PLEASE KEEP 2009 MAUNDY THURSDAY FREE!

We're inviting all of Dawn Rowan's supporters and friends to join in a 24-hour Vigil outside Lindsay Tanner's office (corner King and Little Lonsdale streets, Melbourne CBD), from

===>>> early Thursday morning April 9 to Good Friday morning.

(Only adult males between midnight and dawn).

Please invite your friends! Visit this Blog for more details (including the possibility that the Vigil will be called off if Lindsay Tanner makes an appropriate judgment about the fate of Dawn Rowan before then).

Rowland Croucher

PLEASE WRITE TO THE PRIME MINISTER!

Here's a letter I've just sent online to the Prime Minister. You can adapt it and send one in just a few minutes, via this site - http://www.pm.gov.au/contact/index.cfm

Thanks!

*****

Dear Mr Rudd

Let me introduce myself: I was Tim and Peter Costello's pastor during their teenage years. How they're so different having listened to my preaching (sometimes about social justice) beats me!

I'm writing about DAWN ROWAN. I understand you're aware of this travesty of justice which has been going on for nearly 24 years.

At every stage of the court processes her innocence has been affirmed.

===>>> But the Commonwealth is wanting to bankrupt her, and take her home. Her crime? Helping 'battered women' and their children in a Women's Refuge in Adelaide, which for some inscrutable reason attracted the ire of ministers of the crown in the SA and Federal parliaments!!!

Please, please, confirm Jenny Macklin's recommendation to waive her debt to the Commonwealth, and urge your colleague Lindsay Tanner to do it soon.

Thank you!

More: http://dawnrowansaga.blogspot.com/

Yours faithfully

(Rev. Dr.) Rowland Croucher
Home phone: 03 9729 2517 .

So we were wrong/optimistic about the ABC TV's Q&A program mentioning Dawn Rowan.

Yes, as my first option suggested, 66 online submissions about Dawn Rowan were not sufficient. See the 66 submissions here...

None of the major media outlets (except Channel 7 Adelaide) or newspapers will touch the story (or, last week, even a letter from Julian Burnside QC to the Age, then the Herald-Sun about the case). But this week Dawn's local paper, the Diamond Valley Leader had a letter and picture about Dawn...

As she often says: 'If you don't believe in conspiracies you're being irresponsible!'

===>>> Thanks to supporters of Dawn who submitted something. It was a significant exercise. Lindsay Tanner's people would have collated them all before the show. It all helps...

Remember the bit where The Opinion Editor for The Australian, Rebecca Weisser, began talking about a lady we're all persecuting, and Tony Jones quickly interjected 'which lady?' (it was the CEO of the clothing company)... Interesting, that reaction...

===>>> If Lindsay Tanner doesn't act before Holy Week, we'll be encouraging friends to attend the vigil outside his downtown Melbourne office.

And if you want a very interesting speaker for your church/friends' group Dawn's quite a brilliant communicator.

Watch this space!

*****

Meanwhile, here's an interesting email from one of Dawn's supporters to his local Member of Parliament:

The issues surrounding the Dawn Rowan saga are at the very centre of what many claim as our democratic system. Those issues are government not acting outside of powers, courts truly acting independently of government, and political representatives acting in the best interests of the people
(the electors) rather than any political party, or any powerful self-interest entity, such as the media. With the Dawn Rowan saga all of the above are under question.

TONIGHT'S ABC TV's Q&A

Dear friends,

Thanks to all who have submitted questions to ABC TV's Q&A moderators about Dawn Rowan. Minister of Finance Lindsay Tanner, as you will know, is the person who has the 'last word' on Dawn's fate: a judgment he has intimated he will deliver 'soon'.

As of 11 pm Wednesday evening (March 4) there were 52 questions on the Q&A website about Dawn Rowan - more than on any other topic. It will be interesting to see if/how Q&A addresses this social justice issue tonight.

As those of us close to Dawn reviewed the possibilities, they seem to include:

1. The ABC will ignore the issue, possibly advised by their lawyers to follow this course of action as the ABC was one of the four parties which appealed the original judgment affirming Dawn's innocence. Or they will stick to safemacro-economic questions.

OR

2. Tony Jones will say something like 'Mr. Tanner. We've had more email submissions about someone called Dawn Rowan for tonight's program than about any other topic. Dawn Rowan: what's that all about?'

Mr Tanner then has two options, it would seem:

2A: TYPICAL POLITICIAN'S EVASIVE RESPONSE: 'It's a very complex question, and there's a lot of misinformation out there about this case. I am about to make a judgment on it soon, so it is not appropriate for me to go into the matter any further here.'

OR

2B: COURAGEOUS/COMPASSIONATE POLITICIAN'S RESPONSE: 'Yes, it's been going on too long. I am about to make a judgment on it, and I think Dawn Rowan will be satisfied with what I decide. Mind you, any judgment in favour of Dawn Rowan - whose innocence in all this I affirm, and for whom I feel deeply sorry for her having to fight the Commonwealth for so long - any judgment will be made against much of the advice I'm receiving from legal and bureaucratic sources...'

Anyone wanna bet on these - or any other - outcomes???

Watch at 9.25 pm tonight (Thursday) - see http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/ for more, including the questions submitted by many of you...

And thanks again everyone for your participation and prayers...

Rowland Croucher

URGENT: PLEASE EMAIL QUESTIONS TO ABC'S 'QandA'

For those who would like to add their voice to the call for justice for Dawn Rowan, Lindsay Tanner is appearing on Q&A on the ABC this week (Thursday night 9.25 pm), and viewers are encouraged to submit their own questions. If there are enough asking the question, perhaps it might be put to the Minister on air. You can submit a question by going to http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/

There is a space type in your question. Don't forget to add your name and town at the bottom of the question (best to keep it all short, even though you have 200 words) then fill in your name, email address, phone number and State. Use your own words.

It can be as simple as "Wouldn't you agree that 24 years is way too long for someone to wait for justice, in this wonderful country of Australia? The right thing to do is to waive Dawn Rowan's debt to the Commonwealth. This woman has suffered long enough because of FALSE allegations leveled against her."

Gary Heard wrote "Why is it that the minister has waived a taxation debt of a (well-resourced) former Governor-General, yet has not waived the debt of Dawn Rowan, a pioneer in the Women's Refuge movement, whose debt emerges from a successful fight to clear her name which was muddied by unfounded allegations in a government report? She has waited for justice for 24 years. Minister Jenny Macklin has recommended this action... why the wait?"

The timing is important. Lindsay Tanner has indicated that a decision is near. Weight of voices is Dawn's best asset at this point.

You can check out Dawn's story by visiting http://dawnrowansaga.blogspot.com/

Thanks Gary!