One month ago today, at this time (6.45pm); I had finished dinner, I was sitting on the couch, tv in the background and I must of dozed off – when I was woken by a rather loud knock at my door; I wasn’t expecting anyone.

I woke myself up out of the sleepy state and answered the door, Two male police officers were standing there looking at me – I was surely awake and quite alarmed; I asked them in a panic “Is everything Okay” ? Believing the worst had happened to a family member or something bad had occurred for such a visit from NSW Police...

They responded that "All is fine – however, we are here on another matter”... At this point, I’m trying to still wake up and understand why I have NSW Police at my door looking at me in a concerned manner. . .

I will go back to the police at my door in a moment –

The week before, I had communicated a formal complaint to Channel Nine, Sydney; in writing – due to the situation I have been dealing with, in regards to 13Cabs and attempting to tell my story, and the severe risks being placed on the community, including myself as a sole trader.

After 2 years now of dealing with the struggles of multiple break downs since late 2020, and severe depression and worry for myself, and the worry for the general public due to risks 13Cabs places on the community as a whole, furthermore what level they will go to, to silence and destroy anyone who speaks up, such as myself - or other workers -  I was under the illusion that the media would assist and would support such awareness and provide the community a warning as well as support me in such a very difficult time, especially when Government, local and state Mp’s, regulators, or any authority overseeing practices by a company offering  services to communities fail you and WILL NOT ACT for the safety of yourself or the community as a whole.

I have contacted other media organisations, however I wanted channel nine more so, because they are the only network that is still present in the region where this situation occurred and NBN News is a local news presentation that I thought initially would assist in this matter, I was very wrong!

For just over one year I have made numerous phone calls to Newcastle NBN Television, which is Channel 9, and I was informed to write to them via email regarding the situation, so I did, only to hear nothing back, I would call again and ask to speak to a senior member of management, or alike – to be promised a call back, it never happened again, I would write again a month or two later or call and speak to someone going over all the information, retriggering myself again and again – promised they would ensure someone would call me back – again and again and again NO call back, no communication in response.

I than went to Sydney Channel 9 and started the same process, inform someone of all the main details, they said write to them, I did – nothing in return, I don’t know how long I am expected to wait, but it got to two months and I called again only for the same thing to be said and I kept my cool, I was calm, I was crying, but I was calm.

It got to five weeks ago and I called channel 9 again, requesting a confirmation on my situation and what is a formal response please? They come back to me with “It’s a legal matter, We cannot do anything about it” – which seems to be a very common phrase when they just cannot be bothered with you.

I than sat down, and wrote a formal complaint to them, the last person I spoke to even provided another email to me to write such a complaint and assured me I would receive a reply.

The reply from Channel 9 for my formal complaint was for them to CALL NSW POLICE, AND REQUEST A WELFARE CHECK!

I would expect such an entity when they receive a formal complaint, and with the detail of what’s in the complaint, my overall situation and what i’ve endured, including what i’ve endured with them in trying to make contact and just simply care for my community to ensure people are safe, would be for channel 9 and someone in management with some logic, a scent of ethics at least and rational thinking – to pick up the phone and instead of calling police, call me, speak to me – provide me the dignity for the time i’ve taken in coming to them, not to mention; the courage it takes to get to a level to speak up on these matters and reach out to such a media organisation, putting my own reputation at stake.

NO, Channel 9 and Their response was to intimidate me, humiliate me, and financially cost me!

Back to the Police at my door –

They are very concerned for my welfare, because I made a complaint to channel 9, I had one officer informing me and re-reading out the complaint I had made back to me, and than stating – It wasn’t Normal???

I was completely and utterly shocked, sick to my stomach and the level of anxiety that went through me instantly was followed up by the police in stating,” Adam, we are going to have to call an ambulance, you look a bit on edge, you don’t look okay, we aren’t professionals so it would be safer to call an ambulance to check you over”.

AT first, I refused, I replied – I’m on edge because you’re here due to me making a formal complaint to channel 9 on their behaviour and ignorance in not providing me any formal or logical response to a story and a situation I am trying to report on through them, that is why they are their in these cases, and im on edge because I was just snoozing and I get a loud knock on my door, and it’s you – and their is nothing severely wrong here, no one is hurt, my family are okay, so of course I am on edge, abit pissed off and you’re now wanting to waste more resources in bringing an ambulance here...

No matter what I said, I could not get any logic from these two police officers, who I will admit were very understanding later, and they were nice, thankfully because if they weren’t, that interaction could of ended up with me really going off the deep in my state and pushing me completely off the edge, but again -  I kept my cool, thinking NO, im not allowing 13Cabs or Channel 9 to send me off my rails, I will not provide them the satisfaction.

I agreed, and had no choice for the Ambulance to come to check me over and provide me the information and conclusion that I already knew before the ambulance presented themselves, it was the only way I was going to have the police, go and do some actual real work and check on people’s welfare whom presented a lot more risk than I have.

The ambulance came, checked me over by asking a few questions, I couldn’t get into a lot before they interrupted and told me, look it looks like you’re just having a really difficult time at the moment, we don’t need to be here etc etc, they offered to take me to Hospital and I refused because at that present time, I was only in shock and depressed, and I wasn’t even crying but if they started speaking on my situation – I would of definitely started to go down hill in my emotions.

Two weeks later: I get a bill of $422 for the ambulance that the POLICE called because of channel 9’s concerns of welfare. How broken is this system?

I am already struggling financially with the loss of my business, I am also in a declining mood and all I wanted was to be treated with some respect and dignity for a media organisation who claims they care for their communities and people, their viewers, they even urge to contact them for situations like this, only to ignore us and when you complain, they don’t care – they will just send the police to you, and rack up bills just before Christmas towards a person already suffering so much. That isn’t a welfare check, that is absolute degrading behaviour.

I don’t have to pay for the Ambulance, You do, the tax payers in this country - I feel for you that you have to pay out such ridiculous amounts on behalf of companies such as channel 9 who use Nsw Police and our ambulance services for no legitimate reason, when I think about it – I wonder who else do they do this too? Do they do this normally to create profit for the government and such services... it just is so degrading.

One word for channel 9 – PATHETIC