Councillor contradicts evidence given under oath.

Independent Councillor Peter Hemphill dismissed the testimony given by Crs Lindsay and Marsich under oath in the Magistrates' Court, and clarified what really happened behind closed doors in the real debate about the Hobsons Bay Council's 2005-2006 budget.

Click here to read our previous article about the testimony of domestic partners and ALP councillors Lindsay and Marsich.

It seems the Labor councillors will do anything to prove their innocence, whether that be to forget convenient facts, or misrepresent the truth.

Court judgment rescheduled to 4 Oct.

The Magistrates' Court judgement against Labor's MaryAnn Lindsay has been rescheduled to 10am, 4th October.

Magistrate English will determine whether Ms Lindsay misled and deceived voters by not disclosing her Labor Party membership in her official candidate statement, and may make recommendations to the Local Government Minister about changes to the Local Government Act and the way council elections are conducted.

Whatever the result is, Noel Allsop, HBCF, the legal team and witnesses have done a great job in successfully taking the case to a trial following three directions hearings, and then presenting a very thorough and strong case. Well done!

If 67 voters erroneously voted for Ms Lindsay instead of Noel Allsop (thinking Ms Lindsay was not a member of a political party) then Ms Lindsay would have been the first candidate eliminated from the vote count.

Case against Labor's stooge candidate postponed

The Magistrates' Court has just postponed the date for the judgement in the case of Allsop v Lindsay. The tentative date for the hearing is now 3 October, but that will be confirmed in the next day or so.

Labor Lawyer sends letters threatening HBCF members

Dear all,

Just when you think the local Labor (Matheson) faction has reached its lowest low, they do something to sink further into the depths of the Western Suburbs sewerage system. MaryAnn Lindsay's Solicitor, John Yianoulatos ("Johnny Y" for short), sent various HBCF committee members letters this week, threatening to seek costs from us personally for MaryAnn Lindsay's legal defence - if she 'is successful'.

We should be at least grateful the letter didn't contain a bullet, like the letters sent by Labor Faction members in another Western Suburbs branch to party opponents.

So who the hell is "Johnny Y"? Glad you asked.

Johnny Y is the legal officer for the Health Services Union - the union MaryAnn Lindsay works for. He's in the same labor faction as disgraced former councillor Brad Matheson who was forced to resign in disgrace from Hobsons Bay Council, the Municipal Association of Victoria and Australian Local Government Association last year.

Johnny Y's wife (Vicki) works in Premier Steve Bracks' private office, so it's a very cosy happy Labor family.

Do you think they were expecting MaryAnn to pay for her defence? Of course not! They did it because they are family, and they need to scratch eachother's backs. Besides, if you can't defend your stooge, who can you defend? (vtic)

The following is the letter one of us received from Johnny Y, but it is indicative of the other ones received by HBCF committee members.

Note the professional email address and office; you've got to love a laywer who uses a hotmail account and backyard Coburg office for business. Even the address for the Magistrates' Court is wrong (I hope he finds it).

Labor's stooge Councillor's evidence in question as rate hike decision examined

Labor Stooge Councillor MaryAnn Lindsay forgot just about everything that happened in the last 12 months when she was cross-examined in the Magistrate Court over allegations that she was a stooge candidate. However, she didn't forget everything. In an attempt to save her hide and prove she does not always vote with the Labor Party, she used the only example she could to show she didn't always vote with the other Labor Councillors; an alleged disagreement in a private meeting over the Hobsons Bay rate hike.

Stooge Councillor Lindsay claimed the Labor Councillors Caruana, Baarini and Marsich were against the rate hike, while she and the Independent councillors supported it. Apart from the official vote showing that all councillors supported the 8.9% rate increase, have a look at the following press articles from the time. Does it look like any of the Labor Councillors were against the increase? Of course not!

Labor's Cr. Caruana even went out trying to sell the increase to residents, and the disgraced former Labor Councillor Brad Matheson wrote letters supporting his former colleagues in the local press. It is highly unlikely that things were as Cr. Lindsay portrayed them but we will never know for sure. Like all other decisions in council, this one was made behind closed doors.

You decide:

Case Against Labor Stooges - Local Press Articles 6/7 Sept 05

Hello All,

Here are the articles about our legal challenge from the local newspapers for this week.

Regards,

HBCF


P.S. I've also included the article from the Times about Tony's 60 Minutes appearance for anyone that's interested.


The Mail:
























The Star:



The Times:


























The Times article about Tony Briffa's 60 Minutes story:

HBCF Challenges Labor stooge strategy in Hobsons Bay

HBCF Challenges Labor stooge strategy in Hobsons Bay
HBCF took the fight against the local Labor branch's use of stooge candidates all the way to the Magistrates' Court in a three day hearing in August 2005. The following are articles from the local press about the case.

The Mail:









The Star:

























The Times: