Review 22.12
Who is David Ettridge? The elusive National Director of the Pauline Hanson One Nation Party shields his life from the public glare that his leader covets. The Adelaide-born businessman, now based in Manly, has at various times engaged in advertising, marketing, small business and promotional work. For several years he was a fundraiser with World Vision and before that a marketing executive with a now liquidated 'Australia Made' promotional company. Earlier this year, at 52, he emerged as National Director of Pauline Hanson's One Nation party - largely at the instigation of his old scuba diving partner and One Nation spokesman David Oldfield.
29 August - 11 September 1997With his marketing and business background, Ettridge has built the Hanson movement with much gusto, orchestrating her promotion and publicity together with Oldfield. It was Ettridge who thought of draping Hanson in the Australian flag, a promotional gimmick that he himself favours, repeatedly posing for publicity photographs with Australian flags in the background.
Pauline Hanson's decision this year to register a national political party helped turn her and her devotees into national and international figures, with serious electoral prospects in any future federal election. Internal polling by the Government and Opposition parties show that Hanson could capture up to 10% of the vote nationally, if a federal poll was held this week. It has sent party power brokers into fevered speculation over One Nation preferences, which may well decide the outcome of between 10 and 30 seats in the House of Representatives, to say nothing of speculation that Hanson's right hand man, the young David Oldfield, will use the party as a vehicle to make his bid for a long coveted Senate seat.
Before any of this can translate into reality, however, David Ettridge must succeed in his role. In the Manly headquarters of One Nation, Ettridge presides over the movement's financial development, its structure and the opening of new branches across the country - the infrastructure that will lead to either electoral victory or wholesale disintergration. It is a new party and Ettridge has been busying himself the past few months dealing with the flood of financial donations arriving at the Manly office. More controversially, Ettridge is establishing a slick new party machine, closing down many local grassroots "Pauline Hanson Support Movement" branches and establishing official One Nation branches in their place. In some cases he has even excluded members of the original Support Movement, which sprang up in the wake of Hanson's controversial maiden speech to Parliament.
Bruce Whiteside, the founder of the Pauline Hanson Support Movement alleges that Ettridge "has hijacked the movement ... Ettridge came along and he told me he was going to market her [Hanson], and he was going to package her and she was going to be sold as a commodity". Support Movement branches in Victoria and South Australia have also raised serious questions over Ettridge's tactics and the way he seized control of the finances of the various grass roots movements.
The effort by Ettridge to exert his authority and control over the Party's branches has led to numerous threats and counter threats of legal prosecution and has seen former Hanson devotees publicly attack Hanson, Ettridge and Oldfield.
And yet for his 52 years before joining the One Nation team this year, precious little was known about David Ettridge. He appears never to have been active in public life and is circumspect about providing details about his past. Despite four requests made by the Review to Mr Ettridge for a copy of his curriculum vitae, one was never provided - despite assurances to the contrary. The Australian Securities Commission has no record of any corporate entity registered by Mr Ettridge or his wife, save for Champions Magazine Pty Ltd, Ettridge's new promotional magazine for children that was registered with the ASC last December.
But now, following an extensive investigation in Vanuatu and Australia, the Review has learned that for several years David Ettridge has had an intimate involvement with a secret offshore company in Vanuatu, with substantial sums of money paid into it from earnings of Mr Ettridge in Australia. The Review has also learned that the listed local agent of the company in Vanuatu, is a Ni -Vanuatu family that Ettridge befriended in the mid 1980s.
Mr Ettridge's corporate structure was cloaked in such secrecy that the Review had to travel to the Pacific island of Vanuatu to try to understand its operation. At the headquarters of the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission, we learned that in September 1993 a company had been registered as Global Communications Limited with its head office in Freshwater, Port Vila.
The company was established as an International Company under Vanuatu's complex web of company provisions, which make the tiny island state one of the most impenetrable tax havens in the world. Global Communications is exempt from stamp duty and has few government fees. It was registered in several hours, according to the staff at the Financial Services Commission. Julian Ala, Commissioner of the FSC, confirmed to the Review that the company is not required by the Government of Vanuatu to "pay income tax, capital gains tax, withholding tax or estate duty". Nor are there any exchange duties, foreign currency regulations or reporting requirements attached to it. Ala also confirmed to the Review that the company is guaranteed strict secrecy by Vanuatu legislation (Ala stated that under Vanuatu law, if he revealed further details of the company to us he could face a lengthy prison sentence) and requires only a registered agent in Vanuatu and the payment of an annual registration fee of $450.
Freshwater is a poorer area of Port Vila, Vanuatu's capital. The roads are broken and pot-holed, and the facilities rudimentary; common sights in a nation bearing the legacy of innumerable failed development projects, insufficient Western aid, and a largely corrupt and mismanaged economy. (When we tried to enquire about the movements of Mr Ettridge in and out of the Pacific island the embarrassed head of the Department of Immigration gave us a tour of his rudimentary office showing us how the desk top computers had all broken down years ago and files destroyed. There was no way to determine who had entered or exited the country or indeed even monitor or prevent undesirables from continuing to enter.)
In Freshwater, the Review located the registered headquarters of Global Communications Ltd in a small and simple house. The house is inhabited by Ross Borland, 75, and his family. Ross registered the company, and remains the registered local agent. He is married to Annie and between them they have four daughters, two sons, three grandchildren, one son-in-law and two daughter-in-laws all living together in a very rudimentary and modest home.
When we arrived at Ross's home it was late afternoon. The children clamoured around an unexpected visitor. "Do you know Uncle David?" they asked. "Are you bringing some news from Uncle David?" Uncle David turned out to be David Ettridge and no, we didn't have any news from Uncle David, but we did have some about him.
Ross Borland remembered Ettridge well. "Yes, he was a very nice chap; he looked after our child in Australia," he recalled.
In 1984 the Borlands had a young son called Samson. Samson had suffered from acute kidney failure and was transferred to the Prince of Wales Children's Hospital in Randwick, Sydney. On the flight over, David Ettridge befriended the young boy and called the parents in Vanuatu offering to help the child while in hospital. As the child had no family or friends in Australia the Borlands were grateful for the offer of assistance from a kind stranger. Recalled Ross Borland: "We first came in contact with David in 1984. I was back working in the post office then and I think that David had been here on a holiday." On the flight home David met their child Samson. "When Samson arrived in Australia, David called me. He said that he would like to look after him while he was in Australia."
Samson stayed in hospital in Australia for approximately a year but died in 1985 when his kidney failure became acute and a successful transplant was not possible. The following year another of the Borland children, Leiwa, travelled to Australia - also with kidney failure, but this time the Church of Christ looked after her until she also tragically died. "When I took Leiwa down to Sydney I met David Ettridge when we were down there," Ross recalled. David Borland, 27, is a friendly and modest young man who works in Port Vila and is next in line to become chief of his village, Matarisu. He wants to marry his fiancee but first he and Ross are trying to save the several thousand dollars required for the dowry. He remembers travelling to Australia in 1985 to visit his brother who was dying in hospital. "I stayed at Uncle David's house for three nights. I remember David Ettridge used to visit Vanuatu about twice a year, although I don't think he has come recently."
The Borlands recalled that Ettridge had visited Vanuatu several times - although they had not seen him recently, and Ross's wife Annie recalled that Ettridge had frequently visited their son while he was in hospital in Australia.
Ross Borland arrived in Vanuatu 45 years ago, from Armidale in NSW, and has lived there ever since. He worked in the post office in Australia, spent some time during the war in the army post office and in 1952 travelled to Vanuatu, then the New Hebrides, and worked in the post office for the small group of British and French islands. After helping to establish the postal system for the islands Borland worked in the country's popular philatelic section, pioneering the bright and colourful New Hebrides postage stamps that are collected throughout the world.
In 1980, with the declaration of independence and the establishment of a locally elected Vanuatu parliament, Borland became a Clerk of the Parliament. He was liked and respected by the newly elected representatives. Two years ago he was awarded an Independence Medal by the Government of Vanuatu for his contribution to the country.
The Borlands were already well aware of Pauline Hanson and the One Nation Party. But when we explained to them that David Ettridge was now the National Director of One Nation they refused to believe it, so we went back to Port Vila to get copies of the Australian newspapers. When the Borlands read the reports and saw a photograph of Ettridge they were horrified.
"That's him! That's him!" shouted one of the children. "Yes, but he wasn't so fat before," laughed Marie, the eldest daughter. "I'm surprised that David could be involved with this. I can't understand it, he cared for my boy," said Annie.
"Me too," said Ross. "I'm amazed that he is involved with her. I mean it's unlike him; he was just a nobody. Maybe something has changed him. Perhaps that's why we haven't heard from him for such a long time."
"Look, Pauline Hanson, they want to cut foreign aid from Australia to our region. That would put us in a lot of trouble. We can't afford to lose the aid," said Ross with some distress.
Later in the evening, having had time to comprehend the news of Ettridge's involvement with Hanson, Ross became depressed.
He was particularly disturbed by a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, which reported that when Ettridge was questioned in April over claims in Pauline Hanson's manifesto The Truth (which Ettridge had promoted the sale of) that Aboriginals had been cannibals, he responded "The suggestion that we should be feeling some concern for modern-day Aborigines for suffering in the past is balanced a little bit by the alternative view of whether you can feel sympathy for people who eat their babies."
"You've got me flabbergasted. I can't believe this," said Ross. "I can't understand why he would do this. You know, the kids used to call him Uncle, but look, if he doesn't like us because we are black, then we won't speak to him. We are a black family and we support black families in Australia. Here, I have very few white friends; all my friends are black. We thought we had a real friend in David, but perhaps we were wrong," lamented Ross. "This has really shocked us. You just never know with some people do you? I suppose that's why he hasn't kept in touch."
Marie recalls that several years ago she travelled to Brisbane where she posted a letter to Ettridge. "I dropped a letter in the mail for daddy to Uncle David but he never called back." It appears that for several years after the death of the two Borland children, there was little or no contact with David Ettridge. Then in 1993 at the request of Ettridge, Ross Borland established Global Communications for Ettridge's use in Vanuatu. Ross Borland confirmed to the Review that he was the local agent in Vanuatu for the company and that his house at Freshwater was the registered head office. He also explained that he established the company at the request of David Ettridge.
" I don't know why he wanted me to set up the company for him," Ross said. "I supposed at the time that it was related to his World Vision work. I think that he gathered money from his World Vision work and it went through Global Communications here in Vanuatu. "The company was for David's purposes. I was just the agent, we never financially benefited from it ... The beneficiary of the company was David," said Ross, who also said that substantial sums had gone through Global Communications.
Ettridge denies this, claiming that he was only paid by Global Communications which is not his company.
A recent report into Offshore Financial Services by CCH International noted that international companies established in Vanuatu (such as Global Communications) "must have a registered agent and registered office in Vanuatu but directors may reside anywhere in the world". The report also noted that the Vanuatu Government does not monitor foreign currency transfers which are subject to strict secrecy provisions. The company does not need to file any form of annual return, and faces "no income tax, corporation tax, capital gains tax, wealth tax, inheritance tax, or death duties on income, profits dividends or wealth". An international company in Vanuatu operates in one of the most secret unrestricted tax haven environments in the world today.
We contacted World Vision, where Ettridgehad formerly worked as a consultant to help understand Borland's claims.
Ian Curtis, head of government and corporate relations, said that Ettridge had been "engaged by World Vision as a consultant assigned to specific fundraising work on World Vision's behalf".
Another World Vision executive Roger Walker said that Ettridge had come to the charity with a marketing fundraising proposal that involved half a cent from the purchase price of certain supermarket products to be paid to World Vision. World Vision accepted the proposal and found it particularly lucrative in raising funds for the organisation. The Review has learned that Ettridge had a consultancy arrangement with World Vision, which saw him paid a commission of 12.5% on the funds raised from the supermarket promotion scheme. During the period that World Vision operated the program some $1.2 million was raised from the venture with approximately $150,000 paid by World Vision to Ettridge in commissions.
John Winkett, Corporate Partnerships Manager with World Vision, confirmed that David Ettridge had acted as a consultant intermittently "for approximately three years, until April this year. I think he had other forms of employment and income as well". Winkett said that the fees paid to Ettridge by World Vision were consultancy fees, and were "paid to his company Global Communications, in Vanuatu... You had better ask David about the company. That was his business to have it registered in Vanuatu, where he wanted to have the payments sent to."
Winkett also confirmed that the cheques for the consultancy fees were made out to Global Communications and that, in accordance with usual practise for consultants, the amount billed by Ettridge for his work was paid in full - no tax was taken out by World Vision. According to David Grechian of the International Tax Division of the Australian Tax Office, "Vanuatu is colloquially known as a tax haven along with other countries like Bermuda, the Cayman Islands or the Bahamas".
He said that without the full picture it's always hard to tell but the company's activities "appear abusive and the Tax Office doesn't take kindly to it," adding that the ATO would be "very concerned" about the circumstances surrounding the company.
Ross Borland, is now retired and leads a very modest existence in his simple house. He walks slowly with a cane and has a cataract in one eye that impairs his sight (he is waiting for the next visit by an Australian aid team to see if something can be done to help him). He was bored at home, so he recently took a job working at the local Vanuatu Breweries. He likes his work there and is well liked by the residents of Port Vila. When we returned to visit him several days later he was still perturbed by David Ettridge's activities.
"I've sent David a letter. I've finished with him," he told us. "I'm also closing down Global Communications. David won't be able to use it any more.
"If David's upset, that's too bad," he said, tears welling in his eyes. "The children are more important than anything else. I don't like anyone who is opposed to blacks. When I was a youngster there used to be an Aboriginal girl who looked after us in Armidale. We're all migrants; any white person in Australia is a migrant. This whole thing has made me very upset. I can't believe David would do this; you've really shocked me".
Ettridge didn't seem too perturbed by Ross Borland's reaction.
"If he said such a thing, it's because he doesn't know what Pauline said," Ettridge said when we spoke to him in Australia. "If Ross is under any impression about Pauline Hanson's views then they must be the impressions given to him by the media, which would convey a different impression from the truth...There's nothing wrong with views that Pauline has that says all Australians should be treated equally and we shouldn't have racist laws that treat us differently by race."
When Vanuatu became independent in 1980, Ross Borland was the third resident to take out citizenship. "I will always be Ni Vanuatu," he says, recalling how the current President of Vanuatu, Jean Marie Leye, once came to share a drink of kava at their house in Freshwater. He resents Hanson's calls for an end to foreign aid, which would cripple countries like Vanuatu.
"I mean Hanson and her group, they don't understand anything about this country. We need aid here. This is only a new country. I was at the centre of Vanuatu's independence movement. I'm very proud of this country, it's my home, it's my country and I'm proud of it," he said.
When we asked David Ettridge about Ross Borland's concern, he said he didn't believe Borland held those views, but added that Hanson's statements on foreign aid were "based on the fact that too much money does go overseas when we have things here that are not being taken care of and we should look after our own before we look after others". Ettridge confirmed that he had assisted Borland's son, Samson, in hospital, after he had befriended him on the flight from Vanuatu to Australia. "I decided that at that time I would do what I could to help him.. I visited him every day in hospital, and bought him some toys ... Ross was extremely grateful," said Ettridge.
Ettridge claimed that Global Communications is Ross Borland's company. "I just helped him out as one would help out a friend ... I often did things for him that I wouldn't get paid for, but that doesn't matter." Ettridge claimed he had no involvement with Global Communications - "I don't have any involvement with them" - but later appeared to change his mind, admitting that he had a business relationship with the company that paid him. Ettridge also admitted that all his consultancy fees from World Vision were paid into Global Communications, a company that only five minutes earlier he claimed to have had nothing to do with. "Yes, the money was paid into Global Communications and they paid me."
He said that he was really only working as an agent for Global Communications and Ross Borland, and had marketed one of Borland's ideas in Australia.
"Ross had a small idea and I put it all together and turned it into something much greater and found a client for it - that's what consultants do, you know." But if Ross Borland had in fact contributed an initial marketing idea, then why wasn't his company Global Communications paid the appropriate fee? Instead, everything that Ettridge earned from World Vision for three years had been transferred offshore to the same Vanuatu company. "Uh, well, if that's what he got, that's what he got. I don't know, it's his company," said Ettridge.
Ettridge did all the work to develop the project, sold it to World Vision, organised sponsorship, promotion and advertising but argues that all the profits were paid into the company of a 75-year-old retiree living in Vanuatu. Ross Borland told us that he never saw any money from Ettridge's business activities, to which Ettridge responded "I don't believe that. It's not true."
We pointed out to Ettridge that we were sceptical of his claims. The Borlands' lifestyle was very basic. The conditions were poor, they could not afford a telephone and it was hard to envision Ross Borland operating from his small house in Vanuatu a multinational fundraising corporation which raised more than a million dollars for World Vision. Ettridge said that Ross Borland's lifestyle "has nothing to do with his real position...You'd be surprised at how much he has".
Yet only 15 minutes earlier Ettridge had told us how Ross Borland's children had to be cared for in Australia with donations of medicine and the charity of church groups. Similarly, at first Ettridge claimed that he was just helping Borland as a friend in his business activities without any payment, but later admitted that he received payment as a consultant to Global Communications. "Yes, he paid me. I couldn't afford to do everything for nothing."
Later still, he conceded that he had made money out of the World Vision venture but that "I don't think Global Communications would have made any profit". Ettridge refused to disclose how much he made.
When we questioned Ettridge over his method of having consultancy fees paid into a company in an offshore tax haven he insisted that the arrangements were all above board, saying that the management of the company was Ross Borland's business. Ettridge said that he himself had ofcourse paid tax on his earnings "as an employee, as an agent... Ross paid me and he paid any costs that were incurred over here in the course of developing his business."
This is part one of a three part investigation into Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party which will appear in the Review over the next month.
Copyright © 1997 J.O.I.N.