VCAT—there is a fox in the hen house

It was a closed session. A strict “name suppression” order had been in place on the matter of the planning permit for 9 Rowena Street (Bendigo Mosque) since the application was lodged with VCAT. The applicant was to be referred to as “JHX. There were four other parties of present with their lawyers—The Age, The Herald-Sun, Bendigo City Council and Islamic Mission of Australia (Formerly known as AIM). Yet, no one seemed to notice that despite the complete “name suppression”, the lawyer for the Mosque was able to table, 3 articles written in an online blog by the Applicant known as “JHX” which established their stance on multiculturalism,  Islam and religion and also had a full copy of their original 8 page objection to Council against the mosque…oh yes…AND THEIR NAME.

This is despite the fact that the VCAT matter was lodged with complete “name suppression” and all documents had been distributed to relevant parties without identification on it.. Yet the lawyers acting on behalf of the mosque knew it all.

Didn’t anyone in VCAT notice—there is a fox in the chook house.

The affront to justice didn’t stop there. The affidavit to support the applicant’s request for “name suppression” was media bias.

The basis of the affidavit was that the Australian media at this point of time was unable to report any matter surrounding an objection to the planning permit for a mosque without applying “racist” and “bigotry” overtones to their media articles. Having these labels applied to anyone in this “politically-correct” climate means certain social damage as one witness could have attested if they ad been allowed to speak.

The most recent case in “media bias” the applicant wished to draw on, was last month’s Bendigo Council approval of the mosque planning permit.

The applicant held up in VCAT a six page “Letter of Default” that had been joined together to form a nearly two metre long list of planning anomalies. This list had been sent to Council and had been made available to the media. Did one media house report on any of these planning anomalies?—NO.

At the Council meeting Cr Leach and Cr Chapman had debated planning issues on the night for over two hours—pure planning matters—did the Australian media report on this—NO.

After ignoring the list planning anomalies the rest of the Bendigo Council and granted the planning permit to the mosque a unanimous vote of “no-confidence” in the Council erupted from the members of the gallery of residents—Did ANY of the media report on this—NO.

So what did the media of Australia write about. Well we would love to tell you—but the applicant JHX was CLOSED DOWN. The Sitting Member for VCAT simply over-rode the rest of their submission that would go onto detail all the media bias. Yes he actually stopped the rest of the submission from being heard.

JHX finally sought  a ten minute stay in proceedings, granted begrudgingly by the Sitting Member, to attend to a severe nose bleed that they had been battling throughout this initial submission. It was callous that the Sitting Member of VCAT had chosen to overlook this condition all that time. What is the world coming to when a person bleeding, doesn’t illicit some kind of humane reaction from those overseeing proceedings?

The other witness on the affidavit was ignored from being called to give testimony to media bias. The waters were then given over to the Lawyer for the mosque to be muddied. He basically sanctioned the media bias because the applicant was now being made out to be a “publicist” because they blogged.

It was disheartening to see the lack of support for everyday Australians representing themselves by VCAT. Even a simple name suppression order could not be maintained by VCAT until the actual hearing.

JHX was the front person for concerned citizens of Bendigo with many other signatories on hand to join in support this action later. Their advocate at VCAT was another member of group of Concerned Citizens.

The two other applications against the planning application for 9 rowena street have been accepted by VCAT to be heard, one group petition, and a single petition. They were also present in the gallery. An informal agreement was made between JHX and group in the gallery to support the one group VCAT petition.

As a result, JHX and their team chose to withdraw their petition as a protest in these corrupt proceedings before the decision for name suppression was even handed down by the Sitting Member of VCAT.
The media circus that followed warranted police to be called in order to escort  the applicant and their team out of VCAT to their waiting car. This is part of an ugly Australia that needs just needs a critical review.

Name suppression in the past has been used mainly by pedophiles, children and victims of sex offences. However in today’s growing terrorist climate VCAT needs to broaden its understanding of the real threat of “anti Islam” hatred in our Australian society and support its citizens to continue in free speech and right of legal protest.

Let us hope that JHX will not need to feel that their safety has been compromised by VCAT decision of less than 24 hours ago.

NOTE: Police were called at 9.30 am for their support.