4 days notice! The Thompsons are served notice of eviction.

From Agmates (and many emails), news comes that The National Bank served notice today that the Thompsons have to be off may lose control of their property in four days. (See Update #3).

This is a family with four young children, who ran a profitable business; they filled in every form and ticked every box. They have broken no laws, and there are no outstanding environmental notices, but yet, they came to Western Australia with their life savings and they are losing everything.

Don’t bring your investment dollars to Western Australia — not while the Department of the Environment effectively controls the state.

The Thompsons waited a full year to get Works Approval for a 15,000 head feedlot. After they had already committed the capital, the rules kept shifting. They discovered they’d need ongoing licenses as well. After several years of ramping up the capacity on these licenses, things changed.  Matt spoke out as a skeptic. About that time, the renewals were delayed, then the numbers were cut in half, and new conditions were added that were impossible to meet. To feed and supply water for thousands of cattle the Thompsons had to sign agreements in advance to pay for hundreds of thousands of dollars of goods they could not use, but had no way of knowing that at the time. When they appealed, it took 18 months to get “vindicated” but by then there was only six months left on the “two year”  license. Not enough to set up all the contracts and run a business. The new sub-clauses meant that even licenses for a qualified “10,000” head had vague untestable conditions: the license you have when you don’t have a license.

I am ashamed of what our government has done.

If the media won’t cover this, shame on them too.

I’ve written before in more detail:

Tyranny: How to destroy a business with environmental red tape

Smell that evidence

There is much discussion on Agmates, and a call for donations (see below):

URGENT HELP – Thompson family in trouble

NAB had not long ago told Matt & Janet that they were not going to move on them before December 31st. But it appears that they have changed their mind.

Those familiar with previous discussions on Agmates will know that the Thompson family have no funds available to them to face being thrown out on their ear by the bank. Donations are needed ASAP to help provide a roof over the children’s head. Please consider donating what you are able into the following bank account that has been set up so as any donations can’t be seized with all other assets of Matt & Janet including the few dollars left in their own bank account.

Account name – L&S Ballard
BSB – 016 770
Account number – 439863697
Discription – Kate/Abby/Will/Luke

UPDATE: for international transfers:

I’ve set up a special paypal donation button (in US dollars). This will go to my bank account, with an ID that means it will be recorded as a donation for The Thompson Children (Kate Abbey Luke and Will). I will transfer it. Thanks — JN

ANZ:  Bintamilling Arcade, Egerton Street, Narrogin, Western Australia

SWIFT Code:  ANZBAU3M

UPDATE #1:

Thank you all for your kind words.

I know it helps Matt and Janet and that they read these comments.

UPDATE #2:

Added a paypal button for International money transfers, or payment by credit cards (thanks!) See the grey box above.

UPDATE #3:

More details are coming to light. Apparently the exact notice was that they were given 4 days to pay the notes off in full. An administrator is waiting to come in after that. They are working on how to file something that will stay eviction. What they received was “Notification of cancellation, default and demand notice,” in which the bank states that “all we have is theirs, and they will move on that after 4 days”.

UPDATE 4:

My intray is long overrun with emails of notification of donations. Thanks to one and all! I had intended to write a short personal thank you to each of you, but I’d be writing all day tomorrow and next week… The tally is now up to $6000 plus USD.

UPDATE 5:

It has been overwhelming. There are over 470 donations. The emails are still rolling in.

They’ve come in from Canada, Panama, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Japan, Denmark, New Zealand, UK, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, quite a lot from Australia, and many, many from the US. Wow. (When people in the United States of America get motivated, their response dominates.) Great to see the UK and European ones are coming out now as the timezone swings.  Janet is humbled.

It is an excellent media headline all of it’s own, and ought to buy us some attention (better than advertising)  🙂

A little more information on Janet and another nice photo of the children is here.

UPDATE 6:

We have international bank transfer details (see above in the grey box with the account numbers).  I don’t know how useful this is. I think you have to go to a bank, and I think it costs at least $20 -$30, and maybe more (you need to ask, because some banks charge a fortune).

UPDATE 7:

The donations are still flowing in — over 620 people from around the world. We are amazed, and getting legal advice before we issue more tallies. Thanks to you all.