Service NSW COVID-19 Micro Business Grant – CEO Greg Wells an immoral ‘indian-giver’

Service NSW did NOT do a very good job.  Read on.

This government compensation was a financial and frankly absolute lifeline to thousands off impacted small businesses trying to survive at the time across new South Wales.  Most only still are around because of this compensation and maintain the hope of taping into economic recovery, still yet to transpire.

Within just a month of the NSW state election result, the same eligible businesses that had received the Micro Business Grant suddenly became quickly targeted by Service NSW to unbelievably expected to repay the grant?

It was not a loan. It was a GRANT, approved by Service NSW’s processes at the time.

Service NSW is the very same mob that had approved and paid out the grant compensation!

Retrospective or what?

Currently at the time of writing two years later well after its payout of the grant, Service NSW is seeking to claw back the approved and paid grant compensation funding from the thousand of small businesses that received it?

Service NSW is supposed to service New South Wales citizens, not become a debt collector for non-debt.   Different regime, different new rules it seems?  This is an illegal attempt at retrospective grant compensation; otherwise in the US historically termed ‘indian-giving‘ (no racial slur intended).

And who is the head honcho that Service NSW is threatening to escalate its blanket fraud  accusations to?

This new bloke, who happens to be a different Indian by ancestry (again, no racial slur intended):

Is this a change of government with a change of mindset – trying to clawing back a legitimate and approved compensatory grant for those suffering legitimate financial hardship under pandemic lockdowns? 

We believe so.

This grant claw-back tactic seems to be nothing but an underhand bullying attempt by the incoming NSW Labor Party to cash-grab from vulnerable businesses (that can’t afford it because the compensation funding went to pay overheads to survive) in order to fund the  NSW Chris Minns Labor Government which suddenly discovered Treasury NSW is cash-strapped. 

Our Blue Mountains local tour operation, Nature Trail, at the time was, since 2019 and remains, a fledgling new tour operating business trading in the Blue Mountains.  It was denied trade directly since 12th November 2019 by NSW government’s rolling bushfire emergency lockdown regimes, compounded by the floods and pandemic lockdowns.

In October 2022, to get some relief during the depth of border lockdown, Nature Trail took off on a needed holiday to Broken Hill and back – all wholly and legally within NSW.

We were pre-warned of military border lockdown to Victoria over the Murray – dared had we turned left at the rural roundabout at Buronga across the Murray into Mildura, we’d have been arrested by pandemic border control and prevented from returning back over the Murray to New South Wales.

NSW refugees in Victoria – Brave New World stuff.

At the time (2020-2022), the NSW Government’s imposed rolling totalitarian lockdown regimes and monitoring with uncompromising enforcement by NSW Police was severe and totalitarian with fines massive of bankrupting scale.

Nature Trail was duly assessed as ‘Eligible’

A case in point – on 1st August 2021, our Katoomba-based tour business, Nature Trail, applied online to Service NSW for this offered Micro Business Grant, supplying factual supporting records in line with the stated guidelines as a fledgling new business, duly as requested by Service NSW. 

At the time, our director being an experienced accountant sensibly with a learned for keeping records, all online lodgement details that were submitted, were copied page-by-page for our records….just in case.

Nature Trail subsequently received the valuable compensation funding from the NSW  Government over the following five months (August 2021 – December 2021) totalling $15,214.

Our Blue Mountains tour operation was hardly unique as an impacted micro business at the time, and in fact remains so like many, well after the NSW Government’s official lifting of mandatory mask wearing and lockdown restrictions public declared from 30th April 2022. [^SOURCE]. 

Most Blue Mountains businesses were, and continue to be, adversely impacted from the NSW Government failure to control the Gospers Mountain Megafire 2019 along with compounding others across the region and state of NSW at the time, once states of emergency were declared from December 2019.

Regrettably, many Blue Mountains businesses have gone to the wall.

Seriously? 

Nature Trail’s 2021 application for the NSW Government’s Micro Business Grant had been assessed and approved by Service NSW in August 2021 as being eligible.  No data we submitted was anything other than factual, honest and substantiated.

We had waited ten days for our grant application to be assessed and approved, and whether any extra supporting documentary evidence may be required by the assessing department Service NSW.  None was and our application was approved by Service NSW.

Yet now nearly two years later, a new government regime claims we are auto-fraudsters somehow and demanding all the grant money back as if we had no right to it in the first place?

Frankly GFY!   Is this blatant, in old language – ‘Indian-giving‘ or what? 

 

1. Service NSW presumes our guilt as a grant fraudster (guilty until proven innocent)
2. Service NSW is attempting to re-assess eligibility almost 2 years after its own assessment, approval and full payment of the grant
3. Service NSW threatens grant recipient like us with police arrest for baseless fraud  (we actually rang the NSW Police at the time and they said its sounded like a civil matter, or a criminal matter, and so has nothing to do with police
4. Service NSW threatens us with contrived debt recovery (see 3)
5. Service NSW intimidates just like Centrelink’s contrived Robodebt computer algorithm based attack on vulnerable pensioners (may be Angela was trained by same)
6. Service NSW debt collectors displayed a total ignorance of tax accounting knowledge: “The tax return you sent in was written on we need the real Tax Return”  (so what? manual tax returns are legal). What an ignoramus?
7. And how’s this:  Service NSW:  “We understand that having to repay the funds may be unexpected.”  (How flippant?  The government grant was gifted compensation, not a loan, dudes.)

 

This is no audit.

It’s purely a witch hunt by a desperate Service NSW that stuffed up on governance big time.  It smells very politically motivated in the context. 

We call it out for what it is – underhand reneging on contractual obligations Service NSW alone approved. 

This so-called ‘audit’ action is nothing but interrogation by Service NSW.  It is not an audit, because it presumes guilt and is blanket accusatorial.  The action is invalid and an abuse of this department’s delegated authority.

NSW Police initiate ‘Strikeforce Sainsbery’

Back on 9th November 2021, NSW Police’s State Crime Commander Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith publicly had announced ‘Strikeforce Sainsbery‘ to investigate instances of grant fraud associated specifically with Service NSW grants.  Watch the video below.

 

 

[NOTE: We sense that the strikeforce naming of ‘Sainsbery’ was deliberately misspelt by NSW Police to distinguish it from the real traditional Sainsbury from the UK so as not to contaminate the legitimate UK retail brand Sainsbury’s.]

Importantly, Nature Trail has NOT been contacted by police because we have not committed any fraud.

We had provided copious factual evidence to Service NSW as requested before, during and then afterwards to Service NSW to prove that.  Perhaps Service NSW had failed to keep proper records of our grant application, for it to asks us to supply it with our same evidence again later?

We retain all that evidence and we kept screen captures of every single submitted information on the Service NSW ‘s website application form at the time back on 1st August 2021.

Now the press release by Service NSW (November 2021) came just four months into the NSW Berejiklian Government’s Micro Business Grant offer from July 2021.  So it took some time for some senior bureaucrat in Service NSW to wake up to the realisation that its  grant application checks and balances and processing had serious loopholes.

By November, Service NSW had referred some 13,000 COVID-19 paid out grant claims to the fraud police.

One enterprising young fraudster Jai Falzon (21) of Nowra wangled $530,000 from the Micro Business Grant by applying for it some 51 times!

So how did this youngster’s excessive grant claims not get detected as suspicious by Service NSW?   Apparently the Service NSW assessors didn’t detect any anomalies during the application assessment process because Falzon had simply used different bank accounts to receive the funds.

Clearly this lay tactic fooled Service NSW’s grant application process checks and balances , all wangled by a young 21-year-old!

May be also fraudsters applied from interstate and overseas and even dead people managed to get auto-paid by Service NSW auto-approval process?

Governance at Service NSW clearly does not exist.

Following the 13,000 payout vetting failures by Service NSW, then CEO Damon Rees called in outsourced debt collectors.   As the fraud snowballed, in desperation he then called in the cavalry via Gladys – NSW Police’s Financial Crimes Squad.

This departmental otherwise diverting the work of its 50 police investigators and resources.

And this was the young bloke heading up Service NSW at the time, Damon Rees:

It has transpired that Service NSW approved $15.9 million worth of fraudulent Micro Business Grants which it happily paid out between July and September 2021.  This equates to 2.6% of all paid applications.

This calculate to a total of $611 million pay outs by Services NSW for Micro Business Grants.

Fraud Police had since prevented a further $4.6 million in suspected fraudulent micro-business grant applications being paid by Service NSW.

So in the video above, NSW Police’s State Crime Commander, Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith certainly found himself a busy task, no thanks to Service NSW incompetence. 

How much did all the outsourced debt collection agency fees and NSW Police budget cost to clean up Service NSW’s extreme financial loss mess from start to finish?  That yet to be disclosed cost, needs to have the $15.9 million fraud rort reported transparently in Service NSW’s annual financial reporting.

Service NSW Statement:

“From 20 September businesses were required to reaffirm their eligibility each fortnight to continue to receive the 2021 COVID-19 micro-business grant payments. Service NSW fraud and compliance investigators identified anomalies in some applications made for the 2021 COVID-19 micro-business grant in late October. We were forced to pause the 2021 COVID-19 micro-business grant payments temporarily while the anomalies in some applications were investigated. Recurring payments for existing applicants have now resumed with 7,500 applications processed overnight with the majority of eligible payments expected to restart in the coming week. It is incredibly disappointing that deliberate, coordinated fraudsters have undermined the systems put in place to support the businesses of NSW in one of the most challenging times we have faced. Service NSW is continually strengthening its fraud prevention and detection systems and takes action to report suspected fraudulent activity to the NSW Police and other law enforcement bodies. There are multiple checks and balances in place to ensure applications are properly reviewed and taxpayer funds go to those who meet the eligibility criteria and need it most.”   

SOURCE:  ‘Service NSW and NSW Police announce Strike Force Sainsbery to investigate grant fraud‘, 9 Nov 2021, released by: NSW Department of Customer Service (service NSW, ^https://www.nsw.gov.au/customer-service/media-releases/service-nsw-and-nsw-police-announce-strike-force-sainsbery-to-investigate-grant-fraud

This fancy new umbrella department, Service NSW, is costing NSW taxpayers more than it is worth, only double-handling government revenue processing on behalf of other departments.  Those other departments since going about their public service activities out of the public limelight, uncontactable by the public due to the veil of Service NSW.

Service NSW was conceived by one of NSW less revered short-term NSW premiers, Liberal Barry O’Farrell MP, who served as NSW Premier 2011-2014, during which time Service NSW was established.

Due to the exposed incompetence of Service NSW allowing mass fraud of a legitimate grant compensation, some Nazi-style financial putsch against all grant applicants was subsequently unleashed to outsourced debt collectors to claw back the lost millions.

No applicant is safe – guilty until proven innocent.  Look out you vulnerable NSW businesses (small and micro) impacted by the governmental lockdowns during the pandemic.  Services NSW now deemed you all fraudsters and are sending in their taskforce to knock down your doors to recover the missing millions, so-claimed.

[Does CEO Greg Wells need to fund his new corporate drive – a red Maserati perhaps?]

 

This is akin to the Spanish Inquisition of yore, aided and abetted by a Nazi-style collections agency.  Is this legal in democratic Australia in 2023?

Neo-Nazis or what?  The NSW Government grant funding claw back is wrong and unconscionable.  Five days after receiving this vile email be replied lodging a formal complaint directly to Service NSW CEO Greg Wells, which we herein reproduce below.

It seems to be a similar bureaucratic knee-jerk political reaction to sensationalist media frenzy over a few exposed bad apples out there.  Cynically, we surmise that pollies have run out of taxpayer funds to sustain their insular financial bubble, and so have got desperate for cash.

Just how bad can government get? 

 

It became abundantly clear to us that this ‘Sam‘ and then ‘Nicole‘ and previously ‘Angela‘ were not in fact Service NSW staff, but ring-in contracted trained debt collectors from some private agency that had been outsourced by Service NSW senior management directed by CEO Greg Wells.

Now given that NSW Treasury is situated at 52 Martin Place in Sydney’s CBD, it would be most likely that Service NSW, also in Sydney CBD would outsource the same debt collecting agencies, the likes of CBD-based:

• Dun and Bradstreet
• Debt Recovery Australia
• Austral Payment Management Services
• NCS Debt Collector
• CCSG
• Slater Byrne Recoveries.

 

 

Such debt collectors were instructed by Service NSW management that all grant recipients had agreed to be later audited, meaning the debt collectors considered they operated under some contractual right to investigate and interrogate for debt recovery any grant recipient on behalf of Services NSW (aka Big Brother).

Given the intensity of the callers’ interrogation, we presumed each must have been contracted to operate on a commission basis, perhaps with no retainer.  One caller ‘Nicole’ contacted us from her private home somewhere near rural Crookwell, north of Goulburn.

Not surprisingly, at the time Service NSW was exposed in a privacy breach scandal in which its website made public the data of 3700 of its customers including drivers licence details, vehicle registration, mobile numbers and names of children.  [READ MORE]

This immoral action follows three years of emergency lockdowns imposed by the NSW Government as result of catastrophic widespread bushfires, floods and pandemic across New South Wales and in particular the Blue Mountains Region. 

Salt into the wound?  How many suicides is Services NSW seeking for its performance metrics?

This national emergency saga dominating New South Wales and Australia 2019 through 2022, is but another legacy of governmental incompetence to deal with national emergencies before during and after the events. 

The defence and critical support of ordinary Australians and their businesses and livelihoods were not prioritised by governmental bureaucracy subsisting in an insular financial bubble on the teat of taxpayers, all the while aloof from the pains that entrusted and duty-bound government recklessly allowed to be inflicted and fester upon its citizenry, its most vulnerable, Australia’s natural environment, economy and undermine the national psyche and wealth.

But, it got worse…

As many as 443,000 Centrelink registered recipients were treated by Centrelink as default criminal fraudsters by its outsourced and miscalculated ‘one-size-fits-all’ averaging computer algorithm.

Centrelink’s presumption?   Guilty until otherwise proven innocent!

 

Roberts went after Australia’s impoverished most vulnerable – the unemployed, aged pensioners, homeless youth, those in social housing – all targeted victims of Centrelink big brother welfare monopoly.  His tactics were heavy-handed dispatching of intimidating legal threat letters of demand to 5 million registered with Centrelink. Some 443,000 ordinary Australians were targeted to repay Centrelink’s breadline poverty payments or else!

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the time also thought it ‘ok’ to abandon Australians enduring widespread bushfire crisis to obliviously holiday with family overseas in Hawaii.

Service NSW Micro Business Grant of 2021

Our Formal Complaint to Services NSW CEO Greg Wells

Sunday 16^th April 2023

 

 

Mr Greg Wells

Chief Executive Officer

Service NSW

Level 2, 66 Harrington Street

THE ROCKS NSW 2000

 

 

Dear Sir,

 

 

MY FORMAL COMPLAINT AGAINST SERVICE NSW

RE: Service NSW 2022 COVID-19 Micro-Business Grant $15,214  – ‘an indian giving scam’  [ ref:_00D4a8aWL._5008v2oqsi:ref ]

 

 

SERVICE NSW REFS:         Re-Assessor Reference SBRD2AGBE

 

(contact is ‘Angela’ with no surname  provided)

 

 

Complaint Case #:    03731143

 

Customer Service Representative reference number 03868560

 

(contact is ‘Sam’ with no surname provided)

 

Grant Title:              2021 COVID-19 Micro-Business Grant

 

Reference number:   COL-8718f31-MBS

 

Lodgement date:      2021-08-01

Grant

 

Approval date:         2021-08-11

Grant

 

Payment period:      2021-08-11 to 2021-12-10  (by total of 12 instalments)

1.  As Managing Director, I hereby lodge my formal complaint against Service NSW for unconscionable conduct in relation to the following actions by its employee going by the name of ‘Angela’ (no surname) this week:

A.  Service NSW’s attempt to claim a refund of grant moneys (as a fee) after the fact that my eligibility criteria had been assessed by Service NSW and deemed to be met and then paid to me as compensation for the COVID-19 lockdown impact to my business;

B.  Services NSW’s unfounded claim that I am subsequently now “not eligible for the funding you received under this grant” being 1 year and 8 months after it was assessed and approved by Service NSW 11-Aug-2021) based on the factual information I provided on 1-Aug-2021.  Accusing me of being guilty before even proven is contrary to natural justice.  Service NSW wrongly thinks it can play judge, jury and executioner;

C.  Service NSW’s insecure communication methods to me out-of-the-blue in this matter, (mobile phone and email) including the inappropriate insistence that I provide my personal information to an anonymous ‘Angela’ person who phones me claiming to represent Service NSW;

D.  Service NSW’s wrong interpretation of my 2020 manual tax return to the ATO as copied and supplied to Service NSW in my 2021 grant application (now somehow not being “a real tax return”? – reflecting incompetence and ignorance by the Service NSW employee calling herself ‘Angela’  (read email 11-Apr-2023 copy below).  I provide a link to the Australia Tax Office website which confirms that manual trust tax returns remain a legitimate and authorised means of submitting to the ATO  https://www.ato.gov.au/forms/trust-tax-return-2022/

E.  Service NSW’s false presumption that I made “an incorrect, misleading or fraudulent claim” for the grant funding (read email 11-Apr-2023 copy below).  This contradicts Services NSW approval of the application on 11-August 2021, irrespective of any one-sided terms and conditions clause;  I made no false claim in my application.

F.  Service NSW’s implied threat by Service NSW to refer me to NSW Police for further action  (read email 11-Apr-2023 copy below);

G.  Service NSW’s implied threat to refer me “If we do not hear from you, or if you do not provide the requested documentation by 26th April 2023 this matter will be referred to Revenue NSW to begin funds recovery” (read email 11-Apr-2023 copy below) is in my opinion, unconscionable.  A two week deadline before Service NSW throws me to government debt collectors is unreasonable, especially given that the specific audit information requested by Angela is unclear to me.

H.  This recent correspondence from supposedly Service NSW claiming that I have been fraudulent, retrospectively and rejecting my eligibility for the 2021 pandemic grant compensation funding, and demanding that repay the $15214 in full else be referred to the NSW Government’s ‘Revenue NSW department debt collector is wrong, ill-informed, and highly stressful for me since I have done nothing wrong;

I.  I consider Service NSW’s employee behaviour towards me last week in its claim that retrospectively I am somehow ineligibly for the grant funding to be wrong and intimidating.

SERVICES NSW’s RE-ASSESSMENT OF MY GRANT ELIGIBILITY… NEARLY 2 YEARS AFTER THE APPROVAL?

2.  In reply to Service NSW’s email to me Tuesday 11th April 2023, yes, I confirm the business, Nature Trail, received in its dedicated business bank account the 2021 COVID-19 Micro-business Grant from services NSW totalling AUD $15,214 under this grant.  A total of 12 instalments were received from Services NSW with the bank reference: ‘Direct Credit 624231 Service NSW MBS-08718f31-031dd’;

3.  I maintain that Nature Trail is a registered commercial business and was entirely eligible for this grant as a startup business catastrophically financial impacted by the COVID19 restrictions;

4.  I maintain that as Proprietor and Accountant of Nature Trail as a trading entity, I supplied all to Services NSW requested factual information and actual documentation to Services NSW as part of my application for this grant dated 1st August 2021;

5.  In response to my grant application, Service NSW assessed my application and assessed and approved Nature Trail’s eligibility for the grant on 11th August 2021.  Services NSW then subsequently made grant payment instalments into Nature Trail’s business account.  This included completing and submitting the online form and attaching the following documents:

I.  A copy of the FY2020 Trust Tax Return (for the business group which included Nature Trail) in full (20 pages) as lodged by me as the business accountant with the Australian Tax Office;

II.  A comparison profit and loss statement for Nature Trail FY 2020 with FY2020 (using QuickBooks accounting software and integrated with the ATO’s reporting requirements);

III.  Nature Trail bank statements for the reference periods, as requested by Service NSW in the original assessment process at the time of lodgement;

IV.  Copies of Nature Trail’s invoice records prior to the restrictions;

V.  NOTE: all such documentary evidence is able to be reproduced and re-submitted to Services NSW.  I have nothing to hide.

6.  Since Services NSW approved the grant application on 11th August 2021, as sole representative for Nature Trail, the email (copy below) of Tuesday 11th April 2023 is the first communication I have received from Service NSW in relation to this grant challenging Nature Trail’s eligibility for this grant;

7.  My tour business Nature Trail was and remains severely adversely affected by the 2019-2020 NSW bushfire emergency lockdown and the 2020-2022 COVID-19 lockdown imposts.  Both socio-economic disasters (bushfires and pandemic) were mostly attributable to gross negligence by the NSW Government.  Nature Trail still has no overseas customer enquiries (Nature Trail’s target market) despite a healthy booking schedule pre-restrictions upon business trading launch.

8.   PUBLIC SERVANT REALITY CHECK NEEDED:   I point out that the actual period of restrictions (mandatory socio-economic lockdowns) imposed by the NSW Government which severely adversely impacted the Nature Trail tour business (no customers) commenced from 19 December 2019 effectively back-to-back through to 30 November 2022 when the NSW Government lifted The Public Health (COVID-19 Care Services) Order (No 3) 2022 in the state of New South Wales.  This period of course included 26 June 2021.  A State of Emergency was declared for NSW on 19 December 2019 by Premier Gladys Berejiklian. 

This was the first of three in rolling lockdowns into late February 2020.  From March 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown was similarly imposed by the Berejiklian Government for two straight years through to March 2022 and beyond. 

Public servants like Angela have continued to be paid their salary throughout the restrictions, all out of taxpayer wealth.  In my view, many have no grasp of the financial impact to micro businesses like mine.  Nature Trail’s decline in turnover was 100% from before the start of the restrictions, and since.

9.  Despite the lifting of the COVID-19 restrictions, Nature Trail’s business continue to suffer financial hardship  – no overseas customer demand.    If Service NSW persists with its baseless accusations of fraud and grant recovery then since I have no spare money, I will have no options but to apply for hardship and apply to the Hardship Review Panel.

10.  I have not ignored Service NSW’s supposed ‘audit’ inquisition.  Rather, I have immediately contacted Services NSW to check the validity of this call by phoning Service NSW’s public number 13 77 88 on Wednesday 12-April-2023 and lodged a formal complaint (see reference above).   

I then tried phoning back on Thursday 13-April-2023 only to be told by the customer service person that she could not transfer me to the disputes resolutions team.   I also arranged to speak to some Assessor at Services NSW, which I engaged with yesterday (14-April-2023) at 1pm.  That re-assessor who phoned me insisted I first provide her with my personal details (just like a scam caller does).

11.  I confirm that I am the Tour Director of Nature Trail tour operation based in the Blue Mountains.  Nature Trail is the trading name and the business owned by Wistmans Wood Trust [ABN 51 965 308 493].  The company trustee is Wistmans Wood Holdings Pty Ltd [ACN  600 331 931] and I am the sole director of the company.

12.  I confirm that as one of my skill sets is Management Accounting (following a 20 year corporate career in this specialised field).  I am responsible for compiling the business bookkeeping and tax reporting for the Trust,  which includes reporting the business activity of Nature Trail to the Australian Tax Office on a singular annual basis.   

Therefore, Services NSW demand that I provide “a letter from a qualified accountant, registered tax agent or registered BAS agent using the template provided by Service NSW” is unconscionable (read email 11-Apr-2023 copy below). 

I am not required by any law to engage the  services of a registered tax agent to undertake tax reporting and related bookkeeping tasks.  I am quite capable to doing these tasks myself.  In fact, due to my business being under a legitimate discretionary trust structure, the tax accounting is quite complicated, and in my experience beyond the skillset of the average registered tax agent.

13.  I refer to contacts to me made supposedly by Service NSW since Tuesday 11th April 2023.

The first was a call to my mobile phone by a woman saying her same was Angela and that she was from Service NSW and calling in regards to the Micro Business Grant of $15214 paid to me by Services NSW in 2022 and that I was now deemed to be ineligible to have received the grant monies, subject to an audit  and had to refund the total. 

Angela insisted that she had to first identify me, yet it was her who had phoned me out of the blue, and she proceeded to ask me for my personal details.   I said “no” and that I do not give my personal details to anyone who phones me.

I treated this call as a scam and told her so.  She said she would email me the details.  I told her that scammers use phone and email methods of communication and that I would ignore both.  I told her that if her claim was legitimate then I would receive a notification on my online account with Service NSW and then I hung up.

14.  I checked MyServiceNSW online account with Service NSW and no such audit notice was listed on my notifications.  As at today, still no such audit notice is listed on my notifications.  See below page extract. 

If the audit was legitimate, why would Service NSW not provide an official notification to our account on its secure website?

This online account facility was created by Service NSW for customers to use as a secure communications medium.  Yet, if this audit is genuinely an initiative of Service NSW then why is the communication to me not reflected on Service NSW online account facility, but using the tool of scammers being by phone and email?

15.  I confirm that Nature Trail met all the Eligibility Criteria for Service NSW Micro-Business Grant at the time of application 1-August 2021, namely:

A.  ‘Nature Trail’ is a commercial business and had (and retains) an active ABN as at 1 June 2021 – check with ATO;

B.  Nature Trail as a startup business from August 2019, would reasonably qualify as a ‘micro-business’ trading but with minimal initial revenues and then catastrophically impacted first the bushfires emergency and then COVID-19 (zero revenues), so an application for this grant was made;

C.  Wistmans Wood Trust provided a copy of the original 20-page trust tax return for FY2020 to the Australian Tax Office to Services NSW as part of its application for the grant.  The manual tax return is real, and Service NSW re-assessor Angela clearly has little or no understanding of tax returns.  She needs to be re-educated. None other tax return exists for Nature Trail FY2020!

D.  Nature Trail was a new startup business from August 2019 primarily operating within New South Wales from that time through to including 1 June 2021 and beyond.  As such, under the guidelines clause 6.8 (alternative circumstances) Nature Trail qualifies.

E.  Bank Statements to demonstrate decline in turnover:   Nature Trail has its own dedicated bank account with the Commonwealth bank (local Katoomba branch nearby).  Nature Trail, a startup new business, was not trading before August 2019.  So there was no revenue in the period June 2019 as one option period requested by Service NSW.  Nature Trail’s first customers paid into the bank account between September 2019 and December 2019.

F.  Decline in turnover – Nature Trail’s bank statements:   I herewith re-supply these for the two weeks immediately prior to any restrictions of 12–25 June 2021 (inclusive) and a statement from the 2021 COVID-19 period of restrictions (commenced 26 June 2021).  (see attached)

G.  Nature Trail still being a new startup business at the time of grant application, applied for the grant under guidelines 6.8 Alternative Circumstances “businesses not operating for the full year to 30 June 2020 (e.g. new businesses)” (also confirmed in ‘Attachment C: Alternative rules  for businesses that do not meet standard eligibility criteria’) .  This means that the $30,000 to $75,000 annual aggregate annual turnover range for pre-existing businesses did not apply.

H.  Under Australian Tax Law, Nature Trail was (is) not legally required to register for GST with the Australian Tax Office since the revenue was well below the $76,000 p.a. threshold.  So Business Activity Statements (BAS) do not legally apply to Nature Trail, indeed not to any business applying for this grant since they would be earning over $76,000 p.a. as per the GST rules – one relishes that revenue earning obligation;

I.  Nature Trail as a tour operating business was a ‘highly impacted business’ as categorised under the grant Terms and Conditions Attachment A: List of highly impacted industries ‘Travel Agency and Tour Arrangement Services’ ( ANZSIC code 7220);

J.  Evidence of Decline in Turnover:  Nature Trail experienced a total decline in turnover of 100% due to the public health order commencing 26 June 2021 (zero turnover) compared with an aggregate startup customer turnover of just $455 between business launch August 2019 and December 2019 when the Bushfire Emergency of Dec-2019 to Feb-2020 impacted back-to-back with the Pandemic lockdowns March 2020-March 2022 and beyond – which caused zero turnover to date.   The lockdowns caused tour booking cancellations from clients that otherwise would have been some thousands of dollars.   Pubic servants have no grasp of the reality of this catastrophic combined impact.  Sales invoice documentary evidence is available upon request again, yet this was already supplied at the grant application time;

K.  No other government support compensation for COVID-19 lockdowns to Nature Trail’s business costs was available;

L.  As Tour Director I was the only employee (headcount) of Nature Trail at the time (from 31 July 2021) and remains so;

M.  Nature Trail at the time of application was (and remains) located in the Blue Mountains, a recognised NSW local government area which was deemed to be an adversely impacted at the time;

N.  Evidence of decline in turnover was duly supplied in the application.  A comparative profit and loss statement comparing FY2020 to FY2021 report was supplied to Service NSW at the time of the application.  If you lost this then that is not my fault.  I have just regenerated a copy of this from the accounting system and I attach it for your reference again. (see attached)

O.  Nature Trail received no other income at the time;

P.  The received grant funds of $15214 were wholly applied to Nature Trail’s tour business – specifically to repairing and equipping the dedicated tour vehicle.  All expense receipts are available upon request.

Q.  Every document and evidence I originally submitted to the Service NSW in apply for the grant was true and accurate.  Everything I have done was wholly in compliance with the provided grant guidelines of the grant funding at the time of the application;

16.  If Service NSW considers that after-the-fact, some almost two years after it had assessed and approved the grant application, that it subsequently considers it now fell short of fully assessing the application, well frankly that is a matter for Service NSW to deal with its internal assessors.  It legally is not my problem.  I did all that was asked at the time, and it was under extremely difficult circumstances.  Service NSW ‘Angela’ needs to pull her head in and back off.

17.  On Friday 14th April 2023 I requested the re-assessor ‘Angela’ provide a copy of the original terms and conditions of the grant and also clarify her specific demands after our phone conversation.  She has failed to do both.  So I have spent some hours this weekend to source the terms and conditions myself and reviewing them (copy attached) and preparing my herein response.   I note that they have been inappropriately updated (changed) dated 7 October 2022,  being nearly two months after my lodgement date.  I have met the “conditions for payment under the Programme” (clause 4).  Further, during the time of the grant payment process, I subsequently had to reconfirm eligibility, which I did on each required occasion.  Yet such requirement was not included in the grant guidelines nor in the terms and conditions of the grant.  Service NSW was making up the rules as it went along, after the approval date.

18.  I request Service NSW management promptly reflects on my above responses and information duly supplied (again).

19.  I insist that Service NSW immediately retracts its ridiculous baseless claims of fraud in its email to me below of 11 April 2023 (copy enclosed), and that it formally replies to me with an apology, and confirm in writing to me that Service NSW it has permanently cancelled its demand for any audit and refund from me.  Angela in here email, in representing Service NSW, is abusing Service NSW unequal bargaining power against me.  She needs to be appropriately disciplined by Service NSW management in relation to her ignorance, here based less accusations of fraud, and in her threatening tone towards me.

20.  This response to this audit is my first.  I have spent all weekend feeling that I need to justify my legitimacy and it has been somewhat stressful for me.   But I am not for being a victim.  I will resist any intimidation and particularly governmental abusive Service NSW unequal bargaining power against me.

21.  Mr Wells being boss of Service NSW, I invite you to read and learn from the recent governmental bullying catastrophe of vulnerable citizens and seek your moral compass:    ^https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/2030-people-have-died-after-receiving-centrelink-robodebt-notice/10821272

Sincerely,

Tour Director, Proprietor and Accountant for the business

The above letter by our local member of New South Wales Parliament was very much appreciated, timely, well written and accurately representative of the reality being experienced by a number of Blue Mountains constituent businesses who had previously received the NSW Government’s grant compensation for this government’s lockdown.

We sincerely thank the Honourable Trish Doyle MP, Member for Blue Mountains for her welcome support of not just our Nature Trail tour business in this regard, but also learning that it has gone some way to also support the other similarly targeted eligible recipients of the Micro Business Grant.

In our parliamentary democracy we have in Australia, this role is exactly the core task of our elected local representatives at all levels of government.

Such parliamentary representation of local constituents is vital in cases such as this when departmental bureaucrats and their minions in power morph into a mindset of ‘Big Brother’ abuse of their delegated entrusted authority and presume they can hide behind some imagined cloak of auto-entitlement to intimidate ordinary citizens.

But Australia is not a dictatorship; it is a parliamentary democracy.

Nature Trail was quick to thank Ms Doyle’s office accordingly and we invite affected other businesses to do likewise.

Also, watch this space – we have received 227 reads of this particular Mountains Drums blog article of ours.  We wrote and published it not about us, but rather so that other impacted businesses copping Services NSW grant claw back so-called “audit” may appreciate that they are not alone in this and like Nature Trail have a right to resist this ‘indian giving’ stance post the NSW change of government from Liberal to Labor parties.

Services NSW Spanish Inquisition type claw-back contrived debt recovery threats, approaching years post-eligibility approval of its applicant businesses for the Micro Business Grant is no less than an underhand revenue-desperate tactic, copycat of Centrelink’s notorious Robodebt – it’s akin to a Mark II Robodebt witch hunt.

Those in insulated government glass towers are too remote from real life on the streets.

---

Postscript:

27th July 2023:

 

Nearly three months later, the minister responsible for Services NSW decided to finally reply to the Member for Blue Mountains letter as follows:

So what do readers make of this response?

Our own critique of MP Jihad Dib’s Response

• Jihad Dib’s response is a very late – three months late!
• Jihad Dib MP is currently:
  1. NSW Labor Minister for Customer Service (i.e. Service NSW) and Digital Government
  2. NSW Labor Minister for Emergency Services
  3. NSW Labor Minister for Minister for Youth Justice
  4. NSW Labor Member for Bankstown electorate

So, NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns has Jihad Dib responsible for three ministerial portfolios.  He can only focus on Service NSW ministerial duties up to one day a week.  No wonder Dib’s response to us is 3 months late; he’s overloaded delegated trying to run three ministries!

• The Minns Labor government of NSW came to power on 25th March 2023. Following the intimidating accusations and threats that Nature Trail received from Service NSW from 11th April 2023, and following our responsive formal complaint to Service NSW CEO Greg Wells (who never responded to us), we also formally wrote to Minns minister The Hon. Rose Jackson, MLC on 17th April 2023.  At the time Ms Jackson was delegated by Premier Minns as, wait for it…

1. 1. NSW Minister for Housing
   2. NSW Minister for Homelessness
   3. NSW Minister for Water
   4. NSW Minister for Mental Health (she might need support herself)
   5. NSW Minister for Youth
   6.  NSW Member for North Coast electorate (when she gets time)
   7. …NSW Minister for pulling her hair out ??

 

• Jihad Dib’s response is an empty non-committal response. 
• It offers no decision, no apology, no regret for the abuse of Jihad Dib’s Service NSW department.
• It is but a bureaucrat’s non-answer putting a smile on the assassins’ ongoing witch hunt, only for his staff to smile as they resume their unfounded persecution of presumed fraud and while twisting the knife in to business owners genuinely adversely impacted by the government lockdowns and assessed and deemed eligible for the  NSW Government’s Micro Business Grant.

Guess where Jihad Dib’s Service NSW office is?  The same as that of NSW Treasury.

 

We continue our critique of MP Jihad Dib’s response letter:

 

• Minister Dib: “I acknowledge the frustration that the process is causing customers” –  “Frustration”?  No! How ignorant and condescending of you,  Dib.  How about Service NSW’s outsourced debt collectors’ exposed for wrongful presumption of fraud of businesses and intimidating threats toward us, despite Service NSW having assessed and deemed eligible prior to the grant approval and payments?  

 

• Minister Dib: “However, Service NSW must ensure that delivery of monies by the NSW Government is done with fairness and to the highest ethical standards, ensuring equity for all NSW citizens.”  Don’t motherhood us, Dib.  Check your facts that Service NSW assessed and approved our grant application after 10 days.  Service NSW subsequent fabricated claim that its grant approval process was “automated” at the time is a blatant lie.  Yes, delivery of monies by the NSW Government was done with fairness in our case, but for many businesses not so, which suffered not notified cessation of grant payment instalments without notice.   We see no ethical standards by Service NSW debt collectors almost two years after the grant compensation was long approved, paid out and duly received.”

 

• Minister Dib:  “I have been advised by Service NSW that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Premier prioritised a cash injection to businesses in NSW in the face of the Delta outbreak and NSW lockdowns.”   Yes.

 

• Minister Dib:  “In order to ensure swift payment so that customers were assisted promptly, some businesses were automatically assessed based on the self-declaration that they provided at the time of application.”  Not for Nature Trail.  Our eligibility and online application was assessed over a ten day period by Service NSW and then approved.

 

• Minister Dib:  “As per the grant’s Terms and Conditions, grants that were automatically assessed were later scheduled for manual assessment.”  Not for Nature Trail.

 

• Minister Dib:  “These reassessments started in 2022 and are continuing, and customers who missed providing evidence with their initial application are being asked to substantiate their claims.”  Not for Nature Trail.  We copped the intimidating accusations and threats from Service NSW’s outsourced debt collectors from 11 April 2023, just over two weeks after the NSW state election.  Clearly Minns Labor was chaffing at the bit to desperately fund its programmes by hook or by crook. 

• Minister Dib:  “Service NSW conducts these reassessments to confirm that the correct funds were released to customers based on the grant’s eligibility criteria.”  Nature Trail was fully assessed by Service NSW and deemed eligible to receive the Micro Business Grant compensation from the NSW Government on 11th August 2021.

 

• Minister Dib:  “Service NSW acknowledges that they have received complaints about the tone of communications. They have reviewed the tone and content of correspondence used when advising customers of the commencement of grant audits. They have also reviewed how customers can confirm the legitimacy of correspondence received from Service NSW.”   No, it is not about the “tone” of Service NSW outsourced communications to debt collectors.  Rather, try wrongful presumption of fraud, and intimidating threats such that “otherwise we will refer you to Revenue NSW debt collectors and then you will know it!”  (Robodebt Mark II)

 

• Minister Dib: “I have been advised that Service NSW will continue to carry out reassessments and Service NSW has confirmed that they have changed both the correspondence and the process, providing customers with support and options to provide the evidence missing off their files.”  So Dib, despite all your conciliatory waffle above, yet no apology from you noted, you have endorsed Service NSW and its debt collection endeavours to continue to carry out reassessments” irrespectively. 

 

Jihad by name or Jihad by nature?  What a name choice downunder?

Debt collecting of approved and paid grant funding is non-debt, so the decision to debt collect  is unconscionable by Service NSW CEO Greg Wells. 

In our view, Service NSW CEO Greg Wells needs to immediately cease Service NSW’s debt collection programme against innocent recipients like us, to publicly apologise for his wrongs in this debacle and should to resign as CEO of Service NSW immediately.

Services NSW needs to be wound up and the public service staff re-deployed back to the various service departments, so doing away with the umbrella and the veil.

Further Reading:

“With the outbreak of the Delta variant of COVID-19 showing no signs of easing, small businesses support payments will help many businesses trade through the disruption.

…

COVID-19 micro-business support grant

…

To be eligible, businesses need to show they experienced a decline in revenue of 30% or more and that a person associated with the business is reliant on the business for income. Applications are open and will close on September 13.”

AUTHOR’s NOTE:   

• Nature Trail provided all that was asked by Service NSW (before, during and afterwards, including further documents supporting our eligibility for the grant.)
• But no, we have never been kept up to date on the review’s progress by Service NSW. 
• We are yet to be contacted by Service NSW to know whether its ‘audit review’ is completed or not, thus we remain in limbo by Service NSW presumably deliberately.

[8]   ‘Service NSW and NSW Police announce Strike Force Sainsbery to investigate grant fraud‘, 9th Nov 2021, by NSW Department of Customer Service (Service NSW)

Video:  State Crime Commander Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith publicly announcing ‘Strikeforce Sainsbery’ in November 2021:

Another video source (in case Service NSW delete the first one):

[9]  ‘Service NSW and NSW Police announce Strike Force Sainsbery to investigate grant fraud‘, 9 Nov 2021, released by: NSW Department of Customer Service (service NSW, ^https://www.nsw.gov.au/customer-service/media-releases/service-nsw-and-nsw-police-announce-strike-force-sainsbery-to-investigate-grant-fraud

[10]   ‘Service NSW ‘technical issue’ may have exposed data of 3700 customers‘, by Raffaella Ciccarelli, Senior Producer, 9News Entertainment (media), 4th April 2023, ^https://www.9news.com.au/national/service-nsw-data-breach-technical-issue-may-have-exposed-customers-data/884325c7-919a-4ae3-b545-9235fc81679e

“Service NSW has issued an apology after revealing the data of 3700 customers may have been exposed after a “recent technical issue”. An update to the website on March 20 potentially revealed information for up to 90 minutes, Service NSW’s chief executive Greg Wells said in an email issued to customers. Information exposed could include: drivers licence details, vehicle registration, mobile numbers and names of children. “

 

[12]   ‘Over 2000 people died after receiving Centrelink robo-debt notice, figures reveal’, by Shalailah Medhora, 18 Feb 2019,  ^https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/2030-people-have-died-after-receiving-centrelink-robodebt-notice/10821272

Is Service NSW current CEO Greg Wells still seriously seeking to emulate another “human tragedy” like Centrelink by his immoral, mismanaged and fabricated compo debt grab?

Article core content reproduced:

‘Shine Lawyers has commenced a class action on behalf of all passengers affected by the outbreak of COVID-19 on board the Ruby Princess, which docked in Sydney on Thursday 19 March, 2020.

On 3 and 4 August 2023, Shine Lawyers appeared before the High Court of Australia to appeal the Full Federal Court’s decision to exclude overseas Ruby Princess class action group members who contracted under U.S. terms and conditions.

The High Court reserved their decision to determine whether overseas passengers who contracted under the U.S. terms and conditions can remain part of the class action and seek compensation in Australia. We will be in contact with group members when the decision is known.

Initial Trial Update

The class action commenced on 12 October 2022. After two years of preparation, the trial ran for five weeks, with closing submissions on liability heard in the final week.

On 7 December 2022, the court heard the parties’ arguments about the quantum of compensation (money) to be awarded to the lead applicant, Mrs Karpik, if her claim is successful.

In terms of next steps, the judge will give judgment on the lead applicant’s claim and the issues common to all group members. We cannot estimate how long this may take, we will be in contact with group members when an update is available.

What is the Ruby Princess Coronavirus Class Action about?

Shine Lawyers has filed a class action against the owner and operator of the Ruby Princess.

It is alleged that the outbreak of Coronavirus on the Ruby Princess, which docked in Sydney on Thursday 19 March 2020, resulted from a failure to take appropriate measures to ensure that passengers were safe and protected from contracting the virus on the ship.

We allege this failure constitutes breaches of the cruise owner and operator’s duty of care to its passengers, and of the consumer guarantees and other provisions of Australian Consumer Law.

 

Background 

On Sunday 8 March 2020, the Ruby Princess cruise ship departed Circular Quay.

After an 11-day round trip to New Zealand, the ship docked in Sydney on Thursday 19 March. Ruby Princess passengers were permitted to disembark at Sydney’s Circular Quay and return to their homes.

Since leaving the ship, over 700 passengers have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

Passengers on the Ruby Princess consisted of Australian residents, as well as US citizens and citizens of a number of other countries. On 14 and 15 February 2022, the Full Court of the Federal Court heard Carnival and Princess’ appeal against the primary judge’s decision to dismiss the application to prevent overseas group members from participating in this class action.

On Friday, 2 September 2022, the Full Court found that Mr Ho, a passenger who contracted on US terms and conditions, was bound by the US terms and conditions and could not be included in the class action because of the class action waiver clause in those terms and conditions.

Shine Lawyers filed an application for special leave to appeal this decision to the High Court of Australia. On 17 March 2023, the High Court granted special leave to appeal and we are now awaiting a hearing date, which we anticipate will take place in late 2023.’

Our final message:

Postscript:

Our follow up article 8th March 2024:

Formal Complaint #2 against SERVICE NSW 2021 COVID-19 grant ‘audit’

Then this lot… unbelievable!

NSW Government $110,000+ fine threat from Minister Jo Haylen’s Transport Department – nice one!