We thank Russ Platt of "The Strategy" for this insight into the "Pig Farmer" story.
(You can subscribe to the monthly Strategy by phoning: (03) 5441 2558)
(Financial figures all from Senate Hansard 27/5 20/8/93)
The 'witch bank' seems to have a penchant for lowering it's own integrity.
This once mighty bastion of the People has little chance, indeed never of ever rising to the heights it originally attained through the honest worthwhile practices implemented by Sir Dennison Miller, probably the greatest banker this nation has ever had, and certainly a champion of theAustralian cause. A man so visioned he had the strength of purpose to withstand the might of the private banks, the London financial institutions, and the Treasurer and Government of the day if anything they proposed were not in the national or peoples interests.
What went wrong?
After his untimely death in 1923, the advent of weak politicians allowed the private banks to take control of the "People's Bank'' by having their own board members installed on the Board of Directors. What a time of disaster for the nation for that which had been denied them the control of the nation's finances was now thrust back in their lap.(See J.T.Lang's "The Great Bust'', O'Malley, "MHR'' by Larry Noye and the "Commonwealth Bank Story'' by D.J.Amos.)
This monumental institution belonging to the people was the brainchild of King O'Malley and brought into being by the foresight and persistence of the "REAL LABOR PARTY'', nothing like the masquerade occupying the den of sin in Canberra today.
Remember what Kim Beazley's father said?
"When I first joined the Labor Party (in the 1940s), it was made up of the cream of the working class. When I left it (in the 1970s), it was made up of the scum of the middle class."
Furthermore, true stalwart members of the Labor Party and clear thinking members of the old Liberal Party fought to retain the high integrity of this fabled institution over the following two decades or so. But, like concrete giving way to a continuously dripping tap, the continuous onslaught by the usurious private banks and the weakening of our parliamentary system by the insidious creeping socialists, the once mighty system crumbled. Today, the Commonwealth Bank is but a shell, allowing usury to wreck havoc on the nation, and it appears to encourage fraudulent and corrupt acts as can be seen in the following.
Time does not allow us to but mention a few here cases of misadventure by Australian banks here, but, it is interesting to note the similarities in the cases mentioned (not in specific order) and of the one we report on here with the exception of Paul Keating in regard to the treatment metered out.
Mr Rigg said: "My company which is now in liquidation by the 'Banks' fraud, was never in default, in fact, after the illegal debts were removed the company was $30,000 in credit and had an approved overdraft of $40,000. The consequences of the `Banks' illegal actions are:
Collapse of Tony Rigg Welding and Mfg.Co.P/L
Collapse of a worldwide export company. The 'Banks' own files recognise the relationship between Lysaght Building Industries and Austrade and the fact that Austrade advertised my company in S/East Asia extensively. The 'Bank' recognised the fact I would be an exporter.''
Page 11, Part 1, of the Rigg Submission to the Banking Inquiry: "As the company will be earning offshore income it will have a natural hedge against exchange rate movement for it's foreign currency option. "This will be the first simulated borrowing at this office wherean exporter has been involved."
Mr Rigg continued: "The 'Bank' did not abide by the agreement. The 'Bank' manipulated the accounts and destroyed the cashflow. At one stage the 'Bank' was charging Au$49.65 interest in the wrong accounts.''
Mr Rigg concluded by saying: "Today with extensive overseas contracts and export, my company would be worth approximately $100 million. Now I am unemployed. The 'Bank' has destroyed my business, stolen my property and income.
"Neither my company nor myself were ever in default,'' he said. (He also suggests that approximately 500 jobs were lost to the Nowra, NSW area.) Keep this in mind when reading "the piggery'' details below.
The above are but a few of the many.
It should be noted here that debt forgiveness has never entered the above but, it appears, persecution, skulduggery, cheating, fraud, lying, and quite possibly manipulation of the judiciary and tampering with court records appear to be the order of the day. But, is this treatment across the board - obviously not.
Read on and carefully note the difference in the treatment reserved for somebody like Paul Keating equally as guilty of betraying the nation as the 'witch bank'.
Do not ask us why there is a press gallery at Parliament House, because it is a rare occasion that they report the things that really matter, in general it is only frivolous material they report, or something which gains them kudos with the politicians. It is left to the community watchdogs around the nation to pick up what is 'really' happening, and, thankfully, many of these true-blue Aussies pass the information on to the Strategy and our on-line newspaper to follow up.
The following report is from the Senate Hansard, No. 4, 1993, May 27.[emphasis in the Hansard report has been added by the paper.]
Matters of Public Interest re Prime Minister: Companies.
Senator Michael Baume speaking: "The Senate would be aware of my concerns at the inaccurate annual returns filed by the Brown and Hatton group of companies, which are half owned by the Prime Minister (Mr Keating), and the fact that the Australian Securities Commission required these returns corrected particularly by being audited.
"I would like now to draw the Senate's attention to a document that purports to reveal that the major lender to the Prime Minister's piggery group, the Government owned Commonwealth Bank, has so little confidence in its prospects of recovering its loans of $17,862,941 to the group that, on 8 August, 1992, it made a provision for loss of $4.5 million against a possible principal loss of $5.4 million.
"The document, headed 'Confidential: Report of Provisioning for Loss', read as follows:
CORPORATE CENTRE: Sydney
BORROWER: Brown and HattonGroup Pty Ltd and Related Accounts.
PRINCIPAL/DIRECTORS: JJ Brown, JB Brown, VF Hatton, KA Hatton, A Constantinidis, P Christopher and P Keating.
BUSINESS ACTIVITIES: Piggery. Commercial refrigeration.
LENDING FACILITIES ESTABLISHED: 1976
LOAN PURPOSES: Acquire piggery operation. Commercial property investment. Working capital.
BALANCES: $17,862,941
LESS Interest reserved: $1,696,759
Security: R/M (7) R/E/M (3) by directors, by related companies $ 10,765,743 $ 12,462,502
POSSIBLE PRINCIPAL LOSS: $ 5,400,439
Note: CDB has provided separately secured facilitiestotalling $2,074,392 on which repayments are not being made at present. No loss is expected in view of the value of the security held
AMOUNT OF PROVISION FOR PRINCIPAL LOSS: $ 4,500,000
GENERAL: The group has along association with piggeries.
In 1988 CBA funded a major expansion programme pending a proposed public float which did not proceed.
Brown and Hatton's rural operations have recently agreed to a joint venture with the Danish company Danpork AS, which is subject to the joint venture company arranging finance and should result in a reduction of CBA's debt. The residual debt is projected to be around $10.3 million against security with an estimated value of $5.9 million. The provision for principal loss has been established on the basis that the joint venture will proceed and that continuing cash flows from the piggery operation cannot be relied upon to reduce the residual debt.
The loss can be attributed to:
REPORTED TO CREDIT COMMITTEE OF THE BOARD (D N MAYNARD) 6 August 1992
Senator Michael Baume still speaking: "I do not intend to canvas this alleged large bad debt provision beyond saying that it came at a time when the Prime Minister, his Ministers and his press office were denigrating my comments about inadequate financial reporting by this half copy;owned piggery group of his as unsubstantiated muckraking.
"However, I cannot verify and I stress this the accuracy of the document I have just read as my previous attempts to verify allegations made to me about this group of companies that the Prime Minister half owns have resulted in legal action being taken against me and a blocking of further attempts to undertake my parliamentary duties.
So in this case I have reluctantly been forced by the threat of legal action not to check this document with the Commonwealth Bank as I normally would have done.
"However, this bad debt provision is particularly significant in view of the fact that the liabilities of five of the seven Brown and Hatton Group companies significantly exceeded their assets, according to the 1991 accounts finally audited and presented to the Australian SecuritiesCommission last December.
This prompted the auditors to qualify their accounts in the following terms: the accounts have been prepared on a going concern basis which contemplates continuity of normal business activities and the realisation of assets and settlement of liabilities in the ordinary course of business. The continuity of normal business activities is dependent upon the continued support of the company's ultimate shareholders together with the support of bankers of the group of which the company is a member. Financial support has been forthcoming from the group's bankers to the date of signing this report.
"That qualification, of course, is very significant. It exists in relationto those companies whose liabilities exceeded their assets, that is, five of the seven in the group which were subject to public company audit. An additional one, Rincraft, also had a substantial deficit but has not been subject to audit.
"According to the auditors, the fate of this group of companies half-owned by the Prime Minister rests with the Commonwealth Bank which this document says has written off $4.5 million from this group as a bad debt. By the way, the loan amount of $17 million is against an equity of only $860,000 put in by the owners, Messrs Keating and Constantinidis, and their family companies.
It is a gearing ratio that many farmers presently being put off their land by foreclosures would have loved to have been able to achieve.
"Since 6 August, the date of this document, the group has filed a wholeseries of returns with the Australian Securities Commission outlining increased losses. I have no knowledge of whether the bank was aware of these further losses that were reported for the year to June 1992 to theASC in February 1993. These losses were substantial and, I repeat, unaudited, because no longer was there an auditor's requirement because they had reverted to proprietary company status.
"For example, the loss for the Brown and Hatton Group Pty Ltd for the year1992 was $2,971,276. The loss for Brown and Hatton Wholesale Pty Ltd was $423,501. For Jensay Pty Ltd the loss was $562,016. The loss for Olympia Refrigeration Sales Pty Ltd was $1,168,878. The loss for Olympia Industries Pty Ltd was $634,641, and the loss for Olympia Interiors Pty Ltd was $124,785. These losses were only in small part offset by a profit by Brown and Hatton Rural Pty Ltd of $1,862,363.
"These very large losses follow the audited losses and audited returns provided by the company as a result of my pressure on the Australian Securities Commission to provide corrected returns for those which were patently incorrect. For example, the Brown and Hatton Group's 1990 accounts showed that it had a profit of $842,999 when, in fact, its audited accounts have revealed a loss of $3,150,041.
Its 1991 accounts were stated to show aloss of $1,518,847. In fact, it ended up as an audited loss of $2,842,868. For Brown and Hatton Rural Pty Ltd the 1990 unaudited profit was stated tobe $900,416. The audited profit was cut to $855,416.
"For Jensay Pty Ltd the unaudited result for 1990 was supposed to be aloss of only $7,504. The audited loss was, in fact, $737,936. The Jensay result for 1991 followed a similar massive blow-out, where the unaudited loss was Au$43 and the audited loss was $412,043.
"For Olympia RefrigerationSales Pty Ltd, the original unaudited loss was reported to be $141,143. The audited loss was $800,258 for 1990, and for 1991 there was a further correction from the unaudited loss of $343,548 to $358,983.
"So we see that these significant unaudited losses, on top of the unaudited losses about which I have expressed concern, appear to have further deteriorated the financial position of some of the companies in the group. These results caused the stated shareholders' equity of the group tobe significantly reduced as well, although the accounts must be treated with care because they are unaudited. The stated shareholders' equity for the companies in the group are negative in most cases.
"For example, theBrown and Hatton Group has a stated shareholders' equity of minus $3.7 million.
Senator Campbell: "As bad as the national accounts.''
Senator Michael Baume: "It is as bad as the national accounts. Jensay Pty Ltd has a negative shareholders' equity of $1.7 million. Olympia Refrigeration has a negative shareholders' equity of $2.3 million. Olympia Industries has a negative shareholders' equity of $1.9 million. Olympia Interiors Pty Ltd has a negative shareholders' equity of $414,832.
"Two members of the group have reported a positive shareholders equity Brown and Hatton Rural, with $5.1 million, and Brown and Hatton Wholesale,with $300,000 odd. It should be recognised that the positive shareholders'equities are heavily influenced by a massive revaluation of the value of buildings and are not a result of any substantial trading benefits.
"I conclude by saying that, on the resumption of the Parliament in August, I will deal with other matters which I believe should be brought to theattention of the Senate. At that time I will also deal with the sacking of The Age columnist, Mr Peter Ryan, over this issue.''[end Hansard report.]
1. This loss provision (debt forgiveness) mind you is without any legal action having been taken, and within some 12 to 18 months of theoriginal loan having been provided in the face of a poor rural climate. Perhaps the 'witch bank' have no expertise in the rural area?
2. There is two major notable conditions in this paragraph which need deep consideration.
(a) The loan value ratio to security ascompared with the 4 examples of cases we showed in the area prior to the Keating piggery fiasco.
(b) The very fact that, not only have the 'Bank' given debt forgiveness and we might add without taking legal action, but, in fact, have turned the other cheek, as to foreclosing to obtain satisfaction as they have done in all the example cases and, in fact, gonethe extra mile to allow them the chance to trade out a situation, which in many cases like the examples would only have taken a very short time. No, the 'Bank' was more interested in increasing it's asset growth and decreasing the employment and export potential of the nation why?
3. This manipulation of company status, whilst completely legal, certainly is not the sort of practice resorted to by any companywhich is endeavouring to do the right thing by it's creditors, and in this case, where it involves the Prime Minister, surely the public should be able to expect a more open and upfront operation?
4. When reading this exposure of the companies half-owned by the Prime Minister, one should also remember that he was the 'treasurer'and during his control of this office the national debt blew-out from $33million (1982-83) to $189 million (1991-92).
If the performance of the companies he is involved with and the performanceof the Treasury and the nation whilst under his control are any criteria,how could anyone, least of all a bank loan $17 odd million on security of $860,000?
Does this not suggest that something other than prudent bankingpractice was involved? Could it be possible that pressure was brought to bear on the 'witch bank' by those who control the laws related to "banking practice'', or could there be a reciprocal arrangement of some nature to protect the `bank', we know that reciprocal arrangements have been done inthe past in "certain high places.''
It would seem that the details exposed by Senator Michael Baume would indicate the very least action the bank should be taking, is to appoint a receiver, if not, in fact, wind the company up, as they have done with so many in the recent past. This of course would then raise questions as to the legal right of Mr Keating to occupy his seat and "The Lodge".
Another aspect which is never explained the illegal government controlling this nation do not have the right to sell that which thePeople own without first getting the People's approval by referendum.
What do you think?</P>
"I was there, as were a small group of "Witch Bank'' victims. Tony Rigg, Kevin Webb, Donna Batiste, and others,'' said Mr Joe Bryant.
The important issues that came out of the meeting were:
The media bias, both Radio and TV and the press interviewed the victims at length, little got on the TV except channel 7 who gave a reasonable coverage of one interview." Channel 10 used the opportunity to tell the world I (Joe Bryant) was taken to the cleaners by the Bank, while not covering the issues or thereas for our being at the Bank meeting, (nothing new to the brainwashing of average Australia).
"The only result from this type of coverage would be to maximise the damage of the Bank's actions against myself.
"Secondly, when the Bank Board was asked 'How come the Bank had not allowed for the half billion dollars worth of claims against it in theCourts'' the answer was 'We, (the Bank) don't expect to lose the Court cases.
Mr Bryant continued, "When I asked 'How the Bank could be so sure of theCourts decision before the cases were heard, did the Bank in fact control the Courts decisions?' There was no reply, except later the Chairman did say 'We expect to win all except maybe a few small claims.' Backing away from where he put his foot in it earlier. We will win the lot.''
"This question, and the answer, are proof of what is going on in Australia."Justice is but a MYTH." Something for the peasants to dream about,'' he said.
"Comparing the Bank to the Mafia and the numbers game of old, and the courts to the debt collection thugs who did their bidding, is so close to the truth that it is paralysing our Media, our Legal profession, and our very society,'' continued Mr Bryant.
The final question he asked, "As the CBA is one of the big four, was it proud of it's share of over 500 of the 2200 suicides this year, not to mention the so called accidental deaths of at least equal proportion, where debtors ran their cars into trees, or other vehicles, or fall under their plough?'' Again no answer, and more importantly no reporting. Just the continual propping up of a corrupt, and destructive system.
It has been reported that Donna Batiste served the Bank with a $50 million writ. It will be interesting to see how the Bank (alleged to be bankrupt in other material we have seen) would manage to pay a spate of such writs if they were to lose the Court cases? But then, creating credit out of thin air as they do "it would be anyone's guess'' what their limit might be. Cases such as this and many more this paper has reported only illustrate all the more the lack of morality that is government the banks are stealing the nation blind and it is condoned by the government and the judiciary through lack of moral courage to correct the "gross skulduggery'' they have allowed to continue unabated. (see article "TheFraudulent Scam That Is Banking'', page 3 of THE STRATEGY - December 1997.)
Whilst at the present point of time it is nigh impossible to get a court decision against the banks, simply because judges will not accept the truthor are too ignorant of the truth to make intelligent decisions, the time is coming when the people WILL BE SERVED by these public servants.
If this is so, as Keating would have everyone believe, then what truth istheir in the following reports floating around? Why are the Keating group of companies reported as losing:
1. Au$7.3 million over the last three (3) financial years?
2. It is said that three (3) of the companies subsidiary companies are unprofitable, with combined losses of almost 3 million dollars?
3. The Hatton arm of the group is reported as making 4million profit? We ask the following questions:
How could Keating, with assets in the region of $150,000 obtain loans and credit sureties to the tune of $24 million? Could our farmers?
What sort of parallel could be drawn to Hewson minimising his taxes and the situation of one of Keating's companies making 4 million profit and 3 subsidiaries making losses of 3 million? Probably the best thing that could happen is Keating suing Senator Baume and causing the whole 'brew' to be brought out into the open. It will be interesting to see what the mainstream media report and how much gets glossed over could we have corruption at the highest levels?
Will the media be 'game' to do an honest reporting job of the case? It remains to be seen, but it would be worth taking bets on it.
SENATE HANSARD MAY No 1 1993 PAGE 252
Senator Powell asking Gareth Evans about Keatings pigs being kept on chains.
The Australian, 6/11/92, P.M. Keating: "This is the principle. The Senate has no right to obstruct the principle policies of the Government in theLower House; that is our view.''
HOW THE FARMERS FEEL:
Chauffeur driving Keating in his limousine back to Canberra along a countryroad. Suddenly a pig runs across the road in front of the 'limo', driver hits the brakes, but alas, too late, runs over the pig and kills it.Turning to Keating, he says, I will go and tell the farmer to which Keating says, no, no we haven't got time. The driver persists, and goes to tell the< farmer. He knock's on the door, and when farmer answers introduces himself as Keating's chauffeur. After talking for a minute at the door, he disappears inside, to Keating's frustration.A short time later he re-emerges with arms full of goodies and bottles of wine.Returning to the 'limo' Keating asks him about all the goodies. The driver says, "I don't know, all I said was I've just killed the pig."