Chapter 1 Fraudulent Conduct Falsified Reporting
Why am I writing this story at the age of 78, when I should be relaxing and enjoying my retirement? Because, between 1992 and beyond, a group of small business owners were discredited by the Telstra Corporation and the Australian government in order to conceal what we uncovered: the truth surrounding Australia’s ailing copper-wire network. Instead of our very deficient telephone services being fixed, as part of a government-endorsed arbitration process that became an uneven battle we could never win, they were NOT fixed as part of the process, regardless of the hundreds of thousands of dollars, it cost the claimants to mount their claims against Telstra. Crimes were committed against us and our integrity was attacked and undermined. Our livelihoods were ruined, we lost millions of dollars and our mental health declined, yet those who perpetrated the crimes are still in positions of power, today.
Our story is still actively being covered up. One of the original four Casualties of Telstra (COT for short) group died in July 2018. The other has dementia. I have this intense feeling inside that I must tell our story the way it happened not the way the archives of the Department of Communications, Technology and the Arts (DCITA) and the Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman office has recorded this event. Australia’s history regarding the COT Cases government-endorsed arbitration has been doctored. One of my many Freedom of Information (FOT) request to the DCITA asked for a copy of the archive records regarding by the government regarding my 1994 Telstra v Alan Smith (Cape Bridgewater Holiday Camp) government arbitration process. What I received back from the government was a very, sanitized set of untruth about my arbitration and that of the man (my friend) who now has dementia. It is my moral duty as a loving citizen of this fine country of ours to keep fighting to have our issues addressed, to expose systemic corruption and to gain closure for events that happened over 24- years ago. This is a true story.
Worse, before the arbitrations began the arbitrator was provided with a report which was officially submitted to all parties involved in the first four arbitrations. This report dated 13 April 1994, stated at point 5.78: “an agreed standard of service, being developed in consultation with AUSTEL (the then government communications regulator), to be applied to any case subject to settlement is essential”. It is clear from this 258-page report that no finding by the arbitrator can be brought down until proof that Telstra had fixed all of the ongoing telephone problems being experienced by these businesses. After all, what was the reason for an arbitration process if the claimant’s businesses were still affected by ongoing telephone problems?
In my case, regardless of the arbitrators own technical consultants advising him in their 30 April 1995 report their findings were still incomplete and they still needed extra weeks to investigate my ongoing telephone complaints that wording was removed from the draft and the draft still dated 30 April 1995 was submitted to the arbitration as the complete formal report.
Please click on the following link Telstra’s Falsified BCI Report and form your own opinion as to the authenticity of the Bell Canada International Inc BCI /Cape Bridgewater report which was used by Telstra as their arbitration defence of my claims?
The attached evidence here supports my claim see BCI Telstra’s M.D.C Exhibits 1 to 46
Please also click on the following Telstra’s Falsified SVT Report link which when read supports my claim the government communications regulator AUSTEL acted in concert with Telstra so that my claims surrounding the falsified testing of my business lines would never be broadcast as the truth.
The following six links that are listed below support my claims that Telstra's SVT arbitration reporting shows Telstra's SVT equipment did not connect successfully to my business lines during the mandatory SVT arbitration testing. While the report itself appears, at first, to be too technical for most people to understand, it had to be submitted as a testament to my claims. What the average reader will conclude from it is that, with the assistance of a number of radical Government communications regulatory bureaucrats, Telstra knowingly perverted the course of justice during my 1994/95 arbitration. Since then though, no one has investigated this matter, regardless of the damage
that Telstra’s perversion of the course of justice caused me.Govt/Telstra/SVT Report Exhibits 1-A to 10-B Govt/Telstra/SVT Report Exhibits 11 to 23-G Govt/Telstra/SVT Report Exhibits 23-H to 30-A Govt/Telstra/SVT Report Exhibits 30-B Govt/Telstra/SVT Report Exhibit 31-A to 46-E Govt/Telstra/SVT Report Exhibits 46-F to 62
AUSTEL COT Case’s public report
Point 5.46 on page 95 ‘
Where, as part of its direction, AUSTEL sought to obtain detailed information on each of the exchanges involved in terms of performance standards, actual performance, maintenance requirements and achievements, Telecom initially responded with advice in terms of a few generalisations. Very specific requests were necessary to obtain data which a co-operative approach may well have been expected to deliver. Indeed, throughout this inquiry, it has been apparent that Telecom has chosen to interpret AUSTEL’s request for information in the narrowest possible terms. The net effect of this was to minimise the amount of relevant data it put before AUSTEL and lengthen the process necessary to extract it.
On 21st November 2007, I received from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), under FOI, a copy of AUSTEL’s original draft findings dated 2nd / 3rd March 1994, regarding the telephone problems experienced by the Cape Bridgewater Holiday Camp during 1988 to 1994. Copied below are some of the page numbers and points in the report. The reason I am discussing these issues here in our Manipulating the Regulator page is to show the difficulties that AUSTEL as the Government regulator had in obtaining documents from Telstra (at the time a fully Government-owned Corporation). Given these difficulties, the non-supply of documents to the COT claimants during their respective arbitrations is one of the reasons I was unable to conclusively prove to the arbitrator my telephone faults were still ongoing. The following list identifies some areas (in the AUSTEL draft report) where AUSTEL had problems with access to Telstra records on the service provided to me:
Point 43 on page 20 “As no fault report records remain in existence from Cape Bridgewater residents prior to this period, or these records have not been provided to AUSTEL, it is difficult to gauge the level of problems in the area.”
Point 48 on page 22 “AUSTEL has been hampered in assessing Telecom’s dealings with Mr Smith by Telecom’s failure to provide files relating to Mr Smith’s complaints.”
Point 71 on pages 28 and 29 “AUSTEL has not been provided with the documents on which the conclusion in this briefing summary were reached, such as fault reports from other Cape Bridgewater subscribers over this period or the details of the final selector fault. It would have been expected that these documents would have been retained on file as background to the summary. It can only be assumed that they are contained within the documentation not provided to AUSTEL.”
Point 140 on page 49 “It should be noted that AUSTEL’s investigation of matters relating to the RCM problem has been hampered by Telecom’s failure to make available to AUSTEL a file specifically relating to the Pairs Gains Support investigation of the RCM. The file was requested by AUSTEL on 9 February 1994.”
Point 160 on page 55 “It should be noted that it is hoped that a number of issues in regard to the Cape Bridgewater RCM will be clarified when Telecom provides the documentation requested by AUSTEL.”
Once AUSTEL was fully aware Telstra was refusing AUSTEL relevant information that would allow the government communications regulator to prepare its official report for the minister after the regulator facilitated the arbitration and mediation processes that were to be based on information obtained from Telstra, it is obvious that AUSTEL should never have allowed those processes to proceed. AUSTEL breached its duty of care to the COT cases by permitting the arbitrations/mediations to proceed. After all, if the government could not officially order Telstra to supply records to the minister, then what hope did the COT cases ever have of obtaining the same documents?
Absentjustice-Introduction File 495, dated 22 September 1994, is a transcript taken during an oral interview at the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s Office, with AUSTEL’s representatives Bruce Matthews and John McMahon. On page 7 of this manuscript the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s officer John Wynack, asked: ‘What was the date the report was issued, the AUSTEL report? And Mr Matthews replied: ‘The final report was April – I can’t remember the date in April, but April 1994. The draft report was produced in March 1994 and Telecom received their copy of that at the time.’
Spoliation of evidence – Wikipedia
In simple terms, by AUSTEL only providing Telstra with a copy of their AUSTEL’s Adverse Findings in March 1994, not only assisted Telstra during their defence of my 1994/95 arbitration it also assisted Telstra in 2006, when the government could only assess my claims on a sanitized report prepared by AUSTEL and not their AUSTEL’s Adverse Findings.
These actions by AUSTEL was an abuse of process when they allowed me to commence arbitration/legal proceedings against Telstra, without the necessary documents I needed to support my claim.. To have allowed me to spend more than $300.000.00 in arbitration fees trying to prove something that the government had already proved against Telstra was an abuse of process. AUSTEL breached their statutory obligation towards me as a citizen of Australia.
Minimizing Telstra’s liability
It is important to note before AUSTEL did their investigation into my complaints I provided them with a comprehensive log of my phone complaints which I later also supplied an updated copy to Dr Hughes (the arbitrator) on 15 June 1994 in my interim arbitration submission (see File - 7 to 9-A - AS-CAV Exhibit 1 to 47 and File 108 - AS-CAV Exhibit 92 to 127).
AUSTEL’s Adverse Findings, at points 10, 23, 42, 44, 46, 109, 115, 130, 153, 158, 209 and 212 (below), were compiled after the government communications regulator investigated my ongoing telephone problems. Government records (see Absentjustice-Introduction File 495 to 551) show AUSTEL’s adverse findings were provided to Telstra (the defendants) one month before Telstra and I signed our arbitration agreement. I did not get a copy of these same findings until 23 November 2007, 12 years after the conclusion of my arbitration.
Page 10 – “Whilst Network Investigation and Support advised that all faults were rectified, the above faults and record of degraded service minutes indicate a significant network problem from August 1991 to March 1993.”
Point 23 – “It is difficult to discern exactly who had responsibility for Mr Smith’s problems at the time, and how information on his problems was disseminated within Telecom. Information imparted by the Portland officer on 10 February 1993 of suspected problems in the RCM [Cape Bridgewater unmanned switching exchange]“caused by a lighting (sic) strike to a bearer in late November” led to a specialist examination of the RCM on March 1993. Serious problems were identified by this examination.”
Point 42 – “Some important questions are raised by the possible existence of a cable problem affecting the Cape Bridgewater Holiday Camp service. Foremost of these questions is why was the test call program conducted during July and August 1992 did not lead to the discovery of the cable problem. Another important question is exactly how the cable problem would have manifested in terms of service difficulties to the subscriber.”
Point 44 – “Given the range of faults being experienced by Mr Smith and other subscribers in Cape Bridgewater, it is clear that Telecom should have initiated more comprehensive action than the test call program. It appears that there was expensive reliance on the results of the test program and insufficient analysis of other data identifying problems. Again, this deficiency demonstrated Telecom’s lack of a comprehensive and co-ordinated approach to resolution of Mr Smith’s problems.”
Point 46 –“File evidence clearly indicates that Telecom at the time of settlement with Mr Smith had not taken appropriate action to identify possible problems with the RCM . It was not until a resurgence of complaints from Mr Smith in early 1993 that appropriate investigative action was undertaken on this potential cause In March 1993 a major fault was discovered in the digital remote customer multiplexer (RCM) providing telephone service to Cape Bridgewater holiday camp. This fault may have been existence for approximately 18 months. The Fault would have affected approximately one third of subscribers receiving a service of this RCM. Given the nature of Mr Smith’s business in comparison with the essentially domestic services surrounding subscribers, Mr Smith would have been more affected by this problem due to the greater volume of incoming traffic than his neighbours.”
Point 76 – “One disturbing matter in relation to Mr Smith’s complaints of NRR [not receiving ring] is that information on other people in the Cape Bridgewater area experiencing the problem has been misrepresented from local Telecom regional manager to more senior manager.”
Point 86 – “From examination of Telecom’s documention concerning RVA [a recorded voice announcement – not in service] messages on the Cape Bridgewater Holiday Camp there are a wide range of possible causes of this message.”
Point 109 – The view of the local Telecom technicians in relation to the RVA problem is conveyed in a 2 July 1992 Minute from Customer Service Manager – Hamilton to Managers in the Network Operations and Vic/Tas Fault Bureau:
“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 disconnecte. They believe that it is a problem that is occurring in increasing numbers as more and more customers are connected to AXE. [AXE – Portland telephone exchange]”
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 130 – “On April 1993 Mr Smith wrote to AUSTEL and referred to the absent resolution of the Answer NO Voice problem on his service. Mr Smith maintained that it was only his constant complaints that had led Telecom to uncover this condition affecting his service, which he maintained he had been informed was caused by “increased customer traffic through the exchange.” On the evidence available to AUSTEL it appears that it was Mr Smith’s persistence which led to the uncovering and resolving of his problem – to the benefit of all subscribers in his area”.
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.”
Point 209 – “Cape Bridgewater Holiday Camp has a history of service difficulties dating back to 1988. Although most of the documentation dates from 1991 it is apparent that the camp has had ongoing service difficulties for the past six years which has impacted on its business operations causing losses and erosion of customer base.”
Point 210 – “Service faults of a recurrent nature were continually reported by Smith and Telecom was provided with supporting evidence in the form of testimonials from other network users who were unable to make telephone contact with the camp.”
Point 211 – “Telecom testing isolated and rectified faults as they were found however significant faults were identified not by routine testing but rather by the persistence-fault reporting of Smith”.
Point 212 – “In view of the continuing nature of the fault reports and the level of testing undertaken by Telecom doubts are raised on the capability of the testing regime to locate the causes of faults being reported.”
It is most important I submit the following:
At point 5.3 (d, c and d) in the arbitrators findings of 11 May 1995 he notes:
(d) ”I note the AUSTEL report commented on Telecom’s deficient fault recording practices. Specifically it was stated that Telecom lacked a system capable of recording reports of recurring faults once a fault had already been reported and was awaiting clearance. This meant the full extent of a fault experienced by a particular customer would not be recorded.”
(e) In this context, the claimant’s diaries assume a particular significance. Telecom emphasised in its Principal Submission that diaries were lacking for the period 1988-1990 and hence “the magnitude of fault complaints reported by the Claimant is unsubstantiated”. It further points to the fact that for the period June 1988 to August 1991, only the claimant had a “significant level of fault complaints” amongst the customers then connected to Cape Bridgewater telephone exchange. Telecom concluded that the claimant’s claim must be exaggerated because “it is virtually impossible the faults at the exchange or at other exchanges could affect the claimant only, and not other subscribers as well”
(f) In this context, I have considered, and have no grounds to reject, the expert evidence provided by Telecom from Neil William Holland Forensic Document Examiner, who examined the claimants diaries and because of numerous instances of non-chronological entries, thereby casting doubt on their veracity and reliability. This is a factor which I have taken into account although I do not accept Telecom’s conclusion that no evidence at all should be placed upon the diaries in support of the claimants assertions.
Had the arbitrator Dr Gordon Hughes been in possession of AUSTEL’s Adverse Findings he could not have made the statements he did concerning Telecom's assertions that other subscribers trunked through the Cape Bridgewater telephone exchange did not suffer the phone complaints that AUSTEL’s Adverse Findings show they did suffer.
What has not been revealed in Dr Hughes's findings are the ongoing threats I had received from Telstra during the arbitration or the findings by the Australian Federal Police (Australian Federal Police Investigation File No/1), that Telstra had been listening in to my telephone conversations for quite some time.
I fact, it was the Australian Federal Police, after I alerted them in February 1994, that I had lost my two central camp diaries from 1988 to 1990, which had just disappeared. My yearly handwritten notebooks were records of all incoming inquiries and my logged phone complaints. It was common knowledge within AUSTEL and amongst other COT Cases that several COTs, including me, had been suffering PTS for years trying to run a telephone-dependent business without a reliable telephone.
In my case, my anger was often shown in comments made in my yearly handwritten notebooks. At times I used obscene, explosive comments in my diary notes. Was I also suffering PTS (see Chapter 7- Vietnam-Vietcong).
In late 1993, I confronted an intruder on my property in the middle of the night, and the local Portland police followed up on my confrontation with this intruder and found his story did not match what he had told me. I reported this to the AFP in February 1994 when they began investigating Telstra's unauthorised interception of my telephone and facsimiles. Melanie Cochrane of the AFP suggested that I record all of the content of my daily notebooks into my hard copy diaries so that I had two sets of records.
Melanie Cochrane, in the company of Superintendant Detective Sergeant Jeff Pemrose (AFP), also stated that Telstra had been documenting the names of various single club patrons on internal memos and could only have acquired that knowledge from intercepting my telephone and facsimiles of their names and addresses in my yearly handwritten notebooks should not be provided to Telstra and the assessor hearing my settlement/arbitration while the AFP was still investigating my claims.
I followed that advice by adding my handwritten yearly notebook statements between 1990 and 1994 to my complex daily diaries for the same period.
In simple terms, the statement made by Neil William Holland, Forensic Document Examiner, was correct.
On the other hand, the arbitrator refused my request under discovery to access the Portland/Cape Bridgewater log book, which AUSTEL had also used to determine their findings. The arbitrator declined that request. Telstra would not supply that same log book under FOI.
As shown on my website, on 11 November 1994, on my behalf John Wynack Director of the Commonwealth Ombudsman Office in Canberra, tried to access the same Portland/Cape Bridgewater log book to no avail.
Ballarat subscribers wrote to TV stations and newspapers supporting my allegations that, with regard to telephone services, rural small-business people, as well as the general public, suffered a very bumpy playing field compared to our city cousins. David M. Thomson & Associates, Insurance Loss Adjusters in Ballarat, wrote to the producer of Channel 7’s ‘Real Life’, a current affairs program:
“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 Telstra structure the majority of our local calls are STD-fee based.
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 Telstra 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.”
Another Ballarat letter dated 6 April 1993, from Cathy Lindsey, Coordinator of the Haddon & District Community House to the Editor of Melbourne’s Herald-Sun, 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.”
(Because of a number of reports regarding this ‘piercing noise’, Ray Morris from Telstra’s Country Division arranged to have my service switched to another system.” (See My Story Evidence File 10-B)
The pressure on all four of us COT cases was immense, with TV and newspaper interviews as well as 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, had 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 again wrote to me, 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.” (See Arbitrator File No/77 and Arbitrator File No/82)
It is most important we attach here the following link http://www.wedophones.com/Manuals/EricssonNotInService/AXE%20Operation%20And%20Maint%20Module%201.pdf at this point of time because through this website, even though I asked the arbitrator to access the Portland AXE telephone exchange logbook, this logbook discussed on page 20 of this link was never accessed or provided to me under FOI or the arbitration discovery process. Even the Commonwealth Ombudsman tried to access this same logbook via writing to Telstra's CEO Frank Blount on 13 November 1994, asking why it was never provided to me under FOI. It is clear from page 20 in this attached link that all faults registered by Telstra's technicians concerning any ongoing telephone problems within the Portland and Cape Bridgewater switching exchange would have been entered into this logbook.
This one document was all I needed to prove my claims of ongoing telephone problems was factual. Had the arbitrator been made aware of this, he could never have brought down his findings without making a provision in his award for further compensation until Telstra could prove there were no more problems with this AXE telephone exchange. The ambit of the Arbitration Act allowed for this provision for additional payment.
Just as important is, why did Lane Telecommunications Pty Ltd (ex-Telstra technician's) advise the arbitrator of the importance of this Ericsson 77-page AXE manual? Is the reason Lane Telecommunications Pty Ltd did not inform the arbitrator that such a logbook existed because they were working with Ericsson from the very beginning when they were appointed by the TIO in March 1995 (eleven months after I signed my arbitration agreement? We are talking collusion here of the worse possible kind.
Had this AXE Ericsson telephone exchange logbook been provided to me as it should have along with AUSTEL’s Adverse Findings I would not be writing this story 25-years later.
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