Monday 21 May 2007 - Channel 7 Today Tonight (Adelaide) - Dawn Rowan

Link to Dawn Rowan's web site with further details - http://dawnrowansaga.blogspot.com/

This version of the transcript has been edited by Dr Robert N Moles

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In order of appearance

Leigh McCluskey, Presenter
Graham Archer, Producer and interviewer

Program

Leigh McCluskey

Tonight, a special investigation into a battle that has spanned 2 decades and which is about to leave an innocent Adelaide woman homeless. Dawn Rowan by any definition is a hero - a pioneer and champion in the struggle against violence in the home. It was dangerous and often unpopular work. However, her real adversaries were the State and Federal governments who appeared to resent her independence and success.

Dawn and her colleague became the targets of the most appalling smear campaign - and though the courts have found in her favour, the Federal government is moving in to take all she has in the world. Graham Archer has the story.

Graham Archer

The citizen versus the State. Would you recommend it?

Dawn Rowan

Well put it this way - suicide seems a very sensible option to me. It's diabolical. I couldn’t even begin to tell you the damage it’s done me.

Graham Archer

What you are about to see is the chilling reality of what happens when an ordinary citizen takes on the State.

Dawn Rowan

Torture. It's psychological, social, financial and physical torture.

Graham Archer

To those who know what she's been through Adelaide's Dawn Rowan is a hero. A genuine pioneer in the struggle against child abuse and domestic violence. It was a task few had the stomach to tackle.

Documentary interview

....I just picked her up and dragged her across to my place and I told her I was going to give her the biggest kicking of her life - but I pre-planned that. I told a few blokes at work that I was going home to give it the biggest kicking of it’s life – ‘cause I'd had a guts full.....

Dawn Rowan

Battered wives at that point were considered whingeing bitches who deserved what they got - and were sleeping on the beaches and in chook houses and things like that.

Graham Archer

The work was dangerous and, of course, many labelled Dawn and her colleagues as ratbags and radicals.

Dawn Rowan

We were considered just the screaming lunatic fringe, nationally - nationally this was, not just south Australia, but the women’s shelters were considered to be troublemakers - because we were outspoken and we were very well organized.

Graham Archer

However their independently run shelters offering protection to battered women - such as Dawn's at Christies Beach - were ground breaking in what they attempted.

Dawn Rowan

And the nature of the work we did there was quite pioneering as well. And that was about genuinely empowering women to go back either to home or separately with connections within the community to be completely rehabilitated.

Graham Archer

But their vision wasn't shared by the State and Federal governments who funded the shelters - and who resented their independence.

Dawn Rowan

Government wanted to deny, minimise and trivialise the problem. I got the distinct impression that they were put out by the effectiveness of the shelters and that - and basically, they were embarrassed by the degree of success.

Graham Archer

Dawn was one of the most dedicated and articulate advocates for the cause - and her critics were many.

Dawn Rowan

You were characterized as a trouble maker? Oh absolutely - an empire builder - the mouth from the south.

Graham Archer

For years she fought to support shattered families - and hold off those determined to undermine her - who were planning to take over and turn the shelters back into emergency housing for all comers.

Dawn Rowan

We felt that complete rehabilitation services were necessary for families that had experienced domestic violence (including the children) - there was a whole complexity of issues that were different to say - running a safe bed for the night for homeless men.

Graham Archer

When the shelters wouldn't submit to the Government's demands - Dawn and her colleague became the target of extraordinary and largely baseless attacks.  These smears would lead to a legal battle that after almost 20 years - is about to leave Dawn herself homeless.  

Dawn Rowan

And it's also 18 years of living with the real terror of bankruptcy and losing everything I owned. But I thought that was a possibility - only if I lost. I didn't think that was a possibility if I won.

Graham Archer

Dawn's most powerful antagonist was the Minister of Health and Community Welfare - the cocksure and quarrelsome Dr John Cornwall.  

File Tape

I'm never happy to meet you the way you carry on - you are the most irresponsible person in public life in South Australia. You are the original ‘middle-aged larrikin’.

Graham Archer

Cornwell’s tactics were hardly subtle - and included the threat to withdraw Shelter funding - which prompted Dawn and her supporters to demand he hand back his “Father of the Year” award. For Cornwall - this meant war. He instantly set up a hand-picked “Independent Shelter Review Committee”. Dawn and her Christies Beach Shelter were singled out for special attention.
Were you ever consulted in that review?

Dawn Rowan

No, no, not at all. In fact the day that the Review was announced, I completely collapsed at work.

Graham Archer

To head the committee he picked this woman - Judith Roberts. Though qualified as a nurse - Roberts was a ‘networker’ who had spent years on numerous Government Boards.  

Dawn Rowan

She is basically on almost every health, education and welfare committee known to mankind in Australia, both State and Federally.

Graham Archer

And I take it - at the time - no fan of yours?

Dawn Rowan

Asoluteley not. There had been difficulties between her and I for some years.

Graham Archer

In August 1987 - without warning - Cornwall dropped his bombshell - releasing the Review's Findings in Parliament.

Cornwall in Parliament

There are a plethora of allegations and some are very serious indeed.

Graham Archer

The Report "Shelters In The Storm" was pure poison - chronicling the most appalling allegations about Rowan and Shelter staff - including their failure to keep proper financial records, professional negligence, mis-using - even stealing public funds - and much, much worse.

Dawn Rowan

Sexual harassment of women in a womens’ shelter, physical and verbal violence of women in a womens’ shelter - and they're there because of those issues, inappropriate exploitative counselling, which is a shocking, shocking allegation to make.

Graham Archer

Was any of it true?

Dawn Rowan

Absolutely not. Not one bit of it.

File tape

I've worked in the shelter for 6 years and I have never seen anything remotely like those suggestions.

Graham Archer

Some of the allegations of sexual harassment were put forward by Roberts herself - from unnamed sources.

Dawn Rowan

They only left out running a brothel and - you know – operating a stolen car racket - you know everything else was just about lumped in.

Graham Archer

Roberts even went on Channel 10 and the ABC to repeat the allegations. Dawn and the others were devastated.  

Dawn Rowan

I – I - I was completely - I should have been hospitalised at that stage. I could not believe this was possible in a democracy.

Graham Archer

What made the attack even more extraordinary was that a police investigation into the Shelter finances had been completed days before - and found no wrong-doing whatsoever.

Dawn Rowan

And if you were going to table a report making allegations about criminality about someone - you'd want to check with police to ensure you were on safe ground wouldn't you? That's right yes?  Investigations were instigated - but they didn't wait for the results before they released the Report - in fact judged us - sentenced us - without a trial.

They were ordered to go back an keep digging - and that's what the detectives told me.

Graham Archer

Their Report - which was not made public - contradicted the Review’s Finding on almost every point - and concludes with a recommendation that the government "Prevent a recurrence of rumours, innuendo and ill founded allegations being made."

It was buried. The Shelter was also cleared by a corporate affairs investigation, the Ombudsman and a Parliamentary Select Committee Inquiry. Dawn had no option but to resign. The funding was cut and the shelter movement collapsed.

Dawn Rowan

It has pretty much destroyed my personal credibility, my professional credibility, my capacity to contribute - to the field of - particularly to the field of family violence.

Graham Archer

But even after the allegations were shown to be almost entirely false - there was no attempt to undo the damage - or even utter an apology. Dawn Rowan's only way to set the record straight and regain her dignity was through the courts.

Dawn Rowan

The only possibility was to then go to the law.  

Graham Archer

It was to be a David and Goliath battle - spanning 2 decades. The list of court appearances alone runs to 58 pages - and we may never know how many millions of taxpayers dollars the State and Federal government poured into defending their inexcusable actions.

Dawn Rowan

This is the brutal and unrelenting pursuit by the State Government of South Australia and the Commonwealth government - of an innocent person - which has been, for me, 20 years of torture - leading to State sponsored execution.

Graham Archer

Mediation collapsed when Dawn's adversaries failed to agree on a settlement proposal. And in court - Cornwall, Roberts and the others denied any wrong doing. However, in June 2002, at the end of a torturous trial in which Rowan represented herself - Justice Debelle's 300 page judgment sent the missiles flying - back - smack into the governments bunkers.

Dawn Rowan - News story

Surrounded by supporters and a hug from her proud niece Felicity - Dawn Rowan emerged victorious from the Supreme Court this morning. “This has been 15 years of hell and there's been many, many people injured by this …"

Dawn Rowan

It was a strong judgment in my favour and was very critical of the main defendants.

Graham Archer

Hs findings were clear - the treatment of Dawn was appalling.

Justice Debelle from the judgment

The allegations were a shocking defamation.

Graham Archer

The judge flayed a number of the government people involved - starting with the "evasive" Dr Cornwall.  

Justice Debelle from the judgment

I accept his evidence only where it is corroborated by objective facts.

Graham Archer

He was equally critical of Judith Roberts who, incidentally, during the case had been awarded an Order of Australia. However, she was in the judge's view

Justice Debelle from the judgment

A most unimpressive witness. There was a considerable degree of self justification in her evidence and at times she became an advocate for her own cause. Some of her evidence was plainly wrong.

Graham Archer

Things got much harder for Dawn when it was revealed slabs of the files from all 5 governments departments involved in the case went missing.

Justice Debelle from the judgment

Some files were destroyed or lost after this action had commenced.

Graham Archer

Amongst them was the SA police's own investigation file stored in State Archives which disappeared during the case.

Justice Debelle from the judgment

A request was made for its retrieval but somewhere the file was lost in the process of retrieval.

Dawn Rowan

The police lost their complete file into their investigation into Christies Beach.

Graham Archer

Even the notes of the Review Committee itself had been destroyed or lost.

Dawn Rowan

No record of it.

Graham Archer

So there was no record of the review?

Dawn Rowan

No.

Graham Archer

Meetings?

Dawn Rowan

No.

Graham Archer

Notes?

Dawn Rowan

No.

Graham Archer

Minutes?

Dawn Rowan

All gone.

Graham Archer

In fact, Roberts admitted destroying much of that paperwork herself. "She says in an affidavit she was given verbal legal advice to destroy her working documents. But she could remember who'd given her that advice? Nope ..."

Graham Archer

The state's Corporate Affairs Commission also lost parts of their file.

Dawn Rowan

Departments like Corporate Affairs just can't get away with ‘oh we lost it’ ‘we can't find it’ - it's extraordinary.

Graham Archer

But that's what happened. Roberts had even claimed at one stage of the case that she didn't know Dawn Rowan at all.

Dawn Rowan

When she was being questioned by the State Crown Solicitor she'd make statements like did you know Dawn Rowan - she'd say no.

Graham Archer

So she denied knowing you?

Dawn Rowan

Yes initially.

Graham Archer

In court?

Dawn Rowan

Yes in court.

Graham Archer

Cornwall was found guilty of abusing his power and Roberts - and some of her committee - found to be motivated by malice.  

Justice Debelle from the judgment

I find there is sufficient evidence that members of the Review Committee did not honestly believe what they were stating about the Christies Beach shelter was correct. Those members were guilty of malice.

Graham Archer

It's not what you'd expect from public servants is it?

Dawn Rowan

Absolutely not - absolutely not. They admitted each one of them that - they didn't make any effort to establish if any of these allegations were credible or not .

Graham Archer

The judge awarded Rowan damages of around $500,000 with costs.

Dawn Rowan

But none of my costs to this day have been ordered to be paid for my costs in that first trial.

Graham Archer

But having already spent millions of taxpayer dollars in fighting Dawn, the governments State and Federal simply plunged their hands deeper into the public purse and appealed.

You must have been confident that you'd survive?

Dawn Rowan

Absolutely. He said repeatedly the evidence abundantly supported his findings.

Graham Archer

The appeal proceeded - followed by a 16 month wait for the findings which in the end were almost as big a shock as the original review 18 years previously.  

Dawn Rowan

Look, the whole judgment I found shocking – devastating.

Graham Archer

In fact Dawn won again. The Full Bench found the facts of the case were unquestionably in her favour. But having said that - there was a catastrophic legal twist. They overturned the finding of malice against Roberts.

Dawn Rowan

They upheld Cornwall’s misfeasance and they upheld Judith Roberts defamation, on the media programs, but they refused to find malice.

Graham Archer

This was a crushing blow because it meant Dawn became liable for all the Federal Government’s legal costs for the entire case and the appeal.  

And what kind of a cost judgment are you facing?

Dawn Rowan

I am now legally liable for millions of dollars of costs of the 2 television stations and the Commonwealth Government and my own costs of that appeal to the tune of $300,000.

Graham Archer

After 18 years of struggle Dawn had won - but faced ruin all the same.

So having been falsely accused of criminal conduct by a Government Minister and his staff?

Dawn Rowan

Yes.

Graham Archer

After being appallingly defamed?

Dawn Rowan

Yes.

Graham Archer

Having to resign?

Dawn Rowan

Yes.

Graham Archer

Move States?

Dawn Rowan

Yes.

Graham Archer

Having seen documents and notes go missing?

Dawn Rowan

Yes.

Graham Archer

The court has now found that you have to pay the governments costs?

Dawn Rowan

That's right. The Commonwealth government's costs because they've been let off by the Full Court.

Graham Archer

And we will never know what this has actually cost the taxpayer?

Dawn Rowan

No.  

Graham Archer

In recent weeks the Commonwealth have frozen her assets and are now moving in to take what's left of her assets. Only her home - her own shelter from the storm - and where she still manages to conduct what's left of her career as a counselor - now just how much is that again?

Dawn Rowan

That's $380,000 - and I have a mortgage of $120,000 on my house.  

Graham Archer

Does that effectively mean that you're homeless?

Dawn Rowan

Yes - that effectively means that I'm homeless. And because I work from home when I'm able to work - that I won't have a place to work as well.  

Graham Archer

So what chance has an individual got in standing up against politicians and their servants who have unlimited resources and nothing personal to lose? After trying to set right an obvious wrong Dawn Rowan faces homelessness and bankruptcy. Could the gap between justice and the law be stretched much wider?

Dawn Rowan

If I knew then what I know now - I would have done what Penny Eastern did and commit suicide after 4 days. I don’t believe there in any possibility in Australia and certainly in South Australia of getting any justice when grave, grave injustices and injuries have been done to innocent members of the public by the state.

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