crawford report, page-5

ABN,

You touch on a point which has been irritating me more and more as this Opes issue continues.

"Crawford remains at the absolute epicentre of the Melbourne business establishment - Scotch College, the MCC committee etc etc."

I have been reading just about everything I can on Opes because I have a fairly large holding in SLA, and as you guys know, SLA has dropped about 300% since 27 March.

The reporting by "The Age" has been laughable. SMH is not much better. Thank God for this forum otherwise everybody would be in the dark.

The point is The Age is very much pro Melbourne Establishment. Anything that does not conform or rocks the Establishment is wrong, bad or mischievous. Which why, since ANZ is at the heart of the Melbourne Establishment, The Age has been treating this whole issue as a non event. On Monday one of its reporters had the gall to say "Opes Prime is forgotten". What planet is he living on??

SLA had the opportunity to move to Brisbane. Once this fiasco is bedded down I am going to approach the board again and recommend a move to Brisbane. Contrary to what Melbournites and Sydneysiders think, Brisbane people have an open mind and are very receptive to new and innovative ideas. If something is wrong it is wrong because it is wrong and not because it is new. I think SLA would flourish in Queensland.

The Brisbane "Establishment" does not close shop on independent thinking or new ideas. Which is probably why Qld is one of the growth engines of Australia.
Frankly I am pleased the Turpu case is being heard in Sydney, because I think in Melbourne, "The Establishment" would work against him.

One thing that this whole episode has reaffirmed to me is the appalling, truly appalling level of reporting in this country across all levels of the media.

ABN, I agree with you. Nice man though Mr Crawford is, he probably does not know the meaning of "independent" and would be shocked that you would accuse him of not being able to produce an independent report, while with a straight face handing down a finding supporting ANZ's actions. (Because anything else would rock the establishment.)

Einstein would have been stoned in Melbourne.