Letter To The Commonwealth Secretariat

Neil Winzer
12 Holleton Terrace
Padbury WA 6025
[email protected] - phone: 045 046 2526
Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group
C/O Commonwealth Secretariat
Marlborough House, Pall Mall
London SW1Y 5HX, UK
Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Dear Ministers

I respectfully ask that you consider the documents, some of which are attached, that I believe show that the Chief Justice of Western Australia is knowingly participating in a serious and persistent violation of the Charter of the Commonwealth. My understanding is that the Charter effectively replaces the Harare Declaration.

In particular, I note what is included in the Charter under the headings Democracy, Freedom of Expression, Separation of Powers and Rule of Law. Of Good Governance it is stated:

We reiterate our commitment to promote good governance through the rule of law, to ensure transparency and accountability and to root out, both at national and international levels, systemic and systematic corruption.

The violation, I claim, features Chief Justice Wayne Martin's refusal to respond to the fact that I received acknowledgement from the Police Service on 2.7.12 regarding the complaint I made in accordance with the Protocol for Complaints Against Judicial Officers about the handling of my complaint against Governor Malcolm McCusker. I claim systemic corruption.

I believe that the Protocol introduced with fanfare by the Chief Justice amounts to hypocrisy and therefore I'm hoping there is more substance to the Charter of the Commonwealth.

The matter began with my initiative of submitting as an employee of the WA Department of Transport a formal claim on 18.9.98 as to the involvement of senior officers in corruption.

The individual who featured in my submission happened to be a particular favourite of the Government at that time and has continued to be so with the successive governments. While supposedly under criminal investigation, as the available documents show, he sat on the panel that selected our Police Commissioner and was later awarded the Order of Australia.

I say, due to the steps taken to silence me, I felt obliged in early 1999 to leave the workplace and apply for workers' compensation. That application was heard over eighteen days. Many of twenty or so witnesses for Transport gave testimony that was in gross conflict with the answers to questions that were by that time being asked in the WA Parliament regarding my experience. The workers' compensation application was not determined in my favour.

As a consequence of the usual suite of authorities failing to address my appeals concerning my public interest claim, I pressed the matter beyond the Corruption and Crime Commission in 2004 to the Parliamentary Inspector, now Governor McCusker. After four years of 'back and forth', McCusker, faced with irrefutable data on his failure to process my complaints objectively and thoroughly, simply refused further communication.

Ultimately I complained to the Chief Justice Wayne Martin under his Protocol about the handling of my complaint against McCusker by Justice Chaney the President of the State Administrative Tribunal. Faced with irrefutable data on Chaney's failure to appropriately process my complaint against McCusker, the Chief Justice refused further communication.

Surely, simply refusing further communication should not be an allowable exercise of discretion within the justice system of a developed country.

The 'acid test' for my declaration as to 'irrefutable data' takes the form of the attached brief on the essence of the question tabled in the WA Parliament on 24.3.11. An important aspect involves the advice given to both the WA Parliament and the Court for workers' compensation as to the existence of documents showing that Transport addressed my public interest claim. That advice conflicts with the Corruption and Crime Commission's 14.8.08 report that they were “unable to locate any detailed written response to his [my] claim”.

Having left the workplace in 1999, my accrued entitlements expired and I've not been paid for approximately twelve years. Although paying for the reports Transport has rejected the advice of a highly respected Professor of Psychiatry that I be allowed to return to to work.

Yes, 'whistleblowers', let alone the general public, being denied justice is not uncommon anywhere in the world. Certainly, I'm not the only one in recent years in WA, as noted by a former Attorney General, the Hon Cheryl Edwardes, in Parliament on 25.8.04:

… the whistleblowers to whom I have referred many times this year and last. Time and again I have raised the causes of the likes of Chris Read, Jean Thornton and Neil Winzer. Sadly, I need to report that their cases are still not being dealt with adequately or properly.

Your consideration of this matter is warranted I believe due to the fact that Australia declares that it observes the highest standards on all matters and exercises no hesitancy in offering advice to other countries. If the practice in Australia is truly as I've described, what hope is there for the other countries?

Attached you may also see copies of my letter of 8.1.13 to the Chief Justice, my letter of 27.2.13 to Governor McCusker and my brief Governor McCusker, a Common Liar and Cheat. It is a legitimate brief in my view given that it is largely comprised of the statements of significant others on a position at odds with the position taken by McCusker.

While I understand that there are many critical matters already before you I respectfully ask for consideration.

Yours sincerely

Neil Winzer

CC

Senator, the Hon Bob Carr,

Minister for Foreign Affairs