AUT: LL:ART:New Patrick link to Dubai ACTU

[owner-leftlink@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (by way of pmargin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Profit Margin))]

source: http://www.afr.com.au/content/980502/news/news2.html

   Australian Financial Review
   Saturday, May 2, 1998

   New Patrick link to Dubai: ACTU


          By Mark Davis

   The ACTU has seen a series of highly sensitive documents which it
   claims show a contract worth thousands of dollars existed between
   Patrick Stevedores and the organisers of last year's controversial
   Dubai dock training venture.

   ACTU assistant-secretary, Greg Combet, says he has seen documents on
   the arrangements, some of which include claims that a staffer with the
   Minister for Workplace Relations, Peter Reith, introduced Patrick's
   chairman, Chris Corrigan, to the head of the Dubai operation.

   Mr Combet's description of the documents -- now being offered for sale
   to the highest bidder by the disenchanted organisers of the Dubai
   venture -- suggest Patrick was much more closely involved in the
   bizarre training exercise than it has previously admitted. The Dubai
   venture involved a former army commando, Mike Wells, recruiting
   serving and former soldiers to be trained as non-union stevedoring
   workers in the United Arab Emirates city.

   Mr Combet told The Australian Financial Review  on Friday that,
   earlier this year, Mr Wells and an associate, Andrew Harris, offered
   to sell the documents to the Maritime Union of Australia. Mr Combet,
   together with MUA secretary John Coombs and a barrister, met Mr Wells
   and Mr Harris and inspected the documents.

   Mr Combet said the documents he had seen included a contract between
   Patrick and one of the Dubai venture companies, CTMS Ltd. He said the
   contract provided for an upfront payment of $30,000 by Patrick to CTMS
   followed by a $4,000 a week management fee and a 10 per cent
   commission on the salary of each worker successfully trained and
   placed.

   The documents also included bank statements showing deposits of
   substantial amounts of money into the bank account of the other main
   Dubai venture company, Fynwest Pty Ltd.

   He said Mr Wells and Mr Harris had indicated the payments were to
   cover expenses including training costs, wages of the Dubai trainees
   and payments to the Dubai port authority.

   Other documents Mr Combet said he had seen included:
     * A plan setting out numbers of workers required at Patrick's
       terminals in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle and a
       facsimile from Mr Wells confirming the numbers to be trained;
     * Correspondence from Mr Wells recording discussions between Patrick
       and interests associated with the National Farmers Federation
       regarding the transfer of Fynwest-trained workers to the
       NFF-backed P&C Stevedores group.

   The documents appear to cast a fresh light on Mr Corrigan's earlier
   public statements about the extent of his involvement in the Dubai
   affair.

   In February, Mr Corrigan told the Australian Industrial Relations
   Commission that Patrick did not have any financial involvement in the
   recruitment of stevedoring personnel by Fynwest. But a spokesman for
   Mr Corrigan said on Friday that the documents, if they existed, were
   not inconsistent with Patrick's role in co-ordinating the training of
   labour for stevedoring operations in Australia.

   Mr Corrigan's spokesman said: "Mr Harris has not shown any of these
   alleged documents to anyone at Patrick. However, we do know from many
   of Mr Harris's published statements that many of his claims are
   false."

   Mr Combet also said he had seen a diary maintained by Mr Wells. This
   included notes in which Mr Wells claimed that the person who
   introduced Mr Corrigan to him was Dr Stephen Webster, now a staffer
   with Mr Reith. The diary notes also purported to show Mr Wells had had
   contact with Dr Webster "over a period of time during 1997".

   But a spokesman for Mr Reith denied that Dr Webster introduced Mr
   Corrigan to Mr Wells. The spokesman also denied there had been any
   extended contact between Dr Webster and Mr Wells apart from a single,
   brief contact on an unrelated matter when Dr Webster referred Mr Wells
   to his former employer, Visyboard.

   A spokesman for Patrick also denied that Dr Webster introduced Mr
   Corrigan to Mr Wells.

   Mr Corrigan has previously said publicly that he could not recall who
   referred him to Mr Wells.

   Dr Webster is a former employee of Visyboard who took up a consultancy
   on waterfront reform with the Federal Government in July last year and
   joined Mr Reith's ministerial staff in October.


[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
copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of
the copyright owner, except for "fair use."]




 oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo
             LEFTLINK - Victoria's Broad Left Mailing List
                http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/
          Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop

        Publication of a message on this list does not indicate
   endorsement by either LEFTLINK or the New International Bookshop.
 oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo=oo








     --- from list aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---