Dear Raymond,
I am a family member of one of the innocent people killed in the 1997 Thredbo Landslide.
Finally the Coroner has found the NPWS guilty of corruption and neglect and to blame for this man-made disaster.
Myself and others ask the obvious questions.
Why haven't the NPWS chiefs responsible been charged with murder or at least manslaughter?
Why have the NPWS chiefs been allowed to escape retribution and punishment with their Superannuation payouts in tact?
In 1993 I saw on the news clippings about the NPWS trying to ban your Smuggled book.
Like many other ignorant members of the public I asked myself "How could the blokes who protect Koalas be corrupt?". But my curiosity was aroused.
Following the aftermath of the Thredbo disaster it all came togeather.
Having since read your two Smuggled books I was shocked and disgusted.
The first book laid it all out. The corruption in NPWS was there for all to see.
The second book shocked me even more. Not so much because of the corruption you documented within the NPWS, including in the Thredbo area. To me this was more of the same, even if it was even more damning and consisted of what appeared to be further and new evidence.
What shocked me most was how you documented how supposedly upright and honest people like Chris Hartcher and Bob Carr deliberately chose to cover-up and whitewash the overwhelming proof and evidence of NPWS corruption – even after a dozen valued NPWS employees themselves and came forward to confirm it all.
I was even more disgusted that the so-called anti-corruption body ICAC chose not to investigate NPWS corruption, even though the evidence was so overwhelming.
While ICAC got caught out for not investigating the NSW Police, at least 17 innocent people didn't die as a result of their years of cover-up and inaction.
ICAC's deliberate non-investigation of NPWS is the real scandal. Had they investigated NPWS either in 1993 after your first book came out, or again in 1996 after the second one came out, then maybe seventeen innocent people may still be alive today.
You gave the NSW authorities more than enough evidence to stop the corruption. You gave it to them on a platter. I recall reading the copies of letters from NPWS officials themselves in your second book talking about the corruption at the highest levels. What more could be needed to start a proper inquiry … 17 innocent people's deaths perhaps?
Stewart Diver is a hero for surviving the Thredbo catastrophe. However the biggest hero of all is yourself. You are the one who first blew the whistle on the NPWS and the corruption that led to the disaster in the first place.
You are the one who has had to endure bureaucratic vilification, harassment, suppression and far more, simply for telling the truth.
May God forever bless you.
Irene