Date: Fri, 8 May 1998 13:35:09 +1000
From: pmargin-AT-xchange.anarki.net (Profit Margin)
Subject: AUT: LL:Dubai Documents feature in today's Age


>Date: Fri, 8 May 1998 09:10:49 +1000 (EST)
>From: Marg Hutton <mhutton-AT-melb.alexia.net.au>
>To: leftlink-AT-vicnet.net.au
>Subject: LL:Dubai Documents feature in today's Age
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Status:
>
>Today's Age contains a special feature on the Dubai Documents:
>http://www.theage.com.au/special/dubai/
>
>     * What did the Federal Government know and when? Statements by Mr
>       Wells link the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, and the Workplace
>       Relations Minister, Mr Peter Reith, to the Dubai plan.
>     * Did the head of Patrick stevedores, Mr Chris Corrigan, lie about
>       his involvement in the scheme? Mr Michael Wells, who directed the
>       Dubai operations, lists examples in an affidavit of what he
>       alleges were false statements by Mr Corrigan.
>
>   The documents
>
>     * They contain - in 158 pages - affidavits, bank statements, faxed
>       messages, diary notes, a training contract, a deed of indemnity, a
>       sale agreement, transcripts, letters and diary notes relating to
>       the Dubai stevedore training plan. they were given to The Age by
>       Mr Andrew Harris, head of recruiting agency Fynwest Pty Ltd. The
>       Age did not pay for them.
>
>
>                    Howard linked to Dubai plan: claim
>   Sworn documents have linked the Prime Minister and Peter Reith to the
>                      failed wharfie training scheme.
>
>                      "If I tell a blatant lie ... "
>     The Wentworth affair: they met - according to the documents - in a
>      room of Sydney's Wentworth Hotel on 13 January. Present were the
>       Patrick chairman Chris Corrigan, his facilitators in the Dubai
>    training exercise, those entrepreneurial commandos Mr Mike Wells and
>                        Peter Kilfoyle, and others.
>
>                 `Special job' claim is most damning entry
>    The most serious political allegation in the Dubai documents is the
>    claim that Dr Stephen Webster rang Mike Wells on 30 July and claimed
>               he was "doing a special job for John Howard".
>
>                  Ministers deny they knew of Dubai plan
>    The federal Workplace Relations Minister, Mr Peter Reith, denied the
>    Government had any previous knowledge of last year's scheme to train
>                   former soldiers as wharfies in Dubai.
>
>                The 158 pages that read like a spy thriller
>   It begins as a favor to one of Melbourne's best-known businessmen, Mr
>                               Richard Pratt.
>
>                    Central role for adviser: affidavit
>   A Government adviser played a central role in setting up the scheme to
>   train former and serving Australian soldiers in Dubai, an affidavit by
>             an organiser of the plan, Mr Mike Wells, alleges.
>
>                    Patrick bankrolled Dubai: documents
>    The chairman of Patrick stevedores, Mr Chris Corrigan, fully funded
>      and directed the Dubai training of former soldiers to break the
>   waterfront union, according to documents released by the organisers of
>                                the scheme.
>
>                      `They shouldn't have goaded us'
>   Peter Kilfoyle and Andrew Harris looked every inch and bulging muscle
>    military men. Sitting in Mr Harris's St Kilda Road office, they were
>       mapping out their latest strategic manoeuvre with combat-like
>                                 precision.
>
>                     A strategy doomed from the start
>   The ill-fated Dubai mission was sprung before it started. As the first
>     contingent of trainee wharfies waited in the lounge of the Airport
>     Travelodge on Wednesday 3 December last year for their flight, the
>     Minister for Workplace Relations, Mr Peter Reith, was ambushed in
>                                Parliament.
>
>              PM's department helped to `ensure prompt issue'
>       The Prime Minister's Department provided advice to the Patrick
>     stevedoring company chairman, Mr Chris Corrigan, on how to obtain
>   emergency passports for the Dubai waterfront mercenaries, according to
>                  one of the key organisers of the scheme.
>
>              The offers, the denial and an angry phone call
>    The million-dollar documents, as the Dubai papers have been called,
>              were reportedly first on offer for $2.6 million.
>
>
>[This posting is provided to the individual members of this  group without
>permission from the copyright owner for purposes  of criticism, comment,
>scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal
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>the copyright owner, except for "fair use."]
>
>
>
>
>         War on the Wharfies - essential links
> http://www.users.bigpond.com/Takver/soapbox/index.htm
>             http://www.yll.org.au/mua
> http://www.InsideTheWeb.com/messageboard/mbs.cgi/mb63212
>
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