quote:

The One Nation candidate in the Longman federal byelection, Matthew Stephen, has tried to avoid a $13,000 court-ordered damages bill against his tiling company by selling the company on paper to an Irish novice labourer, two years after the man had left Australia.

A Guardian Australia investigation into Stephen’s business dealings has found incorrect information in documents he certified and filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in 2016.

Stephen claims he is no longer responsible for the payment of a $13,769.99 debt, imposed by the Northern Territory local court as damages for a substandard tiling job in 2014, because he sold his company in August 2016 and the new owner agreed to take on the remaining liability.

Documents lodged by Stephen with Asic state he sold Aus Tile QLD to Irishman “Steven O’Donovan” two months after the court judgment.

O’Donovan’s ownership of the company is a “non-beneficial” shareholding, meaning on paper he holds the share, for the benefit of someone else. The company’s registered address and principal place of business remains Matthew Stephen’s home address.

Darwin builder Phillip Hoare, who took Aus Tile QLD to court, says he still hasn’t been paid about $11,000 of the damages awarded. Hoare complained to Asic that the sale of the business had led to the company being passed on to someone of limited means.

He says he has not been able to find O’Donovan since the case concluded.

Matthew Stephen told the NT local court he was unable to undertake a tiling job in 2014 and instead referred it to “Steven O’Donovan”, an Irish “labourer learning to tile”.

When claiming he was not responsible for the substandard tiling work, Matthew Stephen tendered to the court an invoice he said was from O’Donovan and a business named “Stephen Dunux Tiling”.

The invoice did not contain an Australian business number and listed the details of a Commonwealth Bank account for “Stephen O’Donovan”.

No business with that name has ever been registered.

“Mr Stephen purported to be in contact with Mr O’Donovan but did not call him in evidence,” Judge Alan Woodcock said.

Woodcock rejected or did not accept several pieces of evidence given by Matthew Stephen.

He “did not find proved” Stephen’s claim in court that he referred the job to O’Donovan. Instead, Woodcock found that Aus Tile QLD was contracted to perform the tiling works and awarded damages against the company in the amount of $13,769.99.

Two months after the court judgment, on 31 August 2016, Stephen lodged documents with Asic registering the sale of Aus Tile QLD to O’Donovan. He told Hoare in emails the company had been sold and that the new owner had agreed to take on the outstanding debt.

The Asic document, which Stephen certified was “true and complete”, said O’Donovan lived at an address on Gardens Hill Crescent at The Gardens, a suburb of Darwin. Hoare said he went to that address in 2016 and that no one in the complex had heard of a Steven or Stephen O’Donovan.

Guardian Australia spoke to the resident at the specific townhouse where Asic was told O’Donovan lived.

“I’ve lived here since 2014 and I’ve never heard of that person,” she said.

There is no record of Steven O’Donovan or Stephen O’Donovan on the electoral roll or any Australian register of tradespeople.

Matthew Stephen submitted documents to Asic that said the buyer of his business, “Steven” O’Donovan, was born on 27 March 1989, in Cork, Ireland.

Stephen O’Donovan’s social media accounts confirm his birthday is 27 March and that he is from Cork, Ireland.

His Facebook profile shows him in Darwin on 11 October 2014. On 23 October 2014, O’Donovan was pictured back in Cork. “Delighted to have you back,” one family member commented on the post.

Matthew Stephen gave evidence to the court that Steven O’Donovan conducted the tiling job in Darwin in October 2014. Tiles were due to be delivered to the property on 24 October.

Guardian Australia contacted Stephen O’Donovan through his Facebook page. He said: “Would this matter not be dealt by the proper authoritys [sic]? Not a reporter.”

Hoare claims he has repeatedly asked Stephen to prove the sale of his company was genuine. He has never produced evidence of a valid sale contract and did not respond to Guardian Australia’s requests to do so.

Matthew Stephen looms as the kingmaker at the Longman byelection. One Nation preferences are widely expected to decide the outcome.

As a political candidate, he relates the experience as a story about overcoming adversity. His Queensland trades licence has been suspended seven times.

In a video on Facebook, he said “the big end of town kicked me in the guts” and didn’t pay his bills, and that he “worked for 18 hours a day, with these calluses on these hands” in order to meet his own commitments.

“As the final weeks of the Longman byelection play out, politically motivated attacks on Mr Stephen have conveniently raised their head,” the candidate said in a statement to the Guardian.

“Mr Stephen maintains he has met every payment owed to creditors during a financial slump in his building career.

“Mr Stephen sold Aus Tile QLD Pty Ltd in [August] of 2016 for an undisclosed amount. In accordance with the contract, all liabilities were the responsibility of the new owners.”

The One Nation candidate did not give responses to several questions sent by Guardian Australia. Those questions included: why a man living in Ireland would buy a “non-beneficial” interest in a tiling company with an unpaid debt; why he supplied Asic with an incorrect address for Steven O’Donovan; and why he told the Northern Territory local court that O’Donovan had completed the job, when his Facebook profile shows he was in Ireland.

Hoare said “the thing that pissed me off the most” was Stephen labelling stories about his unpaid debts “fake news” being spread by “Labor and the unions”.

“We’re all Liberal voters,” Hoare said. “We’re relying on the One Nation party to get the Liberals in in Longman.”

Anidav posted:

Yeah but if he goes to an election again with this vanilla jobs and growth speech he will get trashed.

Ghost Leviathan posted:

Where's the IRA, pirates, and/or irish pirates when you need them?

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

Let's just say I know some lads that know how to set a timer...

Birdstrike posted:

so you’ve been watching masterchef huh

Recoome posted:

Pea brain: adequate oversight and regulation for NDIS

Normal brain: adequate funding for the NDIS

GALAXY BRAIN: Announce a major task force into NDIS fraud when minimal fraud is present

quote:

A Melbourne-based start-up is seeking to use the same blockchain technology underpinning bitcoin to provide greater voting transparency in emerging democracies.

...

"If you utilise blockchain to submit a vote in the same way that a bitcoin transaction can't be reversed, it can't be changed, it's a trustworthy process based on a system, which is not owned by any one entity, not by an organisation, or a government or an individual," said Horizon State's Jamie Skella, who designed the platform.
"These are all pretty great properties for a digital ballot box, so in the same way the vote can't be maliciously tampered with, it can't be removed and it can't be changed."
Horizon State is preparing to roll out a community voter platform in the island of Sumatra, providing a test case for the technology, which it is aiming to scale-up for regional and national government elections.

Anidav posted:

The daily telegraph had enlisted these fine patriots to tell you that political correctness has gone too far.

Recoome posted:

Pea brain: adequate oversight and regulation for NDIS

Normal brain: adequate funding for the NDIS

GALAXY BRAIN: Announce a major task force into NDIS fraud when minimal fraud is present

Anidav posted:

The daily telegraph had enlisted these fine patriots to tell you that political correctness has gone too far.

Anidav posted:

The daily telegraph had enlisted these fine patriots to tell you that political correctness has gone too far.

Anidav posted:

The daily telegraph had enlisted these fine patriots to tell you that political correctness has gone too far.

quote:

Cardinal George Pell is facing prosecution for alleged historic child sex offences, but he is still finding time to let his hair down.

As he awaits trial on the charges he denies, the former third in line to Pope Francis attended a party in Cherrybrook, north-west Sydney, last month to celebrate the engagement of Brigid Meney, the daughter of Chris Meney, chancellor of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney and a staunch supporter of Pell.

Many guests commented on the Cardinal's attendance, which made some feel awkward. However, the man, who has been described as having a "several rhinoceros thick" hide, apparently looked as if he enjoyed himself.

He mingled mostly with guests his own age, but did venture out the back of the family home with the rest of the twenty-something party-goers to toast the soon-to-be-married, young couple.

One unlikely guest that the Cardinal crossed paths with on the night was Alisha Aitken-Radburn, who left Bill Shorten's office to star on the upcoming series of The Bachelor.

Since being dumped by the not-so-charming Nick "The Honey Badger" Cummins, this year's "Bachelor villain" has been seeking out #AusPol job opportunities, but her CV is being kept on file until it is clear how she behaved on the show.

Anidav posted:

The daily telegraph had enlisted these fine patriots to tell you that political correctness has gone too far.

Anidav posted:

iajanus posted:

Some of those are so close to just saying "I can't vilify people in the streets based on their skin colour"

Anidav posted:

Lol

You Am I posted:

Yup, so majority of them is boomer whinge material. Surprised there wasn't a "cull all immigration" comment there.

Also I will go on a week long bender when the day that either Gerry Harvey passes away or Harvey Normans shuts down.

Also surprise surprise with pollies from NSW with awful views. And who the gently caress cares about what Baby John Burgess thinks.

IA posted:

Firstly, what exactly is an order “similar” to a court/coronial order? To what kind of order does this refer, who is authorised to issue such an order and under what circumstances? This “similar” order needs to be fully explained.

Secondly, why does this information from the My Health Record website contradict the My Health Records Act 2012, which is the legislative framework that governs the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) and the law by which that agency must abide?

On the matter of disclosure for law enforcement proposes and so on the Act (Section 70) states:

quote:

Disclosure for law enforcement purposes, etc.

(1) The System Operator is authorised to use or disclose health information included in a healthcare recipient’s My Health Record if the System Operator reasonably believes that the use or disclosure is reasonably necessary for one or more of the following things done by, or on behalf of, an enforcement body:

(a) the prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution or punishment of criminal offences, breaches of a imposing a penalty or sanction or breaches of a prescribed law;

(b) the enforcement of laws relating to the confiscation of the proceeds of crime;

(c) the protection of the public revenue;

(d) the prevention, detection, investigation or remedying of seriously improper conduct or prescribed conduct;

(e) the preparation for, or conduct of, proceedings before any court or tribunal, or implementation of the orders of a court or tribunal.

IA posted:

If the data collection were primarily for our benefit, it would not be necessary for the Government to allow access by 15 enforcement agencies, without a warrant and without our knowledge. If this system was intended primarily to enable health professionals to better treat our ailments, it would not be necessary for anyone other than those health professionals to access our data. It would certainly not allow access to the Federal Police, ASIC, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection or any other agency responsible for “protecting public revenue”, to name just a few currently able to request warrantless access.

If nothing else, this misinformation campaign confirms that a centralised health database has little to do with our health and everything to do with government and corporate abuse of our most confidential data.

Anidav posted:

Lol