Bruce Francis sent this detailed letter to Sports Minister Greg Hunt on 4 April 2017. Sports Minister Greg Hunt stated his department found 'no new information' that would warrant an inquiry. This is an abridged version of Mr Francis's letter: Item (Hunt) 2: “As Minister for Sport I consider the ongoing protection of the health and well-being of participants in sport from doping and other activities compromising the integrity of sport with utmost concern.” My Comment: 1. Your comment indicates that you not only have no idea about the issues in the Essendon saga but that you think words are the best method of attack. I can assure you, words will not solve the nation’s health problems. As stated above, you cannot treat me with the contempt that you treat the opposition and your constituents in question time. 2. The AFL had at least four agreements which carried governance and legal occupational health and safety responsibilities to the Essendon Football Club and its players, which it failed to fulfil, and they need to be investigated for the health of future players: i. The AFL and each of the 18 clubs have Master Governance Framework agreements which allows them to compete in the competition. It is a contract with bilateral responsibilities, which included OH&S and obligations. ii. The tripartite agreement it had with Essendon and each player. Clause 7.3 of the AFL/Essendon/Player contract says: “The AFL club shall provide a playing, training and working environment which is, so far as practicable, free of any risk to the health and safety and welfare of the player. Without limitation, the AFL club shall observe and carry out its obligations under the applicable Occupational Health & Safety Act or its equivalent.” Clause 12 of the same agreement says: “The parties to this contract the (AFL/Essendon/the Player) shall use their best endeavours, in relation to any matter or thing directly within their control, to bring about compliance with all the provisions of this contract.” iii. The bilateral agreement it had with the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) in its capacity as a National Sporting Organisation (NSO). These responsibilities are set out in the Australian Sports Commission policy statement: NSOs Governance – Mandatory requirements for ASC large partner NSOs. The AFL breached clause 2.3 of the Australian Sports Commission NSO Governance - Mandatory Requirements, which states: “An effective organisation must have a thorough system of audit and risk management, including internal and external processes. This committee must ensure there are adequate controls and systems in place to alert management and the board to potential risk associated with the operation of the sport.” The AFL made no attempt to either ascertain whether Essendon had adequate OHS systems in place or whether it was complying with the law. The Australian Sports Commission made no attempt to investigate the AFL breaches of its Mandatory Requirements. iv. The agreement with ASADA and its responsibilities under its own anti-doping code. v. Additionally, the AFL commissioners had onerous statutory obligations under the Corporations Act. Simply put, the AFL had similar occupational health and safety and duty of care responsibilities to each player at Essendon as the Essendon board. AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou acknowledged this when he said: “The AFL has a duty to all its stakeholders that we look after our players.” On SEN Radio on 28 August 2013, AFL deputy chief executive, Gillon McLachlan implied that the AFL integrity manager Brett Clothier should have conducted periodic audits to ensure Essendon was complying with his alleged warning. 3. If you were interested in the health and well-being of participants in sport, you would set up an investigation into the AFL, ASADA and the ASCs health and safety failures, which would ensure that other sporting organisations didn’t act in such a rogue way. Inter alia, you would have asked why: i. The AFL breached WADA’s Code by employing Stephen Dank at the AFL owned Gold Coast Suns. Clauses 2.6 and 2.7 of the WADA Code state that non-medical people who have administered banned substances or sold banned substances are prohibited from working with WADA affiliated athletes. As Dank had administered and sold banned substances to the public, the AFL created a health and safety issue by allowing him to work with the Gold Coast Suns. ii. The AFL registered Dank to work at Essendon, thereby risking the health of the players. iii. The Victorian WorkSafe Authority exonerated the AFL from failing to provide a safe work place at Essendon. As joint employers with the Essendon Board, the Victorian Occupational Health and Safety Act (2004) held the AFL commission and Essendon board equally responsible for providing a safe work place. The VWA incompetence and cover-up should be investigated. iv. The AFL never checked with compliance with clause 7.4 of the AFL’s Anti-Doping Code. Clause 7.4 was the key clause to not only protecting the health of the players but it also ensured the integrity of the sport was not compromised. v. ASADA caused some of the players severe mental damage by using scare tactics during the player interviews. Players were told that they could father deformed babies through taking banned substances. ASADA’s investigators were clearly guilty of misconduct, and this interview practice should be investigated. vi. ASADA didn’t warn players from other clubs that they had dangerous elevated Thymosin Beta-4 levels. If we assess these players the same way the Essendon players were assessed, it is possible that some could die. At the very least, as minister, you should ensure these players are monitored regularly. For your edification, and I am quoting from Chip Le Grand’s book, The Straight Dope, the Cologne University’s Institute of Technology established a benchmark for naturally occurring Thymosin Beta-4. Three Essendon players were deemed to have elevated levels measured at 8.9, 9.9 and 142 nanograms per millilitre. Subsequently, the university tested 48 samples taken in 2012 from AFL footballers playing for clubs other than Essendon. According to the results, 31 per cent of those samples showed elevated levels of Thymosin Beta-4. Some players had readings of 60, 70 and 80 nanograms per millilitre. The highest concentration found in a sample provided by a non-Essendon player was 285 nanograms per millilitre. Clearly, if the Essendon players are deemed to be in danger, this player’s life is in danger, and he doesn’t even know it. And it’s happening on your watch. You have a responsibility to warn this player. ASADA’s Darren Mullaly instructed the Cologne University to remove all the names from the 48 samples of non-Essendon players. That had made it impossible to identify the players with elevated Thymosin Beta-4 readings. Clearly, ASADA and the AFL should have warned the players with elevated TB-4 readings that their lives may be in danger. After removing the names from the samples, it became impossible to identity those with elevated readings. The only solution was to warn all 48 players and monitor their health in the same way that the Essendon player’s health is being monitored. ASADA and the AFL have failed to do that. Minister, if you truly view the ongoing protection of the health and well-being of participants in sport from doping and other activities compromising the integrity of sport with utmost concern, you have no choice to not only establish an investigation into this appalling dereliction of duty by the AFL and ASADA, but you must ensure that the 48 players’ health is monitored in the same way as the Essendon players’ health. If you fail to warn the 48 players you could be putting their lives at risk – particular the player with the 285 nanograms per millilitre reading. Item (Hunt) 3: “I am mindful of the extensive legal, public commentary and other scrutiny to which the investigation has been subjected which has made this difficult for those directly and indirectly involved.” My Comment 1. This comment reinforces my belief that you and your staff have very little idea of what you are talking about. There has been little legal, public commentary and other scrutiny to which the investigation has been subjected to. 2. I am sick to death of people misrepresenting the scope of the Justice Middleton Federal Court case. Justice Middleton said: “In these proceedings, Essendon and Mr James Hird essentially allege that the [AFL] CEO and ASADA had no power to conduct the joint investigation in the way it was conducted (involving the use by ASADA of AFL ‘compulsory powers’ and unauthorised disclosure of information), that the joint investigation was undertaken for improper purposes, and that ASADA breached its confidentiality obligations during the course of the investigation and in the provision to the AFL of an interim report.” 3. Justice Middleton was not asked to rule on whether ASADA changed evidence; omitted evidence; fabricated evidence; or testified in its own investigation. 4. Justice Middleton was not asked to rule on whether the AFL conspired with ASADA, the Gillard government and the Essendon board to fix the result of the investigation on 9 February 2013; whether James Hird, Mark Thompson, Danny Corcoran and Essendon were denied procedural fairness during the investigation; whether the jury (the commissioners) were not only told that the parties were guilty but what the penalties would be, prior to the investigation being completed and charges laid; whether ASADA left out crucial evidence from its interim report, which would have cleared the club and Hird, at the behest of Andrew Demetriou and Gillon McLachlan. 5. It is disingenuous to claim that public commentary, a.k.a, the media, has scrutinised the investigation. I have identified hundreds of examples of corruption/misconduct/bias/ ineptitude in the investigation that the media has refused to print or discuss. I have written over one million words and was quoted once on 4 October 2013, and was quoted by Alan Jones and Graham Richardson during their Sky television program. Item (Hunt) 4: “As you’re aware, the investigation has been subject to hearings by the Australian Federal Court and the sanctions against players were challenged in the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss Federal tribunal.” My Comment 1. It was bad enough having to listen to lies from the AFL, Ben McDevitt and the ombudsman’s office about this issue. No one should have to put up with ignorance or lies from the sports minister. As pointed out in my response to Item 3 above, Justice Middleton’s Federal Court had a very narrow focus. Justice Middleton didn’t address any of the hundreds of issues I still require to be investigated in a judicial hearing. 2. It is incomprehensible that you have claimed that sanctions against the players were challenged in the Court of Arbitration for Sport. For your edification, and for the edification of the dummies who advise you, the players were found not guilty by the AFL Anti-Doping tribunal. Consequently, they were not sanctioned prior to WADA appealing to CAS against the not guilty verdicts. 3. The players appealed to the Swiss Federal tribunal against CAS’s right to change the rules (a de novo hearing) after the proceedings had started. Item (Hunt) 4: “As a minister, I must respect all court decisions and cannot interfere with the outcome of those legal proceedings.” My Comment: 1. You have forfeited the right to be treated with respect after this disingenuous comment. 2. I resent being verballed. You have assigned claims to me which I did not make. 3. I have sent you over 250 pages covering over 500 issues, which I believe need investigating. I have never asked you to interfere with the outcome of legal proceedings. 4. I asked you to investigate corruption/misconduct by the AFL, the Gillard Government, the Essendon board, the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s office, the Victorian WorkSafe Authority and WADA. To my knowledge, none of the fore-going has been the subject of a court case. 5. I asked you to investigate ASADA’s corruption. Inter alia, that ASADA changed evidence, omitted evidence, fabricated evidence and testified in its own investigation. To my knowledge no court has addressed those issues. 6. I did not ask you to address Justice Middleton’s Federal Court findings. 7. I sent you a 115-page document covering 631 issues of the Court of Arbitration for Sport corruption/misconduct/bias and ineptitude. I did not ask you to interfere with the CAS’s proceedings or to overrule its decision. 8. I asked you to investigate the allegations I made against the CAS panel. I believe a judicial inquiry would find that the CAS panel was corrupt, biased and inept. If such a judgement were made in a Royal Commission by a former High Court judge such as Justice Robert French or Justice Ian Callinan, WADA or CAS would be forced to plead forgiveness and revoke the guilty findings. 9. I have gone into great detail proving that James Hird was innocent of any wrong-doing and that he was the victim of the greatest injustice in Australian sporting history. I explained that the Victorian Occupational Health and Safety Act (2004) indicates that 32 people – 10 AFL commissioners plus Gill McLachlan, Adrian Anderson, Brett Clothier, Dr Peter Harcourt, the AFL human resource director and the OH&S manager, and 10 Essendon board members plus Paul Hamilton, Dean Robinson, two doctors, the human resource manager and the OH&S manager, had more responsibility than Hird for providing a safe work place. 10. I told you that I believed that Hird’s life was at risk until he is cleared of any wrong-doing. I begged you to set up an inquiry that would investigate Hird’s role and responsibilities. Hird never faced charges in a court, let alone was found guilty of anything. In fact, he was bullied, some say blackmailed, to withdraw his Supreme Court case against the AFL. 11. My request to investigate the AFL, ASADA, Gillard Government and Essendon board conspiracy to nail Hird didn’t require you to interfere in a court decision. Item (Hunt) 5: “The Senate standing committee on community affairs are satisfied that the evidence presented by ASADA during the Senate estimates hearings were not false or misleading. Any matters relating to the that review by the committee or calls for a Senate enquiry are matters for the Senate.” My Comment 1. It is impossible to be polite in addressing this issue. Senator Duniam and the members of his committee are either stupid or have covered up Ben McDevitt misleading Parliament. 2. I alleged McDevitt misled Parliament on 16 occasions on 3 March 2016. I stand by that claim. No one is as thorough as me. I made my allegations after reading the Senate released transcript of the 3 March 2016 Senate Estimates hearing. As I am wont to do, I then cross-referenced the audio of the hearing with the written transcript. I discovered that the parliamentary transcriber had made a mistake. McDevitt used the term ‘Thymosin’ and the transcriber recorded it as ‘Thymosin Beta-4’. I immediately apologised to McDevitt and ensured the record was corrected. No one goes to the lengths I go to, to ensure I am correct. To my knowledge, I have never made a factual error in the 30 plus years that I have done work for Alan Jones. 3. Senator Duniam and his committee are either incompetent or dishonest. 4. During the Senate Estimates hearing, McDevitt added words to a 23 August 2011 SMS he was quoting from. Those words had a catastrophic effect on the Essendon players and helped convince people they were guilty. I claimed that he misled Parliament. Senator Duniam and his committee ruled that McDevitt didn’t mislead Parliament. 5. I made an FOI request to ASADA for the SMS McDevitt quoted from. ASADA informed me no such document existed. Thus, irrefutable proof McDevitt misled Parliament. 6. I can substantiate my other 15 claims that McDevitt misled Parliament. 7. For your edification, I have waged a war against Justice for the 34’s call for a Senate inquiry. I don’t have the same trust in the Senate’s honesty and competence as J34. Item (Hunt) 6: “In relation to the other material provided by yourself and others, I requested my department to review this information as to whether there was any new or significant material outside of those matters are covered by the court proceedings. After a full and extensive review, I have been informed by my department the information provided does not contain new or substantial material beyond what has previously been considered. This includes material reported in the Herald Sun on 24 February 2017. On that basis the advice is clear and categorical that the matters canvassed do not give rise to a further Federal government investigation given the already extensive court review process.” My Comment 1. I had to check your letter to ascertain whether your letter was written on April 1. I could compile off the top of my head a list of over 100 issues that are new and significant outside of those matters covered by court proceedings. See my response to item 1 for just a few of them. I have given you and the prime minister hundreds of them but it appears that your staff are either incompetent, dishonest or have treated you with contempt. I shall forward you under separate cover a comprehensive list of issues that have not been addressed by the courts. 2. Prior to the Essendon saga, I was the most polite, respectful person in the world. Sadly, people such as the crooks at the AFL and ASADA, the craven media, and politicians such as you, Peter Dutton, Sussan Ley and the prime minister, have turned me into a person I don’t like. But my aggression, blunt speaking and occasional disrespect doesn’t negate the need to clear Hird and the players. I cannot believe that you were so silly to introduce the 24 February 2017 Herald Sun story to support your case. 3. The Herald Sun article (24 February 2017), which referred to a tape recording of 8 August 2013, proved that McLachlan was negotiating acceptance of not only guilty findings, but the penalties, prior to the AFL’s general counsel Andrew Dillon deciding on whether to lay charges. The Herald Sun of 8 August 2013, contained the following comment: “AFL deputy chief executive Gillon McLachlan said this week he was unsure if there would be action … ‘Obviously, Andrew Dillon, the general counsel of the AFL and head of the integrity unit, is considering the report, and first things first, build the case if there is any action to be taken.’” McLachlan lied to the Herald Sun reporters Jon Ralph and Carly Crawford. 4. Deciding guilt and negotiating penalties prior to the general counsel determining whether charges would be laid was a major denial of procedural fairness. Despite what you and your staffers claim, no one has investigated this breach. Clearly, it must be investigated because McLachlan should be disciplined for such a callous breach of acceptable behaviour. Australia is not China and it is not Africa. Item (Hunt) 7: “While I am conscious of the long-standing efforts you have committed to developing your views and I appreciate this may not be the answer you wish to receive, out of respect I believe it is important that I’m clear in my position.” My Comment 1. Congratulations Mr Hunt. It took you to the last sentence to get something right. It certainly was not the answer I wished or expected to receive. I was clearly misled by Alan Jones’s assessment of your ability and integrity. 2. If you respected me, and if you respected my work ethic, you would not only have read my correspondence, but you would have questioned your stupid or dishonest staffers whom you claim told you that there was no new or substantial material outside of those matters covered by the court proceedings. 3. Minister, the reasons you gave for refusing my request for a Royal Commission were based on lies and incompetence, and clearly had no foundation whatsoever. Consequently, I believe that you have dug yourself a hole that the only way you can escape from is to set up a Royal Commission into my allegations. 4. As usual, I have consulted my team, which includes a former University Vice Chancellor, and I have copied Alan Jones. After a reasonable delay, I shall distribute the letter to my normal readers. by Bruce Francis Kindly support a Senate Inquiry into this whole sordid affair by signing this petition, and asking others to support it. Please use the links below. Thank you for your support. For further information, contact Justice of the 34 via their Facebook page.