I miss writing posts for you and I miss hearing your thoughts and comments about those posts.
But for now, this is how it has to be.
To be here for the long haul, I need to stay small for now, and I wish I could tell you why, but perhaps you can join the dots.
For those of you who watch what is happening to journalists and the media around Australia, you may see a pattern emerging that is reflected, on a much smaller scale, in The Terrier.
Independent, investigative, analytical and punchy journalism is at a crossroads, especially in the regions.
It is getting so much harder to write stories based on the gathering of discomforting facts.
Lists are so much easier to write: the top ten burger joints, or the top ten bars.
I don’t want to write lists: to me, that is not the heart and purpose of journalism.
So for now I am staying small, curling into a ball, taking the whacks and hoping to continue to tell the stories that need to be told.
Thankyou for staying the course.
When the muzzles come out, we have to keep barking
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
Your right to know: Two weeks ago, I received a letter from my union-appointed lawyers who informed me Lyndoch Living has been monitoring my two Facebook pages, one being my private page and one being this page.
They attached a number of screenshots provided by Melbourne lawyers K&L Gates on behalf of Lyndoch, showing comments by followers and readers of The Terrier.
Those commenting were Warrnambool people expressing their opinion on how every membership application lodged with Lyndoch Living had been rejected.
These comments related to stories I had published on February 16 and 23.
My lawyers also attached a number of quotes from those stories that were highlighted by K&L Gates on behalf of their client.
The recommendation in response to this legal letter from K&L Gates was that I remove the articles and the comments in the screenshots.
The past two weeks has been a time of enormous worry for so many of us because of a resurgence of Covid-19.
It has been so challenging for our aged care homes and their fabulous staff, including those working so hard on the ground at Lyndoch Living.
What I have also found enormously worrying these past two weeks, however, is the rapid erosion of our right to know. Our right to have a say. Of our right to speak up when we see our public institutions being hijacked by vested interests.
Lyndoch Living belongs to us. The Warrnambool City Council is answerable to us. We must never forget this.
And right now, while we are fighting a pandemic, we are being forced to also fight for our democratic rights which are being pulled out from under us one bit at a time.
Secrecy and silence is becoming the new normal.
I’ll be honest, legal letters scare the shite out of me, but I became a journalist for a reason and I am not going to be scared into silence, and, I hope, neither are you.
So we will keep going. We have to, and I want to thank every single one of you who is helping me to make that happen.
If you would like to support the Terrier, you can throw something in the tip jar below.
Attack dog: when Lyndoch sent its lawyers after The Terrier
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
A lot of people have asked me lately whether I was sued for defamation by Lyndoch Living CEO Doreen Power and if it all ended up in court.
The answers are: yes and no. Let me explain.
After I wrote a series of four stories late last year about my concerns around Lyndoch, its direction, and its leadership, I received a letter from Melbourne law firm K&L Gates, who represent Lyndoch Living.
(The Gates part, by the way, relates to the firm’s founder, the father of US billionaire Bill Gates, so this was not some tin pot law joint with broken blinds and wonky lampshades, but a downtown Collins St law firm with city views and a serious letterhead.)
K&L Gates wrote that they were acting on behalf of the Lyndoch CEO who was:
“disturbed by a series of recent articles, written and published by you on (The Terrier), attacking our client’s reputation and character”.
Gulp.
Naturally, I felt slightly sick, but only slightly, because in 30 years’ of working as a journalist in search of the ever-elusive truth, I have received one or two of these letters before. The scary bit was that I now work alone.
The letter then set out the CEO’s particular grievances – or imputations.
That in carrying out her functions as CEO of Lyndoch, our client bullies and intimidates staff and other third parties;
That in carrying out her functions as CEO of Lyndoch, our client manipulates staff by psychological means into doubting their own sanity;
That in carrying out her functions as CEO of Lyndoch, our client unfairly favours some people over others;
That in carrying out her functions as CEO of Lyndoch, our client has caused a detrimental impact on the care of Lyndoch’s residents;
That in carrying out her functions as CEO of Lyndoch, our client lacks transparency and endorses secrecy;
That in carrying out leadership roles as CEO of Seymour and Plenty Valley Community Health, our client destroyed the culture and workplace environment of those places, and caused irreparable physical and/or psychological harm to their staff;
That our client is a disinterested CEO who does not care about her staff or the residents of Lyndoch; and;
That our client is unfit to be the CEO of Lyndoch or of any other organisation.
Defamation law is an important law and one that I take extremely seriously.
It is there to protect all of us from malicious untruths, but it can also be used by powerful people to “chill” journalists from investigating or writing about issues of public interest.
Back in the days when journalists worked in robust newsrooms with bottomless budgets, such legal battles could be fought with vigour.
Those days are almost gone.
The unofficial legal team for The Terrier: Bon the Beagle, George the German Shepherd and Cindy the Crazy Kelpie.
Now, like many journos out on their own, I have no newsroom and no budget for legal battles, and I rely entirely on insurance via my union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance.
Like all journos, I also rely on thorough research and credible sources to get things right in the first place, but it is one thing to argue a fact like, “you have no money” compared to “why do you have no money?”
WHY is the very guts of investigative journalism, but it is time-consuming, expensive, and it attracts law suits. Many newsrooms have given up on it, but it is what I do.
So I got my legal letter, paid for by Lyndoch, which confirmed that the aged care home which once looked after my own Mum was now threatening to sue me.
This was serious and it’s precisely why I waited until my Mum passed away last April before I started to write this current series of stories: as feisty as Mum was, she would have been worried sick.
Over the holiday period K&L Gates talked to my lawyers and vice versa. Letters were exchanged.
And in the end, my insurers decided not to fight the imputations, because who knows if I would win or lose in trying to prove the “why?”
I agreed to pull the stories from the website and remove them from Facebook and I cannot publish them again. I also agreed to pay costs.
All of this cost me $2000 in an insurance excess, but, because of you wonderful beings, it actually cost me $200, because Foxy the Fighting Fund kicked in and helped me to cover that excess.
Did it go to court? No.
Did The Terrier win or lose? I will leave that up to you to decide.
Is it important that we keep going? More than ever.
Defamation can be designed to “chill”, and frighten journalists into tightening their buttocks, but you know what? I am being cautious, but also reaching for an extra coat.
If you are reading this and would like to support The Terrier, please throw something in the tip jar below.
The sudden removal of a row of established tea tree along Pertobe Rd by the W’bool City Council sparked a passionate response from the Warrnambool community.
The Vault – Carol Altmann
What began as a simple question to the Warrnambool City Council about the removal of some trees has gone on to reveal a much deeper concern that strikes right at the heart of the public’s right to know.
The last 24 hours has confirmed that there is now a two-tier system in place: those people and media organisations who meet the council’s approval and those who don’t. Those who acquiesce will be accommodated and those who dare to dig deeper or question further will be ignored.
In a one-newspaper, regional city with close ties and connections, this is a deeply troubling attack on one of the fundamental parts of a democracy where people have a right to expect an open, transparent and accountable government on all levels. The media, including new media outlets like Bluestone Magazine, are critical to this expectation being met.
First, some brief background for those of you who may not be on Facebook or Twitter, which is where Bluestone revealed the removal of a row of well-established tea-tree from Pertobe Rd this week.
In the scheme of things this might be seen as a small story, but more than 6500 people saw our post and many reacted passionately, asking why the trees had been taken out and that they were saddened, disappointed and even horrified at the loss of this native vegetation.
The WCC issued a tweet to its followers after Bluestone had made public that the trees had been removed, saying: “Old tea trees removed along Pertobe Rd for safety following inspection by arborist. Replacements to be planted in autumn.”
Safety? Inspection by an arborist? We wanted to know more.
The council says the tea tree was removed after an inspection by an arborist, but the arborist’s report is yet to surface.
We emailed WCC communications officer Nick Higgins, Mayor Kylie Gaston and all the councillors to see if we could find out more detail.
Cr Brian Kelson said he was unaware of the removal of the trees, but questioned why the council’s guideline of only removing one-third of the height had not be applied. (note: an earlier version of this story said only Cr Gaston responded to our questions. Cr Kelson also responded.)
Mayor Gaston also responded and the relevant part of her email is here:
“Not all the trees have been removed as people thought may happen this morning which is a good thing. The young man returned this morning to finish the stumps only.
I believe the trees cut down were assessed as high risk due to cracks and a certain worm being detected in the trees.
The remaining trees are believed to be fine and will be watched. No one wishes them to be cut down.
It was recently pointed out to us by our auditor that since the sad accident when the child was killed by a tree in Bendigo this year, councils are being a lot warier of the risk. This would be a case in point I suppose.”
Leaving the death of the child in Bendigo to one side for a moment (we will get back to that tragedy), we than asked to see the arborist’s report that led to such a dramatic response for a row of worm-infected tea tree.
Mayor Gaston was on the road by this time, so we emailed media manager Mr Higgins yesterday – as is council protocol – and asked directly:
Hello Nick,
As Mayor Gaston is on the road, I am writing to ask you directly if the WCC can forward a copy of the arborist’s report on the tea trees removed from Pertobe Rd.
Regards,
Carol
Three hours later, having obviously scoured our Facebook page to gauge public feedback on this issue, we received this reply at 5.26pm yesterday:
Hello Carol,
We will decline the invitation to have further input into your commentary.
Comments on your Facebook page which describe council staff as “environmental rapists” and “grubs” are offensive.
Actually, what was said on the page was this:
And this:
Passionate, yes. But no individual WCC staff member was named and certainly not defamed.
While we closely monitor our Facebook page to remove potentially defamatory comments and offensive language, we also believe members of the public who are prepared to express an opinion (however passionately) under their real names is what a free and robust discussion is all about.
We also find the council’s refusal to comment to us on this basis particularly interesting given a senior member of its own staff, tourism manager Peter Abbott, was this year exposed for attacking some councillors under a pseudonym to the local newspaper.
Here is our response to Mr Higgins:
Hello Nick, It is not an invitation, but a request for information that should be in the public domain, given it was stated as the reason for the removal of the trees. Just to be clear, are you saying the WCC is with holding this information because of a comment/s by a third party – under their own name/s – on our Facebook page that does not in any way attack an individual but perhaps, instead, expresses the clear frustration and disappointment at the decision to remove this vegetation? Strong words, certainly, but we believe in allowing people who are brave enough to have a say publicly, under their own name, to actually have a say. I wish to point out that Bluestone Magazine has made no such comments and has instead raised an issue that was brought to our attention by readers wanting to know why and how the decision was made to remove the tea tree. We also pondered why the council had not chosen to make this information public before the trees were removed, as is recommended in its own tree removal policy. Despite this, you are saying that this information will not be supplied. I can only ponder if the same restrictions applied to the Warrnambool Standard when, until recently, it regularly permitted such criticism and attacks on both council and councillors not only on social media, but on its website, including – as you know – comments written by WCC senior staff under pseudonyms. If this is the chief executive’s ruling, then we will be lodging an FOI for this information, as is becoming the way that the council demands we do business when seeking documents that should and could be in the public domain. Regards, Carol
And Mr Higgins’ reply?
I am out of the office from 22/12/2015 05:15 PM until 11/01/2016 08:30 PM. Hello, I am on leave from December 23, returning January 11, 2016. If the matter is urgent call 0466 199 511.
After the removal of the tea trees, a reader contacted us to highlight the removal of several New Zealand Christmas trees along Banyan St, again without public notification.
We are still waiting for the arborist’s report, if in fact one exists. We are, pardon the pun, going out on a limb to say that it doesn’t.
But this is about more than trees.
This is also, in our view, about the council trying to shut down public criticism and scrutiny by scraping social media, and it’s about an attempt to “choke” an organisation like ours that cannot be “media managed”.
[box]The death of a child from a falling tree limb in Bendigo in 2013 led to a coronial inquiry where the council was found not liable. The tree, in that tragic case, was a 90 year old Grey Box gum and the branch that broke was an 18m long limb that dropped from 4 to 6 metres. The coroner set down eight recommendations about council tree management, including installing a computer based management system detailing what trees it owns, a risk assessment and maintenance schedule; a formalised tree inspection protocol; that all assessments be done by an experienced arborist; and that the assessments include the root system and canopy. There is no suggestion that all damaged trees be removed, but that pruning may also be an option. You can read the full report here. You can also read the WCC tree policy here.[/box]
Meanwhile, on the subject of public liability, click here to see a case that actually is just waiting to happen within the Warrnambool CBD.
