THE DAWN ROWAN SAGA: November 2007

Friday, November 16, 2007

17 NOVEMBER 2007

There's really nothing new to report since the last entry here, a month ago.

Dawn is working with her Legal Aid lawyer to put together a list of her 'assets and liabilities' so that the process of dismantling her life and possessions - especially her home - can continue.

It's federal election time here in Australia, but the bureaucracy - with its cold, hard, uncaring, legalistic approach to matters legal - still functions.

But perhaps if the Howard Government is tossed out (quite a possibility) we can begin again with the new boys and girls of the Centre/Left, who claim to be more compassionate. It still wouldn't hurt for us all to appraise our local candidates of Dawn's situation...

I have another letter here from a right-wing Liberal federal parliamentarian (Peter Dutton, Federal Member for Dickson, Queensland, Minister for Revenue & Assistant Treasurer). When I get it transcribed, I'll post it here with Dawn's comments, if she's up to it.

Dawn is still very depressed. Pray for her.

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"Where, after all, do universal rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world. " Eleanor Roosevelt.

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Rowland Croucher

Welcome!

This blog tells an amazing story. If you're an Australian, you might naively believe that you live in a country committed in its legal and political institutions to fairness and justice.

As you read on, you will have good reason to doubt all that.

(See Dawn's Documents Blog - http://dawnrowandocuments.blogspot.com/ - for more...)

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JULIAN BURNSIDE QC: 'I have carefully considered your situation... You have exhausted all possibilities of legal recourse... It is now important that your story be known by the public rather than buried... Be more assertive in pushing this issue in the media. Exposure of the Commonwealth's shabby behaviour might cause a change of heart.'
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Please contact your local Federal member or senator urgently on behalf of Dawn: the more emails and letters sent to people in authority the more likely they will take notice! (See next paragraph for a couple of letters: you can use the raw material to construct your own. Note (January 2008) that they're dated in terms of the election: it's now important to contact the new Labor ministers. But they can still provide the raw material you can use).

Shalom!

Rowland

~~~

Samples of letters on behalf of Dawn Rowan:

Dear [local Federal member]

As a member of your constituency, I am writing to seek your assistance on a matter of justice currently before the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and the Federal Attorney General. In August 1987, a lady called Dawn Rowan worked at Christies Beach Womens' Shelter, Adelaide. It was shut down by the SA Government following unsubstantiated allegations, all of which were subsequently found to be grossly defamatory. Dawn Rowan has since worked to restore her unfairly tarnished reputation and gain compensation.

This she won in the SA Supreme Court, yet now faces bankruptcy and homelessness on legal technicalities. These were exposed on Channel 7s "This Day Tonight" in May 2007 -- see the video onfront page of her advocate at http://jmm.aaa.net.au. Since her home can only be saved by a decision from your Ministers above, may I ask you to please:

1) Assess the justice of her situation for yourself and advise me of your findings,

2) Raise the matter with your Ministers and

3) Advise me of the outcome.

May I take this opportunity to thank you for representing our constituency so well, and wish you well for the election expected later this year.

Yours sincerely,

~~~

2. A letter I wrote to the Diamond Valley Leader newspaper - also to several parliamentarians. (The Leader has published three pages of stories and photos re Dawn's situation. It's the local paper for the area where Dawn lives).

The Editor [ ]

Thank you for your excellent coverage last week of the Dawn Rowan saga. I do not know a worse miscarriage of justice in our nation than this one.

In Ethics 101 I learned that 'not everything that's legal is moral.' In our Westminster system it's apparently 'legal', under parliamentary privilege, to tell a bevy of lies defaming an innocent person, but it's manifestly immoral.

It's OK apparently for five government agencies to 'lose' a cohort of documents relating to this case, but until that government institutes an enquiry, no one is held accountable.

In the appeal process it's apparently legal for a judge not to disclose bias, as Dawn Rowan alleges, when there are a number of close associations on various committees with the leading guilty party.

This saga also suggests that to pursue for costs an innocent person (Dawn Rowan) when at every level of the case the guilty party was declared to be the Government of S.A. is also immoral.

And if Ministers Ruddock and Brough who are hounding Dawn Rowan to bankruptcy had any decency they would also realize that they're being very unwise. People are not going to vote in this election-year for parliamentarians who so manifestly lack compassion.

At a forthcoming bankruptcy hearing we will learn whether an innocent person will be out of her St. Andrews' home and on the street. There's now a very large groundswell of interest and concern about this case. Put Dawn Rowan into a Google search for some evidence of this: she occupies the first 17 of over a million entries!

Yours sincerely,

Rev. Dr. Rowland Croucher

http://jmm.aaa.net.au

3. And from a S.A. woman-friend:

Dear Senator Minchin,

Please do what you can to ameliorate the dire situation in which Dawn Rowan finds herself in.

I am sure that you are aware that Dawn has saved many lives, come to the aid of women and children fleeing domestic violence and been the compassionate adviser of women whose lives have been blighted by violence and threats. She was warning people about the prevalence of child sex abuse long before that subject became speakable. Like many women in the van, she has been punished for her outspokenness.  This is a terrible thing for young women of our age to understand, but it seems to be the truth still.
She is one of my heroes.  In the 80s her work was an international influence for good and her work seminal in the progress towards understanding families under stress.

She has continued her work despite the misery her life became after the appeal against her successful defamation case.

This woman does not deserve to be pursued into bankruptcy.

Please give this sad case your attention.
http://dawnrowansaga.blogspot.com/

THE DAWN ROWAN SAGA

Friday, November 16, 2007

17 NOVEMBER 2007

SEE ALSO THE DAWN ROWAN DOCUMENTS BLOG

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THE DAWN ROWAN SAGA

Friday, November 16, 2007

17 NOVEMBER 2007

SEE ALSO THE DAWN ROWAN DOCUMENTS BLOG

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