Government Corruption - Gaslighting
Gaslighting
Psychological manipulation
Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which the abuser attempts to sow self-doubt and confusion in the victim's mind, i.e., you do not have a telephone problem. Our records show you are the only customer complaining when the documents show the situation the person is complaining about is systemic. Typically, gaslighting methods are used to seek power and control over the other person by distorting reality and forcing them to question their judgment and intuition.
In the case of Telstra (who was government-owned during the COT arbitrations), in my arbitration alone, Telstra's arbitration defence unit used nine separate witness statements, all signed by nine different Telstra senior employees where everyone swore under oath my business was not suffering with ongoing telephone faults during my arbitration when secret government records AUSTEL’s Adverse Findings, dated March 1994 confirm my complaints were ongoing for the whole six-year period of my arbitration claim as points 2 to 212 show:
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.”
Who was the arbitrator going to believe me or the nine witness statements all sworn out under oath stating there were no ongoing problems?
These nine sworn testaments worked, and why wouldn't they work one statement from me against nine? Of course, the arbitrator made no written finding concerning my ongoing problems in his award.
STOP PRESS
It was reported in the Australian media on 9 November 2023 that.
The Optus CEO said 10 million people losing internet and phone use for up to sixteen hours yesterday, causing chaos for emergency services, hospitals, transport, was hardly the biggest outage we've ever seen, nor that unusual. The opposition communications spokesman David Coleman, on the other hand, called it “catastrophic”.
Anyone reading the COT Cases Telstra story will see for themselves from the information in our absentjustice.com download evidence files that some twenty-one Australian citizens calling themselves the Casualties of Telstra experienced ongoing telephone faults, loss of service days on end over more than eleven years had to take Telstra and the government to arbitration at a cost to themselves and their business running into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Heart attacks, stress-related illnesses and the suicides and broken marriages that followed. It would be welcome news to the surviving COT Cases to hear that some of those millions of people who lost their phone capacity for nine hours would write to their Federal Members of Parliament asking them to read our COT story and then value the responses of what these millions of OPTUS customers said about losing their 'phone services for up to sixteen house' v the COT Cases having to suffer 'years upon years' of lost phone services as they tried to hang onto their businesses and their sanity.
This is just one example of how these ongoing telephone service problems ruined my business and my credibility because no one would visit my business, especially the Royal Melbourne Children's Hospital. I quote from the most prominent newspaper that reported how deficient my phone service was without understanding doing so was about to destroy the credibility of my holiday camp even further when they stated:
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, or the six or so nurses and carers. Mobile telephones could not operate successfully in Cape Bridgewater until 2004, eleven years after this event. My coin-operated gold phone was also plagued with phone problems, and it took several tries to ring out of the holiday camp. An ambulance arrived sixteen minutes after our first try to call the Hospital.
It took almost a tragedy for Telstra to send someone with real technical experience to my business. Telstra's visit happened on 3 June 1993, six weeks after the Children's Hospital vowed never to revisit my Camp until I could prove my Camp was telephone fault-free. No hospital where convalescent is a good revenue spinner has ever visited my business, even after I sold it in December 2001.
Testimonials
Between April 1990 and when I sold the holiday camp in December 2001, I continued to sponsor underprivileged groups to stay there during the weeks partly (that became years) when the phone problems continued to beset the holiday camp. At least some money was coming into the business. Those wanting a cheap holiday persisted by telephoning repetitively regardless of being told the Camp was no longer connected to Telstra's network. These groups wanted a holiday, and if they had to drive for hours to make a booking as Loreto College did (see below), then a drive they did.
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 all through one 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 probably best for both of us if Karen were to leave 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, though, without her day-to-day assistance at the Camp, which had given me space to travel around, 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.”
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 dependent 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”
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 Cathy 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 questions unanswered about who collected my mail and how they knew there was mail to be collected from the Ballarat Courier mail office. On both occasions, when a third person collected this mail, I telephoned Cathy, informing her the Ballarat Courier notified me there was mail waiting to be picked up.
It was another fiasco that lasted until August 2009, when not-so-new owners of my business were walked off the holiday camp premises as bankrupts refer to Chapter 4 The New Owners Tell Their Story.
The following Kangaroo link, https://shorturl.at/wRT57, has
Ann's Garms was prepared to go live on her YouTube video below about her arbitration and appeal process, which coincides with her letter discussed below.
This same letter is discussed in more detail on National Television as the YouTube video shows (File 942 to 946 - AS-CAV 923 to 946).
I have raised here four letters, one dated 17 August 2017, 6 October 2017, 9 October 2017 and 10 October 2017, from COT Case Anne Garms, just before her death, to The Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP, Prime Minister of Australia and Senator the Hon Mathias Cormann (see See File Ann Garms 104 Document) where she exposes not only the raping of the first nation (aboriginal children) by Senator Collins in his parliament house Canberra office (rb.gy/dsvidd) Ann also discloses in her 6 October 2017 letter which is marked Doc B, to the Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP, Prime Minister of Australia, raises the fact that previous CEO during the COT arbitrations Frank Blount co-produced a book https://www.qbd.com.au › managing-in-australia › fran admitting Telstra did have significant problems in their network.
Had the arbitrator and administrator to the COT arbitrations been aware that Frank Blount would be making public statements about how deficient the network was less than two years after Telstra had sworn under oath in some thirty or more statutory declarations that Telstra's network was of world standard when pages 116, 132, 133, 136, and 137 in https://www.qbd.com.au › managing-in-australia › fran: the COT Cases would have been awarded a far greater compensation payout than they did.
It was also essential to raise Ann Garms's letter here because Wayne Goss (Chair of Deloitte), referred to by Ann, had also been Premier of Queensland, and therefore, when Ann said he told her that during our arbitrations, Gaslighting methods were used against us fits in with the Gaslighting character assassination used against me in 1996, to stop Laurie James, the President of the Institute of Arbitrators Australia from investigating my claims concerning the unethical way in which the four COT arbitrations had been conducted.
This is the same unethical conduct that three young hackers (later identified as Julian Assange) warned Graham Schorer, COT spokesperson, about very early in our arbitrations, as this part of our COT story shows.
Click on the Julian Assange caption below to learn more about the COT story.
Graham Schorer prepared a statutory declaration on 7 July 2011 to provide to the Victorian Attorney-General, the Hon Robert Clark. This statutory declaration discusses the hackers who phoned Graham to warn him. The hackers discovered Telstra and others associated with our arbitrations were acting unlawfully towards the COT group. Graham's statutory declaration includes the following statements:
“After I signed the arbitration agreement on 21st April 1994 I received a phone call after business hours when I was working back late in the office. This call was to my unpublished direct number.
“The young man on the other end asked for me by name. When I had confirmed I was the named person, he stated that he and his two friends had gained internal access to Telstra’s records, internal emails, memos, faxes, etc. He stated that he did not like what they had uncovered. He suggested that I should talk to Frank Blount directly. He offered to give me his direct lines in the his Melbourne and Sydney offices
“The caller tried to stress that it was Telstra’s conduct towards me and the other COT members that they were trying to bring to our attention.
“I queried whether he knew that Telstra had a Protective Services department, whose task was to maintain the security of the network. They laughed, and said that yes they did, as they were watching them (Telstra) looking for them (the hackers). …
“After this call, I spoke to Alan Smith about the matter. We agreed that while the offer was tempting we decided we should only obtain our arbitration documents through the designated process agreed to before we signed the agreement.” Hacking – Julian Assange File No/3
On the covering page of a joint 10-page letter dated 11 July 2011 to the Hon Robert McClelland, federal attorney-general and the Hon Robert Clark, Victorian attorney-general, I note:
"In 1994, three young computer hackers telephoned Graham Schorer, the official Spokesperson for Telstra Casualties (COT), regarding their Telstra arbitrations.
- Was Jullian Assange one of these hackers?
- The hackers believed they had found evidence that Telstra was acting illegally.
- In other words, we were fools not to have accepted this arbitration file when it was offered to us by the hackers who conveyed to Graham Schorer a sense of the enormity of the deception and misconduct undertaken by Telstra against the COT Cases." AS-CAV Exhibit 790 to 818 Exhibit 817
I also wrote to Hon. Robert Clark on 20 June 2012 to remind him that his office was already in receipt of Graham Schorer's 7 July 2011 statutory declaration. I also approached other government authorities and provided the Scandrett & Associates report (see Open Letter File No/12 and File No/13), which leaves no doubt that the hackers were absolutely correct concerning this electronic surveillance.
If the hackers included Julian Assange, he carried out a duty to expose what he thought was a crime. Significant law enforcement agencies and the media have been asking the Australian public to disclose incidents that they believe are crimes because doing so is in the public interest. When I exposed similar crimes to the Australian Federal Police – Australian Federal Police Investigation File No/1 – I was penalised, and Telstra carried out its threats.
On page 15 of a publication titled The Most Dangerous Man In The World, written in 2011 by the ABC TV Four Corners journalist Andrew Fowler, Mr Fowler notes that Julian Assange was one of those who hacked into Telstra's Lonsdale Street Telephone Exchange computer system in the centre of Melbourne. This is the same Lonsdale telephone exchange which had caused so many problems for my business, as reported in the government's report titled AUSTEL’s Adverse Findings, which notes at 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.”
Page 21 in the 26 November 1996 Telstra Arbitration Briefing Document for Graham Schorer (COT spokesperson) also refers to problems at the Lonsdale Street Telephone Exchange, noting that the issues affected the service lines of Graham's courier business. So what did Julian Assange and his friends find at the Lonsdale Street Telephone Exchange that prompted them to telephone Graham Schorer?
My statement to Mr Pinnock, Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (the second appointed administrator to my arbitration) in my 20 October 1995 letter that: "This phrase has now come home to roost" (refer to exhibit 537 - GS-CAV 522 to 580) was my way of saying that I believed that the advice Graham Schorer received from these hackers – that Telstra and others associated with the COT arbitrations were acting unlawfully towards the COT Cases – using the old Gaslighting attack on those in arbitration and mediation cases destroyed the very idea of a democratic process.
No one in the arbitration process came to my aid to assist me in stopping these threats from becoming a reality, not the arbitrator Dr Gordon Hughes, Warwick Smith, the first appointed administrator to my arbitration (who was also the first Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman or the arbitration Project Manager John Rundell who advised Dr Hughes and Warwick Smith on 18 April 1995 Chapter 1 - The conspiracy continues, i.e.;
“It is unfortunate that there have been forces at work collectively beyond our reasonable control that have delayed us in undertaking our work.
“Any technical report prepared in draft by Lanes will be signed off and appear on the letter of DMR Inc.” (see Prologue Evidence File No 22-A)
Why did John Rundell allow Lanes to do all of the technical assessments of the COT Cases claims and, once he had done that, place DMR Inc (Canada)? Was this allowing Lanes to assess the COT Cases claims instead of DMR Inc Canada having anything to do with Ericsson purchasing Lanes during the COT arbitrations?
These forces appeared to be the same at work that Julian Assange had warned Graham Schorer (COT Cases spokesperson) about when Mr Assange telephoned Mr Schorer.
Gaslighting and threats
Threats Carried Out
Threats were made against me by Telstra arbitration officials because I assisted the Australian Federal Police with their investigations into these phone and fax hacking issues. Refer to page 180 ERC&A, from the official Australian Senate Hansard, dated 29 November 1994, which 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?” Senate Evidence File No 31
Thus, the threats became a reality. What is so appalling about this withholding of relevant documents is this - no one in the TIO office or government has ever investigated the disastrous impact the withholding of documents had had on my overall submission to the arbitrator. The arbitrator and the government (at the time, Telstra was a government-owned entity) should have investigated why an Australian citizen who had assisted the AFP in their inquiry into unlawful interception of telephone conversations was so severely disadvantaged during a civil arbitration.
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