The
trip to Sydney was uneventful.
14th to 19th August 1999 - Scott Balson
The day before I left for Sydney I had appeared in the Magistrate's court for the setting down of a trial date to hear the Crown's allegations that I had named an MP on child-sex charges on the Internet.
The
trip to Sydney was uneventful.
On arrival I caught a Taxi and settled in at the Dural Hotel/Motel.
Sunday and Monday were spent seeing Sydney - visiting places like the Rocks, Darling Harbour etc...
I
was invited to Shondra Britton's (the organiser of the
talk) birthday party on Sunday night - meeting her sister Belinda,
father Paul and mother Cheryl.
Although there are only five candles on the cake Shondra actually turned 20 that day.
On Tuesday I went to the Britton's home to prepare the links for that evening's talk. While doing so I discovered that the Tripod-based @notd had been hacked with the words "If I return" being added to the initial story referring to my Sydney visit.
I immediately contacted my lawyer - but had to wait until my return to Brisbane to remove the offending words and to change the password access.
It was on this day that One Nation MP Bill Feldman raised the allegations in Parliament that The Courier-Mail had initiated the complaint against me about the alleged naming of an MP on the Internet. The Courier-Mail, unsurprisingly, denied the allegation.... in the paper the next day.
In the afternoon I visited Manly office and the local Koala Sanctuary.
That night I spoke at the Dural Club to a group of between 50 to 100. My talk went on for about an hour. It was followed by book signing and then another hour of very active audience participation in question time.
Images below: Cheryl Britton sells books; Scott Balson addressing the audience; Steven Burke and Shondra Britton draw the chook raffle; Left to Right: Brian Zarth, Shondra Britton, Steven Burke and Scott Balson
It was gratifying to see the audience had such a good feel for the real issues that are affecting Australia. Among the audience was a Polish couple who joined me for dinner the next night. They drew parallels about what was happening in Australia to what had happened in the country of their birth - Poland.
They
were accepted as political refugees when they came to Australia and now they
wondered if this country had become what they had escaped from.
A frightening thought. Although they allowed me to take their picture I had to first assure them that their identities would be protected. As you can see they have been - what the hell has this country come to!
On Thursday morning I returned to Brisbane - finding myself seated next to David Ettridge who was on his way to Brisbane to meet with lawyers over the astounding ruling that One Nation was illegally registered - the party was later deregistered in Queensland.
Thank you for Shondra for your hospitality and organising the successful book talk.
Feedback:
Hi Scott!
I trust you had a safe trip home.
Thanks for the informative night we had on Tuesday night, i will treasure the experience, like all people who i've meet since becoming involved with O.N
As i'm sure you have already gathered, i have learnt that O.N has been de-registered from the Qld electoral system. These two cretins who prosecuted the party in the supreme court are now looking to do the same in N.S.W. Well first of all, their going to need to fight an appeal, and then they'll need to find some factual evidence to back up the claim, which i find to be untruthful!
Besides- even if O.N is de-registered, O.N can become re-registered in a matter of days!
Any way, keep up the good work, and i'll will do my best to do the same!
Cheers,
Phil