operation that the fact the alarms were not programmed was discovered. In normal circumstances the failure to program the alarms would have been deficient, but in the case of the ongoing complaints from Mr Smith and other subscribers in the area the failure to program these alarms or determine whether they were programmed is almost inconceivable.”

Point 158 – “The crucial issue in regard to the Cape Bridgewater RCM is that assuming the lightning strike did cause problems to the RCM om late November 1992 these problems were not resolved till the beginning of March 1993, over 3 months later. This was despite a number of indications of problems in the Cape Bridgewater area. Fault reports from September 1992 also indicate that the commencement of problems with the RCM may have occurred earlier than November 1992. A related issue is that Mr Smith’s persistent complaints were almost certainly responsible for an earlier identification of problems with the RCM than would otherwise have been the case.”

• Evidence vanished.

• Critical documents were withheld.

• Decisions were made behind closed doors.

• Who was really in charge of the arbitrator.​

• Why was Lanes allowed to assess my claim?

• Why was DMR Group Inc.—the appointed independent evaluator—ignored?

• Who authorised this deviation from the agreed process?

• Information withheld.

• Decisions concealed.

• Accountability avoided.

• Telstra

• Lanes Telecommunications

• Ericsson

• The arbitrator

• The TIO

• We were undermind by the old system of Gaslighting.

The Betrayal Beneath the Wires

In the shadows of Australia’s telecom empire, a sinister alliance was forged. Telstra, once government-owned, buried the truth behind the COT Cases—refusing to release critical FOI documents, silencing victims, and shielding corruption.

Then came the scandal: Ericsson, under global scrutiny, quietly bought out Lane—the very consultant tasked with investigating its faulty equipment.
While other nations purged Ericsson from their networks, Telstra welcomed them in. Government bureaucrats turned a blind eye. Appeals were blocked. Evidence ignored.

This wasn’t incompetence. It was treachery. And the cost? Justice denied. Voices erased. Corruption thriving.
This is not just a story. It’s a warning.

"Beware The Pen Pusher Power - Bureaucrats need to take orders and not take charge”, which noted:“Now that the Prime Minister is considering a wider public service reshuffle in the wake of the foreign affairs department's head, Finances Adamson, becoming the next governor of South Australia, it's time to scrutinise the faceless bureaucrats who are often more powerful in practice than the elected politicians."

"Outside of the Canberra bubble, almost no one knows their names. But take it from me, these people matter."

"When ministers turn over with bewildering rapidity, or are not ‘take charge’ types, department secretaries, and the deputy secretaries below them, can easily become the de facto government of our country."  

"Since the start of the 2013, across Labor and now Liberal governments, we’ve had five prime ministers, five treasurers, five attorneys-general, seven defence ministers, six education ministers, four health ministers and six trade Ministers.”

This article was quite alarming. It was disturbing because Peta Credlin, someone with deep knowledge of Parliament House in Canberra, has accurately addressed the issue at hand. I not only relate to the information she presents, but I can also connect it to the many bureaucrats and politicians I have encountered since exposing what I did about the China wheat deal back in 1967, and the corrupted arbitration processes of 1994 to 1998. These government stuff-ups and cover-ups have cost lives. 

•  Suppression of evidence: Telstra arbitration documents, Horizon software bugs, Robodebt warnings.

•  Institutional survival over human lives: Wheat trade profits, Telstra’s inflated value, Robodebt’s defence. Letters from KPMG.

•  Government complicity: Both the British and Australian governments had vested interests in protecting corporations, even at the expense of ordinary citizens.

•  The British Post Office Horizon scandal, where Fujitsu’s faulty software destroyed lives.

•  Ericsson AXE billing failures at Telstra, leading to systemic overcharging.

•  Allegations before the U.S. Securities Exchange that Telstra’s value was inflated during its sale → Chapter 6 - US Securities Exchange - pink herring.

•  Expose the betrayal.

•  Demand accountability.

•  Break the cycle of bureaucratic deceit.

The Deal 

 

 

During the treacherous deal between Senators Barnaby Joyce and Helen Coonan within the corrupt Liberal Coalition Government, I, along with 13 other COT Cases, uncovered deep-seated corruption at the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman's (TIO) office in July 2005. This exposure occurred during the desperate negotiations to secure Senator Joyce's critical vote to pass the controversial Telstra sale legislation.

The collusion does not end there. In 1999, Frank Blount, who served as Telstra's CEO from two years before my government-endorsed arbitration until three years after its completion on May 11, 1995, co-wrote a book titled *Managing in Australia*, where he laid bare the extent of these horrific systemic billing problems. Ironically, the book remains available for purchase, even as the reality of this corruption festers. Absentjustice.com → CAV Exhibit 92 to 127) Exhibit 122-i - 

This collaboratively written book by Frank Blount of Telstra explores crucial issues arising from the investigation by the U.S. Securities Exchange into the authenticity of Telstra’s sale prospectuses. As these documents came under scrutiny, questions emerged about whether they truly reflected Telstra’s true value. This scrutiny was fueled by the shocking discoveries from the COT Cases, which uncovered the troubling history of Australia’s largest companies during a time rife with corruption. Particularly alarming were revelations that millions of dollars were being siphoned from Telstra each year while the company was under government control. The act of blowing the whistle and sharing these critical truths on absentjustice.com has not come without significant personal and financial repercussions for everyone involved in the COT Cases, affecting many beyond just me.

 

Threats that became a reality 

 

 

On page 180, ERC&A, from the official Australian Senate Hansard, dated 29 November 1994, reports Senator Ron Boswell asking Telstra’s legal directorate:

“Why did Telecom advise the Commonwealth Ombudsman that Telecom withheld FOI documents from Alan Smith because Alan Smith provided Telecom FOI documents to the Australian Federal Police during their investigation?”

After receiving a hollow response from Telstra, which the senator, the AFP and I all knew was utterly false, the senator states:

“…Why would Telecom withhold vital documents from the AFP? Also, why would Telecom penalise COT members for providing documents to the AFP which substantiate that Telecom had conducted unauthorised interceptions of COT members’ communications and subsequently dealt in the intercepted information by providing that information to Telecom’s external legal advisers and others?” (See Senate Evidence File No 31)

What is so appalling about this withholding of relevant documents is this: no one in the Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman (TIO) office or the government has ever investigated the disastrous impact of this withholding on my overall submission to the arbitrator. The arbitrator and the government (at the time, Telstra was a government-owned entity) should have initiated an investigation into why an Australian citizen who had assisted the AFP in its investigations into unlawful interception of telephone conversations was so severely disadvantaged in a civil arbitration.

In a particularly treacherous move, AUSTEL tampered with its official findings in the AUSTEL COT Cases Report. They deceitfully stated that there were only 50 or so COT Cases with ongoing problems, feeding this false information to the COT arbitrator and the media in April 1994. This was done despite AUSTEL's prior correspondence with Telstra, which acknowledged the government's drastic reduction of an alarming 120,000 COT-type faults to a mere 50 or more (see Chapter 1 - Can We Fix The CAN → (See Open Letter File No/11).

Such a significant distortion of facts should have been exposed in the prospectus, yet it remained buried.

What would have happened if the US Securities Exchange had been privy to this hidden scandal regarding the COT Cases in 1997? It’s chilling to think about. At the very least, the arbitrator overseeing my cases would have been forced to revisit the awards he rendered, based on a web of deceit spun from false government information. The treachery runs deep, and the stakes are incredibly high.

The Government assured the COT Cases that Freehill Hollingdale & Page would not have any further involvement in their cases. However, Freehill was not only selected by the Government to act as Telstra's arbitration defence counsel, but they were also chosen to draft the Telstra sale legislation, as discussed throughout absentjustice.com.

• A legal firm accused of altering evidence.

• A government that acknowledged mistrust but continued to rely on them.

• An international audience that might have acted differently if the truth had been disclosed.