AUGUST 2008 UPDATE

Thanks to everyone for your interest in this case, and your support of Dawn...

She's still having a battle: especially when she gets a threatening letter from the Insolvency and Trustee Department. Fortunately she has a good Legal Aid lawyer who's helping...

No word yet from Lindsay Tanner, Minister for Finance and Deregulation. Probably there's a new round of bureaucratic 'toing and froing' again before he'll give his finding.

===>>> ACTION: Why not write a simple email, in your own words, asking Lindsay Tanner's people what's happening? Maybe remind him courteously that Dawn has suffered enough and a quick and compassionate resolution of her situation would be a kind/smart move! Email address: Lindsay.Tanner.MP@aph.gov.au

Thanks: and please email copies of responses to me...

--

Shalom/Salaam/Pax!
Rowland Croucher
Justice for Dawn Rowan - http://dawnrowansaga.blogspot.com/

LINDSAY TANNER'S REPLY TO MANY EMAILS

Thanks to all who wrote to Lindsay Tanner encouraging him to concur with Jenny Macklin's recommendation.

Here's his response:

16/06/2008, at 11:02 AM, Tanner, Lindsay (MP) wrote:

Dear _ _ _ _

Thank you for your email in support of Ms Dawn Rowan, requesting that I waive her debt to the Commonwealth.

I am aware of the history and circumstances of Ms Rowan's case and that a number of representations have been made on her behalf both to the previous Government and this Government.

There are a number of steps still to be undertaken before I can make a decision with respect to Ms Rowan's waiver request, including provision of advice from the relevant Government agencies and from Ms Rowan herself. Upon receipt of this information, I will be in a position to make an informed decision.

I appreciate your concerns and thank you for raising this matter with me.

Yours sincerely

Lindsay Tanner

*****

Rowland's comment: My instinct is that we now leave this with Mr. Tanner and (for those of you who pray) with God. The chances of a waiver? All we can say is that it would not be in the Government's interests for two of its ministers to publicly differ on this matter!

RESPONSE FROM LINDSAY TANNER

3rd June 2008

Dear friends (from Dawn),

I have now received correspondence from Lindsay Tanner's office consisting of an Application for Waiver of Debt (about 9 pages!).

This is a major step forward.

However here are some questions I'm working through at the moment:

* Does a 'debt waiver' legitimize the 'debt'? Justice would require that the notion of 'indebtedness' be removed from my records...

* Is a 'waiving of the debt' equivalent to an annulment of all record of bankruptcy, which I would need to have done to clear my name?

* And what about the million-and-a-half dollars I'm out of pocket as an innocent person, pursued brutally by the Howard Government, in particular, doing 'whatever it takes' to destroy me?

* I've been delighted with the kindness expressed by Jenny Macklin and her staff. In 22 years of personal agony I've never been treated with any respect and concern... until now.

* More good news: The Adelaide newspaper The Independent Weekly has published a brilliant article in last Friday's (30th June) edition on the whole saga. We can't find the story on their website yet: it will probably appear later this week. (Could someone please send it by email to me at dawn.rowan[at]optusnet.com.au and to Rowland at rccroucher[at]optusnet.com.au . Thanks. We'll get it on to the blog asap.)

* If you haven't written to Lindsay Tanner's office encouraging him in this process, please send an email to him at Lindsay.Tanner.MP@aph.gov.au .

We'll keep you all posted!

Regards

Dawn Rowan

LATEST DIAMOND VALLEY LEADER ARTICLE

Some good news about her bankruptcy battle has brightened Dawn Rowan's day. Picture: MARK FRECKER

Hope on the horizon for St Andrews counsellor

Will Jackson

21May08
Some good news about her bankruptcy battle has brightened Dawn Rowan's day.

Some good news about her bankruptcy battle has brightened Dawn Rowan's day.

ST ANDREWS counsellor Dawn Rowan has been given a glimmer of hope in her fight to stop the Federal Government seizing her home.

Jagajaga federal Labor MP Jenny Macklin has revealed she is seeking to have Ms Rowan's bankruptcy debt to the Commonwealth waived.

The Government has been pursuing Ms Rowan for $397,000 in legal fees incurred in a long-running defamation battle.

It won a bankruptcy order last September, allowing it to seize her home and assets.

Ms Macklin, the Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Minister, has been reviewing the case after lobbying from Ms Rowan's supporters.

In a letter to Ms Rowan last week, Ms Macklin said while she had no power to halt the debt recovery, Minister for Finance and Deregulation Lindsay Tanner could waive such debts." "

"Accordingly, I am writing to (Mr Tanner) asking him to consider the waiver of your debt," Ms Macklin wrote.

Ms Rowan, whose only remaining assets are her house and car, told the DV Leader it was an enormous relief to "finally" be treated with kindness.

"I've never had anyone treat me as anything but a criminal for the past 22 years," she said.

Ms Rowan, 62, was named in a damning 1987 government report into a South Australian crisis shelter she helped run.

Shelters in the Storm contained anonymous claims of physical, sexual and verbal harassment of Christies Beach clients, as well as intimidation, inappropriate counselling practices, professional negligence and misappropriation of funds.

The allegations were proved false and Ms Rowan successfully sued two television stations and the federal and South Australian governments in 2002.

All but the State Government appealed successfully, but the Federal Government was the only party to pursue her for costs.

Ms Rowan said she believed Mr Tanner would agree to Ms Macklin's request, but there was still potential for the television stations to pursue her for legal costs.

Visit the Diamond Valley Leader website

GOOD NEWS!!!

(at least for now).

Dawn received a fax from Hon. Jenny Macklin's office today which says, in part:

'Even though I have no power to halt the debt recovery, you will be aware that the Minister for Finance and Deregulation [Hon. Lindsay Tanner] has the power to waive debts in circumstances such as yours.

'Accordingly, I am writing to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation asking him to consider the waiver of your debt.

'Please let me, or my Electorate Office, know if I can further assist you in this difficult time.

'Yours sincerely,

Jenny Macklin'.

****

I hope to talk with Jenny Macklin's Canberra office tomorrow (Thursday, May 15) to check about what else we can disclose.

But this is very good news. Hon. Lindsay Tanner has the final call (and he's a bit preoccupied at the moment with the Federal Budget).

There are still quite a few questions to be faced/answered. You'll hear from me again in a few days.

Jan and I are meeting with Dawn again tomorrow. To those of you who pray, let us give thanks for this milestone event, and pray for an uncomplicated positive decision by Mr. Tanner!

Thanks again to all of you for lobbying for justice for Dawn.

===>>> Why not email Jenny Macklin and thank her? (JMacklin.MP@aph.gov.au )

Rowland Croucher

DIAMOND VALLEY 'LEADER' ARTICLES ON DAWN ROWAN

The Diamond Valley Leader - the local newspaper in Dawn's region of Melbourne - has published four articles about Dawn. The earliest
(or http://tinyurl.com/5h3b4w)

Another... (or http://tinyurl.com/6m57yn)

Another... (or http://tinyurl.com/6zk6z4)

And the latest (or http://tinyurl.com/3l4vdx)

You can contact these good people to thank them here...

DO THE 'RIGHT THING' JUDITH ROBERTS 'AO'!!

From Dawn Rowan:

Some of you might have read (on the frontpage of the Melbourne Herald Sun May 6 2008) that high profile lawyer-businessman-TV funnyman Steve Vizard has has this week handed back his ORDER OF AUSTRALIA award.

He said 'This is partially out of respect for the ORDER, to protect it,' and 'because it is the right thing to do.'

Steve Vizard collected his ORDER OF AUSTRALIA medal for services to the community, in 1997.

Vizard also said his decision to hand back the ORDER OF AUSTRALIA was brought on by his civil conviction concerning his financial dealings described by the judge as 'dishonest and a gross breach of trust'.

The Herald Sun article also says 'Previously an award could be revoked for a criminal conviction. Last September that was extended to include Civil penalties.'

Comment: Although this change to the Australian Awards rules is not retrospective, Steve Vizard, having received his award in 1997, in the light of these changes (ie. to include a ban on persons with CIVIL CONVICTIONS) has decided to 'do the right thing'.

Judith Roberts has a CIVIL CONVICTION in the Rowan Vs. Cornwall and Others case for 'gross defamation' in the judgment of June 2002. Justice Debelle was scathing in his condemnation of her behaviour as Chair of the 'Independent' Review into the management of Women's Shelters in South Australia, conducted in 1987.

See Justice Debelle's judgment (especially para. 79).

Just before the Full Bench Appeal in this case was about to start, Judith Roberts, at the time guilty of MALICIOUS Defamation, was curiously awarded an AO for 'services to the community'. How does the award process evaluate the decency and credibility of its recipients?

Given Steve Vizard's act of decency and respect for the Australian Awards system, I call upon Judith Roberts to also do the decent thing and hand back her AO, since she remains guilty of the civil charge of Defamation.

Or will she hang on with the shallow technical defense that these changes are not retrospective?

****

Here's the latest article in Dawn's local paper, the Diamond Valley Leader...