IT TAKES SKILL TO TRIP OVER FLAT SURFACES!

A LETTERS PATENT APPLICATION PROCESS UPDATE

Dear Beyond PMSA community,

In accordance with our promise to keep you updated with progress on our activities and our Application to the Attorney-General to recall and cancel the PMSA’s Letters Patent, we are pleased to advise that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) (which sits within the Department of Justice and Attorney-General) has requested that Beyond PMSA prepare and submit a “Supplementary Application” that can provide the basis for separate submissions in response by each of the PMSA, the Uniting Church in Australia Queensland Synod and the State Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland (Respondents). Although our allegations were clearly set out and separated in the original Application, we are (literally) tireless and unrelenting suckers for additional workload and won’t quibble.

A FAMILIAR ORGANISATIONAL RESPONSE BY PMSA?

We understand that this request has its genesis in a proposal from the PMSA and its legal advisers who would prefer to see the allegations set out in Beyond PMSA’s original Application (lodged last year) in a more traditional format akin to a legal-style “Statement of Claim” or similar to make it easier for them to respond to it. Sound like a familiar organisational response approach? As disappointing as it is to see that style of approach to the current problem re-surfacing (again), its clear that the PMSA Board can only have bound itself into this position by seeking and obtaining narrow and incomplete advice on the issue. We can assure you that we certainly anticipated that move.

It’s the same old “two-step” - no new dance moves there.

The purpose of re-packaging this information in the PMSA’s requested format is, clearly, to enable some (or perhaps all) of the Respondents to systematically respond to each allegation of failure (much like filing a “defence” in court proceedings) so that a counter-argument can be mounted that:

1. specific identified failures have either not occurred or been substantiated on the facts; and / or

2. the identified failures have not collectively created a crisis at all (or of sufficient proportion) within the PMSA and PMSA Schools to warrant the exercise of the Minster’s discretion under section 131 of the Associations Incorporation Act to grant Beyond PMSA’s Application.

In other words, because the car hasn’t actually “gone over” the cliff yet, we should all continue down the path of the current unsupported and frankly, highly ineffective, process at full speed until it does. (Perhaps we should then make another “new” Application but this time ask for a long rope, the jaws of life and a defibrillator as well??)

We aim to halt that type of reckless proposition in its tracks. It misses the point of the problem entirely. After 18 months, can it really serve any useful purpose to any of these schools to continue wasting time pushing an unsupported agenda that is clearly NOT solving the current problems?

NEW STATE DESIGN

To the OFT’s credit, they have also asked Beyond PMSA to provide (as part of its Supplementary Application) a substantive proposal for a corporate structure for the PMSA and PMSA Schools to replace the PMSA’s existing structure under Letters Patent. Although we did provide a high level view of what this could look like in our original Application, we are extremely pleased that this request has been made, because it signals the potential opportunity (finally) for common sense discussions that can banish the apparent “bogey-man” view of what we are endeavouring to achieve in our opposition to the PMSA’s current reform process.

We have said it repeatedly –

We have no sinister intent;
We have absolutely no opposition to Church ownership or the religious missions; and
We have no ulterior motive to “take over” the governance of our schools.

We just want to see proper operational control delivered to each school and for there to be a very clear and unambiguous definition of PURPOSE, ROLES and RESPONSIBILITIES across each of the entities within the PMSA Group. By definition, a “Board” like the PMSA should “govern” NOT “manage”. This is basic stuff.

We can assure you that our “new-state” design proposal will not only be reasonable, responsible and comprehensive, but also totally defensible as a necessary commercial and business solution to the current crisis engulfing all of our beloved schools. It will be MODERN, and if adopted it will immediately deliver the “bounce” to TRUST and COMMERCIAL RECOVERY that our schools deserve after 18 months of devastation.

THIS IS A BUSINESS CRISIS NOT A LEGAL THREAT

Which ever way you look at this issue, although our Application is made in accordance with a statutory mechanism and process (which necessarily makes it a “legal” step), the crisis affecting our schools has NEVER been a “legal” matter. If the PMSA’s advice to date on this issue has been limited to the legal consequences of a change to its incorporation, then we have all wasted almost 2 years in the wilderness. It is a BUSINESS and COMMERCIAL crisis with broad and far reaching organisational implications that transcend legal nit-picking over technicalities.

We will comprehensively step through the legal process as well (as it seems we must) but the simple fact is that TRUST must be re-established in the PMSA so that the future of our schools can be assured. Building trust starts with fixing the enrolment and revenue challenges created by the PMSA’s actions in 2017 and 2018. It doesn’t get fixed by paying lawyers to argue over and provide advice on issues that form perhaps less than 10% of the real problem – everyone already knows that there has been a unique and catastrophic organisational failure that has its root cause in the existence of Letters Patent. The PMSA wouldn’t be attempting to embark on its own unilateral process of reform were that not the case.

NEXT STEPS AND TIMELINES

There is lots of work for us to do, but Beyond PMSA has agreed to undertake and complete the OFT’s requested tasks by 28 February 2019. We have been advised that each of the Respondents intend to lodge separate submissions by 29 March 2019. Beyond PMSA will then have a further opportunity to provide final submissions in response to the submissions lodged by each Respondent by 29 April 2019.

Following that – well, we all either end up with an imposed decision or common sense prevails and the PMSA stops forking out huge sums for lawyers to defend the battlements. All parties must come together to constructively to reimagine and improve the destiny of these schools.

We will keep you informed at every step of this process.

We are not going away.