The ‘not for profit’ Housing Industry Association has stepped up its legal attack on its number one critic by having its Canberra lawyers trawl and download hundreds of pages from its website forum in a new bid to silence The Builders Collective of Australia. By Nelson Yap
HIA resorts to ‘chilling effect’
The so-called ‘chilling effect’ is used by companies, individuals and organisations to silence and stop critics and opponents by constantly hitting them with legal threats and law suits.
In recent months, lawyers for the HIA, Chamberlains have downloaded hundreds of pages from the Builders Collective forum website in a bizarre bid to find defamatory, discrimatory or racially motivated posts in its bid to shutdown the Collective headed by well-known Melbourne builder Phillip Dwyer.
The Builders Collective National President, Mr. Dwyer has been battling State governments and the HIA on behalf of builders and consumers trapped by the HIA marketed insurance that has been described as “totally useless and a farce” by a senior Victorian government official last week.
Presently, the HIA’s Christopher Lamont has a defamation case against the Builders Collective’s Mr. Dwyer in the Supreme Court of ACT over a letter of complaint to the Prime Minister. The letter, according to Court documents centres on complaints to the PM by Mr. Dwyer over inaction by the Small Business Minister Ms Fran Bailey and her staff over the Home Owners Warranty scandal. Lamont at the time was chief of staff to Ms Bailey prior to joining the HIA.
The Collective has also had to field a complaint to the Human Rights Commission over a racially motivated post against HIA chief Ron Silberberg.
The latest letter of demand from the HIA’s lawyers, Chamberlains complains of defamation and discrimination against HIA board members on the Builders Collective’s open forum.
Mr. Dwyer told Australian Property Journal yesterday that the Builders Collective does not tolerate racial vilification, discrimination or defamation on the pages of its forum and removes any such comments as soon as it receives complaints or discovers.
HIA members contacted by propertyreview.com last night are furious that member funds are being used for such purposes: “The HIA have made millions of dollars from Home Owners Warranty Insurance and ordinary members have not seen one cent of it.”
The Bracks government in Victoria has adopted a head in the sand approach to the “last resort” warranties where a builder must die, disappear or become insolvent for consumers to even trigger a claim for defects or non-completion. The NSW and Tasmanian governments are presently reviewing builders warranty insurance.
Meanwhile, hundreds of consumers around Australia are going broke battling multi-national insurance companies in Tribunals and Courts in an attempt to claim on the warranties.
The HIA, which originally lobbied governments to introduce the warranty scheme, collects a “licence fee” as described by the HIA’s Shane Goodwin to Australian Property Journal earlier this week.
However, in recent times, it too has attempted to distance itself from the growing warranty insurance public relations disaster, while continuing to collect its “licence fee”.
Australian Property Journal recently revealed that several board members of the HIA are now directors of HIA Insurance Services, a private company owned by major broker AON. Those HIA board members sitting on the board of AON are Ron Silberberg, Rodney Ord and Peter Grigg, who steps down for HIA president Bruce Langford-Jones at the end of 2006.
Mr. Goodwin told Australian Property Journal on Monday that he did not believe it was a conflict of interest for the ‘not for profit’ HIA board members to be directors of a private company owned by the major builders warranty insurer.
Mr. Goodwin would not discuss the fees paid by HIA Insurance Services to HIA board members referring Australian Property Journal to AON. AON did not return Australian Property Journal’s calls.
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