Petition to the Senate

BD i was thinking about that. Not sure if i need permission. The petition will be made available at the NAB games. Still working out logistics.

I have been in contact with Chris today and we can still use the change.org as an attachment. I will start the paper based petition as per his instructions for Wednesday night for those of us attending the committee meeting. We are thinking of the most appropriate way of getting signatures

Please keep sending out the change.org because it adds weight to the claim.

Can you have a ‘stand’ or something, setup at the NAB games and get signatures there?

I have been in contact with Chris today and we can still use the change.org as an attachment. I will start the paper based petition as per his instructions for Wednesday night for those of us attending the committee meeting. We are thinking of the most appropriate way of getting signatures

Please keep sending out the change.org because it adds weight to the claim.

Don’t be too concerned by this. The Senate inquiries that I appeared before had no petitions attached to them. The petition will however add considerable weight to the Senators’ position.

Lets hope so …

I have been in contact with Chris today and we can still use the change.org as an attachment. I will start the paper based petition as per his instructions for Wednesday night for those of us attending the committee meeting. We are thinking of the most appropriate way of getting signatures

Please keep sending out the change.org because it adds weight to the claim.

Don’t be too concerned by this. The Senate inquiries that I appeared before had no petitions attached to them. The petition will however add considerable weight to the Senators’ position.

The petition is going great. It's important for the process to branch out to people who may otherwise not be interested in football or who do not support Essendon. . I've used the following approach and some of you may want to copy/modify it.

Dear

This is a short note regarding a petition that is currently being submitted to the Senate to ask for a Senate inquiry into the investigation of the Essendon supplements case. The link to the petition is given here.

I know that this is seen by many as a football issue, but it is an issue about rights, in particular

  1. The right to a fair trial

  2. The right of appeal

  3. The role of the High Court

  4. The right to be able to prove innocence.

I have attached a document which outlines the issues. I think these rights are important for all of us. The inquiry will be looking among other issues into whether these rights have been abrogated.

I am hoping that you may consider signing this petition and, if you believe it’s worthy of your support, that you may suggest others to support it,

Best wishes

As Kesslin says, '“petition needs to branch out to people who may otherwise not be interested in football or who do not support Essendon”.

I heard Andy Demetriou is a Bombers fan ....

You’d spit on him if you saw him at the football wouldnt you? Or trip him up might be better, more like an accident.

It’s amazing how often a gun accidentally discharges

Sweet thought. “I didn’t shoot anyone!”

I have been in contact with Chris today and we can still use the change.org as an attachment. I will start the paper based petition as per his instructions for Wednesday night for those of us attending the committee meeting. We are thinking of the most appropriate way of getting signatures

Please keep sending out the change.org because it adds weight to the claim.

Good afternoon,

This office was recently approached about the wording of a petition for presentation to The Senate.

The draft we initially received was both too long and not compliant with Senate standing orders.

I have then redrafted a shorter form of it (attached) and had it checked by Senate staff, hoping that any points not covered in my draft could then perhaps be identified by you and communicated to me for inclusion.

Since then, another petition has been posted on Change.Org (see above hyperlink) which I have also had examined by Ms Shannon Armstrong (Assistant Journals and Notice Paper Officer, The Senate).

Her opinion is that while the Change.Org petition is addressed to senators Di Natale, Madigan and Xenopohon, it is [a] neither addressed to The Senate (in a way The Senate can accept), [b] nor set out in accordance with Senate standing orders and [c] contains requests that are beyond the powers of The Senate.

Ms Armstrong agrees that The Senate does accept electronic petitions while the House of Representatives does not. However she reiterates that while petition websites also allow for petitioners to post comments, these cannot be included in a print-out for presentation to The Senate. This, apparently, can be overcome by way of settings on individual petition websites.

She also emphasises that the owners of these websites can often be reluctant to release the “signatures” (email addresses or other identifiers) without prior arrangement. This has serious potential to frustrate the expectations of those who might feel encouraged to “sign” your online petition.

Senator Madigan has nonetheless said he will happily acknowledge the number of signatories the Change.Org petition might ultimately attract, even if neither he nor any other senator are ultimately left with an actual document for presentation to parliament.

Should any of you still wish to petition The Senate itself, please feel free to ring either Ms Armstrong at The Senate or myself in Senator Madigan’s office. Either of us would be very pleased to help.

● Also, if you are interested in the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and its investigation of the Essendon Football Club 2012 supplements program, you might want to come to Parliament House at 10.30pm (until 11pm) this Wednesday (10/02/2016). You would certainly be welcome to attend and Senator Madigan would certainly be pleased to meet you.

ASADA is at that time due to answer questions from the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee at a public hearing under the 2015-16 Additional Budget Estimates process. This will take place in Committee Room 2S1.

Yours sincerely,

Chris Evans – Electorate Officer

OFFICE OF JOHN MADIGAN
INDEPENDENT SENATOR FOR VICTORIA

Canberra: Suite S1.24, Parliament House, Canberra. TEL: 02 6277 3473
Electorate office: 17 Albert St, Ballarat Vic 3350. TEL: 03 5331 2321
WWW.JOHNMADIGAN.COM.AU

I heard Andy Demetriou is a Bombers fan ....

You’d spit on him if you saw him at the football wouldnt you? Or trip him up might be better, more like an accident.

It’s amazing how often a gun accidentally discharges

I heard Andy Demetriou is a Bombers fan ....

You’d spit on him if you saw him at the football wouldnt you? Or trip him up might be better, more like an accident.

ASADA knocks on the front door, comes in through the back door. Does ASADA follow the spirit of rule?

Philip Nelson
Australia

Sep 27, 2016 — Many people have grave concerns at how ASADA behaves and its views on the legal rights of Australia’s athletes.

Dr Ben Koh, a sports medicine expert, revealed that in 2011 ASADA attempted “to access confidentially held medical information” held by Medicare.

“In that programme, athletes’ medical records were cross checked for evidence that they were using WADA banned substances.

“The scheme was abandoned when the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and the Australian Government Solicitor deemed the programme illegal and that ASADA did not have legal authority to conduct the programme.”

Source: ‘Anti-Doping and Medical Privacy’, 19 July 2013, LawInSport.

But if anything, ASADA is persistent.

Was it a coincidence that the day before the infamous “blackest day” press conference on 7 February 2013, legislation was introduced to expand ASADA’s powers? Luckily, The Greens were able to insert an amendment that stopped ASADA stripping away athletes’ right to silence.

A copy of The Greens Senators Dissenting Report 2013 can be viewed here:

http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/legislation/amend/s902_amend_da4b1a3c-7250-4046-bc9a-c799c7277a46/upload_pdf/7368_ASADA%20Bill%202013_AG.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf

Again in the following year, The Greens Senators Dissenting Report dealt with the ‘ASADA Amendment Bill of 2014’. They raised the following concerns about proposed changes:

  • Mr Ian Predergast, AFL Players Association, said that the Bill’s penalties “are not compatible with Australian employment law.
  • Mr Nolan [QC] submitted that ASADA were asking for increased powers even though they had not demonstrated an ability to investigate and prosecute cases in a timely and reasonable manner.
    The Inquiry heard evidence of 14 and 18 month waits for cases to be prosecuted.”
  • Mr Redman from the Law Institute of Victoria pointed out that in other countries cases are heard within a few days, whereas in Australia they can take months.”
  • Mr Garnsey (Australian Athletes’ Alliance) outlined concerns about how the media were able to accurately report on confidential ASADA investigations. “We got a blow-by-blow description of what was happening in that [Essendon] investigation through the daily media. Information was in the possession of the media before players’ lawyers knew. It should never have been open to the media to have access to that sort of information—and it was also reported as fact what was about to happen in the investigation, which subsequently proved to be quite accurate down the track.”

Senator Di Natale added that athletes, some just young kids, were not familiar with legal processes, and if ASADA wanted to question them, they had to have the same rights if they were questioned by the police or other legal jurisdictions.

The Australian Athletes’ Alliance (AAA) General Secretary Ian Prendergast said athletes should not give up fundamental rights taken for granted by others in society.

A copy of The Greens Senators Dissenting Report 2014 can be viewed here:

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/ASADA/Report/d01

Further, Tracey Holmes’ The Ticket, 29 November 2015, backs up this Greens Senators Dissenting Report. In her interview, Barrister Anthony Crocker stated:
“ASADA was acting outside its mandate by compelling athletes to give up their common law right to silence.”

He claimed ASADA was using a loophole by inserting a new harsh provision into the anti-doping regulations of National Sporting Organisations, which athletes are compelled to sign.

“The common law privileges against self-incrimination … are abrogated by this Article,” the provision reads.

Listen to Tracey Holmes, The Ticket, plus Anthony Crocker from 18’40” onwards:

http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/content/s4362015.htm

This is just not fair.

We know ASADA cannot be trusted. Therefore, why should ASADA be permitted, through a private contractual arrangement, to make an athlete hand over the very protections Parliament says ought to be retained?

Read Tracey Holmes’ article here:

Please support this petition which requests a Senate Inquiry to sort this mess out.

Kindly read, consider, and sign this petition. If you have already signed, please ‘share’ and then ‘like’ this petition using any of the links below and/or your own social media platform.

Thank you sincerely for your support.

how is the petition going? has it been served? & FYI John Madigan has now joined the Australian Country Party he may not be in govt at the moment but maybe he will still be keen to give advice or speak to others who can help.

Is someone more clever than me can put this in the Saga area I will be very grateful.

You’re one of 554 people to sign this petition. Now help find 446 more people to reach the goal.

Signed

Moved to Saga forum.

Signed.

641 or 642 signed (not sure whether the number was before or after me signing lol)

Signed

Now 675

signed