GERALDINE ALLAN
#21, Red Bob. Here is part of an extract in one of my Annexures to the JSCEC. I believe it is an extract from san article Barry Prismall wrote when he was political editor with the Examiner. It is written around 2000, so is outdated, but it spells out the answer to your question, I think. I may have updated the years figures for my submission, but that matters not.
“They’ve been fighting for 26 years. They’re still battling.
For more than 26 years Invermay plumber Geoff Allan has been battling to clear his name. A 1983 report that accused his small business of overcharging was the start of a legal and political nightmare for him and his wife.
This damaging Consumer Affairs Council finding was reported prominently in the State’s daily newspapers and on the radio and television news.
Over more than two and a half decades Geoff & Geraldine Allan have tried to continue trading as a plumbing business, but under virtual restraint of trade because the 1983 report that was invalidly tabled in both Houses of Parliament has never been withdrawn.
Their road has been rocky. The buck-passing and bureaucratic maze sprawling over the decades are still unresolved. In efforts to clear their name, the Allans have outlaid every dollar available to them and more, dealt with five State Governments, gone to court, sought assistance from numerous politicians and then Governor Sir Guy Green and had trick offers from governments right up until 2000 — but to no avail, because no government will accept responsibility for fear of further civil action.
Before 1983 the couple had a prominent Launceston plumbing service employing up to at one time 23 persons — tradesmen, apprentices and administrative staff and specialising in servicing emergency same-day plumbing calls as well as contract plumbing.
What the Allans have always wanted is for the 1983 report that improperly remains on the public record, to be withdrawn or amended to include the truth. That doesn’t seem a lot to ask.”
The rest of the Allans’ story appears at the end of the article HERE. Comment HERE
