James
Ricketson
316 Whale
Beach Road
Palm
Beach2108
0400959229
The Hon Simon Crean
Department of the Environment, Water,
Heritage and the Arts
GPO Box 787
Canberra
ACT 2601
21st. May 2012
Dear Mr Crean
I have been banned by Ruth Harley, Chief Executive of
Screen Australia, from making any applications for funding of any kind to the
organization. I have been banned from even talking with members of Screen
Australia staff. As far as I know, no other filmmaker in the history of
Australian film has had such a ban placed on them. Ruth Harley has also, in her
letter to me of 10th May, said that she will enter into no
correspondence with me about her reasons for banning me; that any letters I
write to Screen Australia will remain unread. She has also intimated that under
certain circumstances the ban that has been placed on me might be lifted but
has given me no clue as to what these circumstances might be. Given that she
will nor correspond with me, will answer no questions, I have no way of knowing
what I need to do to have the ban lifted. Kafkaesque is too mild an adjective
to use to describe the scenario.
If I am guilty of the crimes Ruth Harley has accused
me of, being banned from having any further dealings with Screen Australia is
not an unreasonable response on her part. Indeed, depending on how serious my
harassment, intimidation and placing of her staff at risk is (these are the
charges against me), taking out an AVO on me would not be unreasonable. But
what if I did not write the correspondence to which Harley refers? What if no
such correspondence exists? What if I have been falsely accused? There is, of
course, a very easy way of finding out. If the correspondence to which Harley
refers exists, it will be on file and I will look very silly indeed, to say the
least, for maintaining (over a period of 17 months in the case of one lot of
correspondence) that it does not exist. On the other hand, if the
correspondence does not exist, it would not be unreasonable to ask Harley if
she is in possession of any other information that has led to her banning me.
Could you please ask Caroline Fulton (Acting
Assistant Secretary, Creative Industries and Sector Development, Department of
the Prime Minister and Cabinet) to ask Ruth Harley to produce the
correspondence she is referring to. If she cannot or will not produce the
correspondence a whole host of questions arise that I trust someone within your
ministry will ask. If Ruth Harley and Fiona Cameron would like to identify on
which dates I wrote the offending correspondence (in either emails or letters)
I will publish it on my blog.
best wishes
James Ricketson
Was Harley's decision to ban Rickeston made after consultation with the Screen Australia Board or was it off her own bat? If it was not consulted, does the Screen Australia Board countenance the banning of filmmkers in the absence of evidence in support of the ban? Will the Screen Australia Board ask to see the correspondence that Ruth Harley refers to or is Ruth Harley being given carte blanche to ban any filmmaker who is critical of Screen Australia policy or who has made a nuisance of themselves by lodging a complaint which, it seems, has not been dealt with in accordance of Screen Australia's own guidelines?
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