Screen Australia threatens to ban me for the fourth time

         

Mr. M. Ebeid AM, Chair

Members of the Screen Australia Boad

Screen Australia

GPO Box 3984

Sydney 2001                                                                                          14^th August 2025

 

Dear Mr. Ebeid and Members of the Screen Australia Board

 

As you know, thirteen years ago CEO Ruth Harley banned me from making applications to Screen Australia. She claimed, without presenting any evidence, that I had harassed, intimidated and placed at risk members of Screen Australia staff. She steadfastly refused to provide any evidence in support of her allegations. Indeed, she characterized my continuing to ask that I be provided with evidence as harassment.

 

Ms. Harley’s intention in banning me was, it seems, threefold: 

 

(1) Make it difficult for me to produce films in Australia.

(2) Cause me reputational damage and

(3) Intimidate fellow filmmaker Screen Australia critics into silence.

 

She achieved all three of her objectives.

 

In 2017, finding it impossible to earn money as a filmmaker in Australia, I sought legal advice. (see attached documents below). I was much less concerned with winning my case than I was in forcing Screen Australia to provide the court with evidence in support of the allegations made against me. Fundamental to any legal proceeding, is the requirement that the accused be provided with evidence of their crime. Mere allegations will not suffice.

 

A few days away from commencing legal proceedings in early June 2017 I was arrested in Cambodia, charged with being a spy and spent 15 months in prison.

 

When I was released, I had neither the money nor the desire to proceed legally against SA. I figured that the ban on me would now be in the past. I was wrong. Graeme Mason made it quite clear that I was persona non grata and that the ban remained. He had decided, it seems, that the narrative presented by Ruth to the Board, and to the film industry, reflected the truth; that I had intimidated, harassed and placed Screen Australia staff at risk.

 

In mid 2025 it seems that you and the Board also accept this narrative as reflective of the truth. Indeed, the word ‘harass’ has been used again by Screen Australia and this letter is probably, in your mind, further evidence of harassment on my part? 

 

The ban on me has never been formally lifted, and may well still be in place. It certainly seems that way from the way my ‘Chanti’s World’ application has been treated by Screen Australia.

 

Am I guilty as charged, or innocent? Where does the truth lie? In Screen Australia’s files.

 

There are four options available to us to resolve this matter once and for all:

 

(1)   The relevant person at Screen Australia reads through all the correspondence that led to my banning and identifies evidence of my guilt. Time consuming.

(2)   I make a Freedom of Information request for this evidence. If this involves my paying a fee for this search to be conducted, I am prepared to pay it - whatever the sum may be. Time consuming and expensive.

(3)   Feed my correspondence – letters and emails - into ChatGPT, GROK or any Large Language Model that Screen Australia trusts, asking it to identify anything I wrote that is clear evidence of intimidation, harassment or placing Screen Australia staff at risk, or could reasonably be construed as being so. 

(4)   The simplest way to determine my guilt or otherwise is probably to be found in one document. When Ruth Harley presented to the SA Board her argument as to why I should be banned, back in 2012, she must have included in her request evidence of my having intimidated SA staff in my correspondence. This one document will provide the current SA board with evidence one way or another. Locating this document would take minutes only. I would like a copy of it. SA can redact all names contained in it. The only part of it that is relevant here is what I wrote that led to the ban. I shoulc point out, lest there be any confusion here, that there was only one conversation between me and a member of SA staff – with Fiona Cameron in which she declared that she ‘felt’ intimidated.

 

There are two possible outcomes of this exercise in transparency and accountability: 

 

(a)   Clear evidence of my having intimidated, harassed and placed at risk SA staff, in which case my being banned in 2012 was justified. 

or

 

(b)  There is no evidence at all to support these allegations, in which case SA must acknowledge this, so that we can put this unpleasant incident behind us. I require no pro forma apology and will not proceed any further with this matter. I merely want to be able to pick up my career from where it came to a virtual standstill a dozen years ago - without this Damoclean sword hanging over me; to bring to an end the reputational damage that Screen Australia’s false allegations have caused me.

 

As did Ruth Harley a dozen years ago, you have declared, on behalf of the Board, that this matter is closed and that you have no intention of communicating with me further.  I trust, in the interests of fair play, that this request for evidence does not falls on deaf ears.

 

Cheers

 

Jamesa

HOW TO SCAM ‘ICARE’ AND BECOME A MILLIONAIRE - letter to John Robertson, Chair, care Board

James Ricketson

58 Braidwood Road

Goulburn 2580

jamesricketson@gmail.com

0488543555

John Robertson

Chair

icare Board

Locked Bag 2099

 North Ryde BC 

NSW 1670                                                                                              17^th October 2025

 

Dear Mr. Robertson

 

HOW TO SCAM  ‘ICARE’ AND BECOME A MILLIONAIRE

 

(1)   Get a job for a month

(2)   Accuse your employer of bullying

(3)   Find a psychiatrist prepared to declare that this month of bullying has traumatised you so badly that you will never be able to work again

(4)   Sue your employer and icare

(5)   Receive a ‘pension’ for life, paid to you by icare – millions of dollars.

 

You do not need to provide any evidence of ‘bullying’ – the allegation alone will suffice. You do not need to actually meet the psychiatrist in person. One conversation hour long conversation on the telephone is enough. Oh, and icare will provide you with $200 a week to feed you ‘comfort dog’? $10,000 a year.

 

The full story is a little more complicated, of course, as you know all too well Mr. Robertson. Or you shouldknow, given that this scam has been known to icare for between three and five years and well-documented by myself over the past three years in the many letters I have sent to icare.

 

This scam is going to cost icare well over $2 million and perhaps considerably more if C M, the perpetrator of the scam, lives to a ripe old age.

 

Three successive CEOs of icare (including Geniere Aplin), have been aware of the scam but have done nothing to stop it.

 

Why?

 

Incompetence?   

 

If so, an admission on the part of senior icare executives, in 2025,  that the workers compensation insurer has been scammed over a period of five years would expose them to ridicule.

 

Does their incompetence extend to other matters within icare that involve millions of dollars? If so, are they fit for purpose? 

 

If what I hear on the usually reliable icare grapevine is accurate, C M is now, in October 2025, trying to extract yet more money from icare? Is this so? Will icare accede to yet another C M demand and write him another cheque?

 

Is icare’s failure to stop Ms’ scam motivated by senior management’s hope that it will not become public knowledge and result in significant loss of face?

 

As Captain of the good ship icare, it is up to you to end this scam and, at the very least, recompense the innocent employer for the monies she has had to pay icare, and stop paying this serial scammer compensation he is not entitled to and that icare knows he is not entitled to.

 

The full facts of five year long administrative farce can be found in the many letters I have written to icare over the last few years – most of which are published on my blog, which can be found at:

 

http://jamesricketson.blogspot.com

 

Yours sincerely

 

         James Ricketson 

to Sophie Cotsis, Minister for Industrial Relations Minister for Work Health and Safety

                                                             James Ricketson

58 Braidwood Road

Goulburn 2580

jamesricketson@gmail,.com

0488543555

 

The Hon. Sophie Cotsis,

Minister for Industrial Relations

Minister for Work Health and Safety

GPO Box 5341 

Sydney NSW 2001

 

15^th. October 2015

 

Dear Ms Costis

 

I am writing to you in relation to an undated letter/email you sent to Hon Michael Daley MP Attorney General in which you mentioned my name.

 

Your message for the Attorney General is your response, as Minister (10 months down the track) to letters I sent to him on 18^th. December 2024 and 20^th. January. (see below) 

 

In these letters I drew his attention to Ms. L’s battle with icare, the Personal Injuries Commission and C M and provided him (and hence, yourself) with the web address at which all the facts of this case can be found. 

 

You have clearly not bothered to appraise yourself of the facts or, perhaps, have chosen to ignore them and hope that your letter to the Attorney General – an exercise in spin-doctoring – will provide him with a plausible ‘Get-Out-of- Jail Free’ card if this matter ever becomes a political embarrassment for the Minns government.

 

Your use of the expressions ‘I understand’ and ‘I am advised’ (classic politician weasel words) suggest that you are also providing yourself with a ‘Get-Out-of- Jail Free’ card: “If I had known the full facts of the matter, of course I would have acted...etc.”

 

If you did not know the full facts when you wrote to the Attorney General, you were not doing your job, and you can be added to the list of incompetents that have allowed this legal farce to continue this past five years.

 

The problem with C Ms’ claim is that it is a scam - as you would have discovered if you had taken into account the verifiable facts of the matter, of which there is an abundance.

 

Did the Attorney General instruct you to provide him with cover, or have you decided, of your own volition, to play the role of ‘spin doctor’? Yes, C M may well be suffering from a variety of genuine mental illnesses and addictions, but he is also a very clever con artist, as has been apparent to icare and the Personal Injuries Commission for several years now.

 

The most egregious piece of disinformation to be found in your letter to the Attorney General concerns Ms. L’s signing of the contract with icare. You either don’t know of the circumstances surrounding this signing or have chosen to ignore them:

 

icare held a gun to Ms. L’s head, making threats to her if she did not sign within a very brief time-frame. This was at a time when she had been advised by a medical professional NOT to sign contracts of any kind whilst she was in no position, emotionally and psychologically, to do so. icare was well aware of this but held the gun to her head anyway – keen to extract whatever money it could from a 70 year old woman whose career the insurer had destroyed, along with her mental health.

 

Both icare and the Personal Injuries Commission have demonstrated in their dealings with Ms.L not just incompetence but also a callous disregard for the well-being of an employer who tried to help a mentally ill man in need; a paranoid addict with a track record of scamming down on his luck. In this he was aided and abetted by a psychiatrist who wrote the report about the alleged bullying of Mr. M that icare relied upon to be convinced that Ms. L bullied him so badly that he could never work again. This report was based on one conversation that Dr. Oldtree Clark had with his patient on the telephone; a patient he never met and whose decades-long medical records regarding his various mental illnesses and addictions were not available to him.

 

You have now carried water for C M, for icare and the Personal Injuries Commission and provided the Attorney General, in this undated letter of yours, with the Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card he can play if this multi-million-dollar scam ever becomes public knowledge.

 

When politicians behave as you have here, it is small wonder that so many in the community do not trust them; that many hold politicians in contempt.

 

You have not done your job and are not fit for purpose as a Minister for Industrial Relations and Work Health and Safety

 

yours sincerely

 

James Ricketson

cc Premier Chris Minns

Michael Daley, Attorney General

icare

Personal Injuries Commission

 

                                                                        ***

 

The Hon. Michael Daley, MP 

NSW Attorney General

GPO Box 5341
Sydney NSW 2001                                                               18th. December 2024

 

Dear Mr Daley

 

re xxxx Pty Ltd v Workers Compensation Nominal Insurer (icare)

 

I have written a dozen letters to Premier Chris Minns about this matter - the most recent of which was sent on 13th. December. 

 

Whilst I have received electronic acknowledgement of receipt of these, and requested a reply to all, replies have not been forthcoming. None of my questions have been answered.

 

It seems as though the Premier’s office does not believe that this matter is worthy of any attention.

 

I am a filmmaker who was in the process of producing a film about Ms. L (a world renowned xxxx artist) two years ago when this matter was brought to my attention.

 

At the time of my first letters to icare and the PIC, in the interests of transparency, I identified myself as such, and as both a journalist and a friend of Ms. L's - wearing three different hats. To these I must now add fourth - that of a human being with a commitment to justice and fair dealing requesting that the NSW government do whatever it can to prevent what could well be, in the absence of intervention, a tragic outcome to this matter..

 

The five years that this case has dragged on has taken an enormous toll on Ms. L's physical, mental and emotional lives. I have witnessed her transformation from a smiling, energetic and ever-optimistic cake artist to a sad shadow of her former self - no longer able to create, to earn a living, and robbed of her peace of mind  as she has been pursued and persecuted by icare on the basis of a fraudulent claim by Mr. M. 

 

This matter has turned Ms L's life into a nightmare, and it is one that I fear could lead to the worst possible ending.

 

I have asked many questions of icare, the Personal Injuries Commission (PIC) and of the Premier and need not repeat these. They are all on record. I will mention one only.

 

This dispute began with the allegation of bullying by Ms. L of C M back in 2019. No evidence has ever been provided that any such bullying occurred, whilst there is an abundance of evidence of Mr. M's bullying of Ms. L.

 

Despite the lack of evidence, icare, with the blessing of the PIC, has instructed Ms. L that she must pay icare $130,000 as a result of what the PIC itself admits are merely 'allegations' - an amount that will not even cover the legal fees accrued by icare this past five years.

 

If this order is enforced it will leave Ms. L with no choice but to sell her only asset - her home of 40 years.

 

Given Ms. L's current condition, this matter needs to be dealt with urgently by yourself, and not merely with a form letter of receipt of this letter.

 

Please intervene, Mr. Daley, by asking both icare and the PIC to provide you with evidence that Ms. L ever bullied Mr. M. When you discover, as you will, that there is no evidence, please do whatever needs to be done to bring this matter to a just conclusion.

 

Some of the many other questions I have asked can be found at:

 

http://jamesricketson.blogspot.com

 

 

yours sincerely

 

James Ricketson

cc icare

PIC

ICAC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hon. Michael Daley, MP 

NSW Attorney General

GPO Box 5341
Sydney NSW 2001                                                               20th January 2025

 

Dear Mr Daley

 

re xxxxx Pty Ltd v Workers Compensation Nominal Insurer (icare)

 

Following on from my letter to you dated 18th. December 2024.

 

I have received neither an acknowledgement of its receipt, nor any response to it.

 

It seems as though the Office of the Attorney General, as with that of Premier Minns, does not believe that there is anything in this matter that is of concern - not the fact that we are now in the sixth year of what has been a financial and emotional disaster for Ms. L, and not the fact that no evidence has ever been produced that Ms. L bullied Mr. M.

 

I have uncovered some new aspects of this case that should be of serious concern to you, as Attorney General. You need to take a good hard look at the details of it with one question in mind: 'Has icare followed, adhered to, its own procedural rules and regulations?' I could help you with this, but I am sure (or hope) that there is someone in your office who can do their own research and discover why this case is nothing short of a legal farce.

 

I am certain if s/he were to deliver to you a report on what has happened here, what is continuing to happen, that you would do whatever you need to bring it to an end and, in the process, consider whether the key players in this legal farce are fit for purpose in the positions they hold in their respective organisations.

 

cheers

 

James Ricketson

from Sophie Cotsis Minister for Industrial Relations

 Hon Michael Daley MP

Attorney General office@daley.minister.nsw.gov.au

Dear Attorney-General,

 

OFFICIAL

 

Thank you for your correspondence from Mr James Ricketson. Mr Ricketson advocates on behalf of Ms L, owner of XXX Pty Ltd (XXX) who is involved in a workers compensation claim with her former employee, C M and icare.

 

Workers compensation insurance is mandatory for all employers unless they are exempt from holding a policy. By letter dated 8 September 2020, icare determined that XXX was not an employer exempt from holding a policy for the 2019-2020 financial year, ti was an employer that should have held a policy for this period and therefore, was considered an uninsured employer.

 

I understand that during the time that XXX was uninsured, a former employee made a workers compensation claim which was accepted by the Nominal Insurer (icare) under the Uninsured Liability Insurance Scheme. Section 145 of the Workers Compensation Act 1987 (the 1987 Act) sets out that the Nominal Insurer can serve a notice on an uninsured employer requesting them to reimburse the Insurance Fund the amount that it has paid in workers compensation benefits to a worker with an accepted workers compensation claim.

 

I understand that on 26 July 2022 icare served Sweet Art with a notice under section 145 of the 1987 Act seeking reimbursement of payments made from the Insurance Fund in respect of Mr Ms' claim. I am advised that Sweet Art made an application to the Personal Injury Commission (PIC) disputing liability for the reimbursement sought by care. A decision was made by the PIC on 5 October 2023 confirming that Sweet Art was required to reimburse icare the costs it had paid on Mr M's claim.

 

XXX and icare reached a settlement where Ms L would pay a set amount in monthly instalments to icare. I understand that Ms L is up to date with her payments and has not raised any further issues in relation to the settlement.

 

I acknowledge Mr Ricketson's ongoing advocacy for Ms L and XXX. The matter has been subject to formal litigation and determination has been achieved.

 

GPO Box 5341 Sydney NSW 2001 I P: (02) 7225 61 10 I W: nsw.gov.au/ministercotsis OFFICIAL

Our Reference: 00099/25

 OFFICIAL

The PIC as an independent statutory tribunal, being part of the system of courts and tribunals in NSW, is not under the control or direction of the Government. The PIC's Members are statutorily appointed decision makers who decide contested matters between parties. Each member is invested with decision making independence in that role. Determinations by the PIC are legally binding and final, and once determined, the matter generally cannot be pursued further. As such neither Ministers, Members of Parliament nor their departments can assist in having a determination made by the PIC overturned.

Yours sincerely

The Hon. Sophie Cotsis Minister for Industrial Relations

Minister for Work Health and Safety

 

letter to icare board and senior management re psychological damage scam

 To: John Robertson, Michael Coutts-Trotter, Mark Goodsell, Kirsten Armstrong, Leah Fricke, Virginia Malley, Mark Morey, Dan Hunter, Tanya Graham, Tony Wessling and Scott North

 

Dear Chair, Board Members and senior icare management

 

re XXXXPty Ltd v Workers Compensation Nominal Insurer (icare)

 

If this matter has not been brought to your attention to date, please read the letter I wrote to NSW Treasurer, Daniel Mookhey in 18th May. This can be found at: 

 

                                    http://jamesricketson.blogspot.com

 

Mr Mookhey did not respond to my letter.

 

You will find also on my blog four letters that I have written to Geniere Aplin regarding this case. She has not responded to or acknowledged receipt of them. Nor did Richard Harding or Stuart Farquharson - my letters to them also in the public domain.

 

icare knew, when it coerced Ms L. into signing a contract committing her to paying icare the money it feels is owed by her, that she was under doctors instruction NOT to sign any documents whilst mentally unwell. 

 

This, in itself, should render the contact null and void. And it should raise questions in all your minds regarding the competence and ethical standards of all those within icare that have turned a blind eye.

 

More importantly, this action on icare’s part reveals just how cold-blooded and ruthless the insurer is when it comes to dealing with clients. All that matters is the bottom line. If a person’s life is destroyed by icare incompetence – be they an employee or an employer – it matters not at all to icare.

 

Given Geniere Aplin’s refusal to intervene, I now ask the Board and icare senior management to do so; to declare the contract Ms. L signed against medical advice null and void; to return to her the money she has already paid to icare, and to recompense her financially for the loss of income, peace of mind and mental health that icare has visited upon her this past five years.

 

yours sincerely

 

James Ricketson

Premier Minns, Attorney General, Daley, Personal Injuries Commission, ICAC

letter to Treasurer Daniel Mookhey re fraudulent psychological injuries

                                                           James Ricketson

58 Braidwood Road

Goulburn 2580

jamesricketson@gmail.com

0488543555

 

The Hon. Daniel Mookhey

NSW Treasurer

Parliament House

Macquarie St.

Sydney 2000                                                                                                  18^th. May 2025

 

Dear Treasurer

 

I understand, from an article published online a few hours ago regarding iCare, Richard Harding and the Robertson enquiry, that Treasury is concerned about the cost of psychological claims.

 

For more than two years now I have been associated, as an advocate, journalist and friend of AL’s, with her five year battle with iCare. 

 

Ms. L’s case highlights how easy it is to scam the system by faking serious psychological injury, as CM has. 

 

I have documented  this case in forensic detail in letters sent to Premier Minns, Attorney General Michael Daley, iCare and the Personal Injuries Commission. These can be found at:

 

                                    http://jamesricketson.blogspot.com

 

A combination of lack of due diligence and sheer bureaucratic incompetence on iCare ‘s part, aided and abetted by the equally incompetent Personal Injuries Commission, has enabled Mr. M to defraud the insurer. The bill for his scam will run into the millions of dollars.

 

This matter has caused Ms. L enormous personal and professional distress and damage over the past five years.

 

I recommend that you get someone within your office to read through my letters and complete a report for you. I believe you will agree, upon reading it, that it must be rendered impossible for the Mr. Ms of this world to get away with such a fraud.

 

That Mr. M will be able to spend the rest of his life being supported by the premiums paid by employers is a scandal that needs to be rectified by referring the matter to the Fraud Squad.

 

I believe that Ms. L should have her debt to iCare cancelled immediately, that the money she has already paid be returned to her, that a sincere apology be made to her what she has endured this past five years, and that she be compensated by iCare for the considerable loss of income she has suffered.

 

Yours sincerely

 

James Ricketson