Bruce Francis’s email to Duniam and heaps of journalists today:
Dear Senator Duniam
I am comfortably satisfied that the faceless members of the committee who voted to clear then ASADA chief executive Ben McDevitt of misleading Parliament at his Senate Estimates Hearing appearance on 3 March 2016 are either unbelievably incompetent or have covered up his unforgivable misconduct, arguably corruption. Either way, those committee members who voted to clear McDevitt should be forced to resign from Parliament. They are a disgrace. The Senate is no place for idiots on the Binet scale.
As you are aware, I alleged that McDevitt mislead Parliament on 16 occasions during his 3 March 2016 Senate Estimates hearing appearance. Although I stand by all 16 allegations, the Senate committee only had to uphold one of my complaints to find that McDevitt misled Parliament. For the benefit of your Senate colleagues I shall dissect two of the allegations.
Example 1:
McDevitt said::“There were over 100 text messages that unveiled a plan to source Thymosin Beta-4 for the purpose of doping the Essendon team.”
My Comment:
I knew that McDevitt had lied and that there was no such text. There wasn’t a single text as quoted by Mr McDevitt let alone over 100 such texts. In the 434-page ASADA Interim Report, Dank’s name from memory was mentioned 1189 times. Thymosin Beta-4 was mentioned only 18 times and Dank only mentioned Thymosin Beta-4 once. Yet McDevitt told the Senate that ASADA has over 100 text messages where Dank uses the term “Thymosin Beta-4”. If this were true, ASADA and WADA would have included the texts in the Interim Report and in the evidence in the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal and in the Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing.”
All McDevitt had to do to prove I was wrong was to table a copy of one such text with the Senate Committee. He didn’t have to table all 100+ texts with these exact words.
McDevitt tabled his 65-page ‘defence’ on 15 August 2016. McDevitt’s submission did not include a copy of the text he quoted from on 3 March 2016.
On 23 May 2017, 348 days after my FOI request, one of ASADA’s lawyers informed the Australian Information Commissioner that: “No documents containing the clause ‘Thymosin Beta-4 for the purpose of doping the Essendon players exists.’” (my emphasis)
It is incomprehensible, and a dereliction of duty, that the members of the committee cleared McDevitt of misleading Parliament on this issue. Clearly, they are idiots, or worse still, they covered up the ‘crime’.
Example 2:
McDevitt said: “In the words of Stephen Dank, Thymosin was the vital cornerstone of that team-based program.”
My Comment:
I knew that McDevitt had lied and that there was no such text and, accordingly, made an FOI request for the text that used the words “team-based program” (my emphasis). Dank did not use those words… McDevitt has disingenuously and corruptly inserted the words “team-based program” to create the impression Dank was talking about Essendon and he inserted those words to create the false impression that if one player were administered Thymosin, all 34 players were administered Thymosin.
On 6 September 2016, ASADA’s National Manager Operations, Judith Lind, informed me that: “We have identified that there is no document which says ‘Thymosin was the vital cornerstone of that team-based program.’” (my emphasis)
To prove he didn’t mislead the Senate all McDevitt had to do was table the text that included the words Thymosin was the vital cornerstone of that team-based program.”
McDevitt tabled his 65-page ‘defence’ on 15 August 2016. McDevitt’s submission did not include a copy of the text he quoted from on 3 March 2016.
It is incomprehensible, and a dereliction of duty, that the members of the committee cleared McDevitt of misleading Parliament on this issue. Clearly, they are idiots, or worse still, they covered up the ‘crime’.
Yours faithfully
Bruce Francis