Jane Beeby, 2012 candidate for Clarence Valley Council elections: maintaining the ugly silence

On August 7 2012, I wrote this post after becoming aware that an anti-vaccination advocate intends to serve in local government: Jane Beeby is running for local government? Really? That Jane Beeby? The post provides an accurate snapshot of the previous activities and comments from someone who wants to serve the community.

On August 22, The Daily Examiner (the Clarence Valley local newspaper), published this article; one profile of the many candidates who are seeking election: Candidate profile: Jane Beeby . Of course, the comments concerning Beeby’s previous (and, as you will see, current) affiliations began to be published on this article.

I want to share a comment from Jane Beeby, made whilst acting as an official representative of the Australian (anti) Vaccination Network. On February 15 2010 Beeby added to the already immense pain of the McCaffery Family, who lost their baby daughter, Dana, to laboratory confirmed Pertussis (Whooping Cough). The AVN and its followers (at the instigation of Meryl Dorey and her “supposedly” remark), had been claiming that Dana did not die from Whooping Cough, and that the McCafferys had been acting on false assumptions when agreeing to assist NSW Health in warning the community of the dangers of Whooping Cough, with Dorey even claiming that the McCafferys are dishonest. The McCafferys are still suffering at the hands of the AVN, AVN President Meryl Dorey, and followers of the anti-vaccination organisation.

Back to the Beeby comment of February 15 2010:

I think the parents of this baby have been used in the most shocking way by the septics, many of whom do not even have children.  I can understand the parents being so caught up in their grief they need to blame someone, but allowing the septics to use the death of their little baby as a weapon against the AVN will not make it better, it’s more like taking something sacred and vanalising [sic] it.

One day I hope the parents of this baby tell the whole story and are able to see how they have been used by a group of ruthelss [sic] scum bags with alterior [sic] motives.  Then maybe they will be able to honour their childs [sic] life with truth. J

Here is the AVN post on which Beeby made this comment:

The vulgarity of these comments is still grotesque, two and a half years later

Yes. The comments are ugly, hurtful, and nasty. That particular comment from Beeby made it on to the Lateline episode of July 12 2010. Many of you will already know this video too well. If you have not seen it, I urge you to watch. The pain caused to the McCaffery Family by Dorey, Beeby, and their cohorts, is evident. I will simply let the McCafferys tell how “reprehensible” and hurtful they have found the actions of Beeby:

_______________________________

Beeby has been requested to publish an apology to the McCaffery Family.

…are you prepared to publish a formal apology to a family who have been vilified by yourself, and who are still vilified by your former colleagues at the AVN? The healing power of such a statement would be beneficial.

Beeby has refused to apologise, or even acknowledge that she has made these comments. Instead, Beeby repeats the claim that she was impersonated in the past. There is no doubt, however, that Beeby made the comments for which she is being held to account. For Beeby to repeat her claim of impersonation is duplicitous, and irrelevant to the comments at hand.

As we can see, Beeby also commented as an official AVN Facebook Page Administrator only nine days previously to the shocking comments above:

“…no questions asked”: strawmanning like this is a lie

And, this one:

Calling for donations, with dubious claims, to “our” AVN website

On August 24 2012, Beeby finally showed up on the Examiner article, after two days of silence, to categorically state that she will not interfere with Council’s immunisation policies. This is well received, and taken to mean what it says:

Breaking the silence regarding her anti-vaccination activities. Beeby had previously attempted to hide this

Interestingly, Beeby infers that she is no longer affiliated with the AVN in an attempt to distance herself from the anti-vaccination organisation for which she was a ferocious advocate and campaigner. I’m not sure how much distance Beeby has really put between herself and the AVN, given that she commented on the AVN Facebook Page , from her Facebook profile, as recently as July 28 2012 (one month ago):

Given that Beeby thinks vaccines are deadly, this is particularly nasty

There is another question which nags me: as noted in my earlier Beeby post, did Beeby breach the Electoral Act by deleting electoral material, when she deleted her campaign’s Facebook page? I will leave that up to others, and hopefully someone can use the comments to investigate this further. Here is Beeby’s Facebook electoral page, which she deleted after being called to account:

I hope we can get some answers on this point, from those who know what they are talking about

I also want to include these two screen captures, from 2009, so everyone can get a clear idea of the character of Beeby: in the interests of transparency and accountability:

Beeby’s comment to Jason, who was attempting to hold the anti-vaccination network to account, for its misleading claims

And this delightful comment:

Comment made to Peter Bowditch, who was also attempting to hold the AVN to account, for its misinformation

I want to finish off with the Candidate Profile, from the Examiner article linked above. This is important.

“Absolute transparency”. Do it.

If one desires to enter public life, acting on behalf of one’s community, to affect public policy; then, one needs to ensure they have not metaphorically defecated in a bed of their own making.

The community, any community, should not need to drag a potential representative kicking and screaming into reality. If one wishes to enter public life; then, one needs to own and acknowledge their own works. And, if need be, they need to apologise for hurt or harm they have caused to anyone.

And, if they have publicly vilified a grieving family who have lost a baby (under any circumstances), then, they need to apologise before it’s too late.

Update: August 30 2012

Beeby has finally responded to the evidence contained in this post. I had an uneasy feeling that she would behave in this unfortunate manner. Beeby is attempting to say that all of the evidence provided here was due to an impersonator.

More importantly, Beeby states: “I have nothing to apologise for.”

Beeby’s comment exemplifies precisely why she needs to be held to account by the Northern NSW media.

This is the Facebook profile from which Beeby made her comments on the AVN Facebook page. Here is a publicly available image from Jane Beeby’s Facebook profile:

How can someone lie in the face of such overwhelming evidence?

 

About reasonable hank

I'm reasonable, mostly.
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12 Responses to Jane Beeby, 2012 candidate for Clarence Valley Council elections: maintaining the ugly silence

  1. If anyone clicks through to The Daily Examiner article, you will see a personal friend and co-campaigner of Beeby’s, John Hancocks, doing his best to defend her: even resorting to the tasteless Argument from Patriotism:
    http://www.dailyexaminer.com.au/story/2012/08/22/jane-beeby/

    Hancocks is also contributing on all other candidate profiles, in his inimitable way. We’ve seen it all before.

    Hancocks started this Facebook group with Beeby:
    http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/51219333819/permalink/10151098877528820/

    On that particular thread, Beeby notes: “…I don’t lie and I don’t waffle on for a sympathy vote, or pretend I know all about everything. That has to count for something.”

  2. Dan Buzzard says:

    I notice she’s now trying to play the, “That wasn’t me” card. Instead of owning the comments she made on Facebook. What is it with anti-vaxxers and fear of accountability?

  3. @advodiaboli says:

    Resigned from the AVN due to “forces at play”? That’s an insult to Clarence Valley voters.

    Jane Beeby joined the AVN when they were most vocally anti-vaccination, under the “Love them, protect them, never inject them” banner. The only thing that changed is Stop The AVN volunteers lifted the lid on what turned out to be a can of illegalities.

    Apart from the almost $12,000 (raised for a non existent advertisement) that vanished into AVN coffers (confirmed by the OLGR), Jane was also on board for the period in which the OLGR investigation uncovered:
    – Fundraising without an authority
    – Unauthorised expenditure
    – Not keeping records of expenditure (what lay people call ‘unable to prove you didn’t pinch missing money’)
    – Another $12,000 that vanished into AVN coffers raised via “Fighting Fund” for a family
    – 25 breaches of the Charitable Fundraising Act 1991
    – Possible breaches of the Charitable Trusts Act 1993
    http://luckylosing.com/2011/07/17/how-meryl-dorey-scammed-and-stole-11000-from-avn-members-andor-donors/

    I think we have an answer despite Jane’s comment above. Another question that comes to mind is why didn’t Jane Beeby report such misappropriation of funds and abuse of legislation?

    It appears Jane is a vulgar, cruel, deceptive manipulator. No-one has impersonated her and such a claim is another insult. The time to make a report to the police was during her time with the AVN. At best she ignored illegal activity, at worst was a part of it. And now in an attempt to obfuscate the real Jane Beeby she has deleted Election Material. A breach of yet another Act to add to the list.

    Clarence Valley Council is no place for a shifty person like Jane Beeby. She must withdraw her candidacy immediately.

  4. I’d forgotten about the “smell of shit of (sic) [my] breath” thing. Nice!

  5. Ken McLeod says:

    Come on Jane, if you really did lodge a complaint with the Police that you had been impersonated on the Internet, you would be able to provide the Police COPS database incident number. So what’s holding you back? Could it be that you LIED? Just like your good mate Meryl Dorey?

  6. Christine Bayne says:

    In addition to @advodiaboli’s list of OLGR discoveries, there is also the question of the AVN receiving money for goods it failed to supply. Meryl Dorey stated at the start of 2010 that the total subscription base of the AVN magazine, Living Wisdom, was approx 2,500. The AVN subsequently failed to supply four issues in 2010. This equates to the AVN receiving approx $90,000- for goods it failed to supply. The following year was even worse – the AVN failed to supply FIVE issues.

    Assuming a static membership of 2,500 per year, the AVN has received nearly $300,000 in selling goods it failed to supply since 2006. NSW Fair Trading advised me that as the AVN is an incorporated association, consumers of the AVN are not protected under the Australian Consumer Law.

    I think voters are entitled to know when Jane Beeby resigned from the AVN and what steps she took (or didn’t take) in the AVN continuing to sell goods it knew could not be supplied.

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  9. And, still, Beeby is commenting on the AVN Facebook page. It is very convenient to distance oneself from a distasteful organisation when it is election time, what?

    http://www.facebook.com/avn.living.wisdom/posts/10151095488001925?comment_id=23630448&offset=0&total_comments=35

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