Continued from part 1... Earlier I described double standards by government and examples of the 'illogical' during the importation of my 1959 Corvette to Australia. That experience prompted me to question things much deeper. This part of my story focuses on my dealings with 'Customs' once my Corvette had reached Australia in 2010.
After the experience I'd had with the Department of Transport, I was wary of the goalposts being moved on me again. I researched a Customs Broker to arrange the transportation of my Corvette from Illinois to Fremantle in Western Australia. I made sure I knew what taxes I would need to pay, what insurance was required etc.
On arrival in Fremantle, the Customs Broker informed me I would need to pay for a 'Pre-Charged Equipment License' to the Department of the Environment - effectively an extortion fee to have my Corvette released. It wasn't disclosed to me before the car left the USA, only once it had arrived and was held in Quarantine.
This alone was infuriating. On exploration, I found that most people who imported a vehicle had to pay for a mechanic to remove the gas from the air conditioning system, the car would then be released, and then they could fill the system with the refrigerant once more instead of paying the license fee (in the hundreds of $$). More questions... who benefits? How does the environment benefit from this? How would paying for a license benefit the environment?
Again, additional scenarios that didn't make sense. Illogical.
Around the same time, I had noticed that the Department of Transport and the Department of the Environment, and 'Customs' all had the same copyright symbol on their website by the words Commonwealth of Australia. It seemed odd that copyright was being used to protect content relating to government. Copyright seemed the domain of business, not government. On further investigation, I found laws like the Crimes Act which prohibited copying marks and passing them off as official signs. It seemed illogical that this 'government' would rely on copyright protections instead of laws making copying them a CRIME.
I started wondering if these 'government' departments were really government.
So on the imposition of the 'Pre-charged Equipment License', I wrote to the Department of the Environment asking if they were real government and not a company masquerading as government. Their reply, whilst favourable, was odd.
They determined that my Corvette was considered a 'Personal Effect' and not liable for the 'Pre-charged Equipment License'. Apart from avoiding my question on whether they were really government, how did this make sense? How many other people importing cars didn't need to get that license, or de-gas their cars... because instead of being a car, it was somehow a 'Personal Effect' - like a toohtbrush? More illogical behaviour.
Next up was 'Customs'. Australia's original constitution references The Department of Customs and Excise, not Australian Customs and Border Protection Services the name it went by in 2010. My question essentially was - "are there two entities?" Is The Department of Customs and Excise one and the same as Australian Customs and Border Protection Services? If not, there's two, which means one's an impostor. The original constitution wasn't amended - were we just supposed to assume they are the same?
The same applied to the official name for government and parliament in Australia. It appeared there's two versions of each.
I developed questions that sought to determine if there were TWO entities. Not one 'official' in 'government' could answer, or would answer. It wasn't for the lack of trying. By this time, I'd created the website www.Truth-Now.net and was posing questions to ask 'government'. People wrote to the 'Prime Minister', the 'Governor General', the 'Attorney General', and many many more.
No answers with any substance were forthcoming - 'yes' or 'no' would have been suitable. Those that did respond, didn't answer - they waffled about something else. One even went as far as stating he would not answer any questions relating to something not quite what I'd asked. It was like asking for explanation of a rule in hockey, and being told the umpire will not answer any questions on the game of football. Illogical.
If you have made it this far, you might be noticing there's a pattern of illogical activity.
The process with 'Customs' was long and tedious. For 18 months I asked for evidence they were are real government department. The absence of answers culminated in the title of the documentary I created... What The FUQ - Frequently Unanswered Questions of the 'Australian Government'. See the documentary for full details:
