19 August 2009. Updated.

17 August 2009

I'm a long time Inland Revenue NZ employee of 20 years I have many frustrations with incompetent managers, absolute waste of taxpayer money, illiterate team leaders ( 'waist bin' in team minutes is not a typo, it's a spelling mistake), a workplace bully, Carol Buckenham, who has had extraordinary protection, even by my union delegates, failed payroll systems, failing tools, and last but not least a tax system which is designed to overdeduct tax, but which the IRD adverts sold as 'you never have to file a tax return again' allowing a company to set up a very succesful business giving people back the money the government hoped they wouldn't claim ...

There's also penalising of low income taxpayers but almost no scrutiny of huge refunds going out the door -- my job was to check refunds of over $100,000 and I was told on Friday to do this at the rate of 9 per hour, if that was the work given to me.

In this case it was me the payroll system failed to pay -- twice -- and they had no idea why and asked me to get a bank statement to prove I wasn't paid as they thought I had been. Complaints got me nowhere, requests for information got me nowhere and finally four official information requests (our FOIA equivalent) resulted in either no information, or on the last day an extension could be requested in a well-defined form, simply a statement that I'd be charged NZ$38 per half hour, without specifying what would be provided, when, or even whether they'd search all night for non-existent info.

Basically the New Zealand Inland Revenue Department believes it's above the law.

Our code of conduct states in the preamble that the actions of the department should be able to withstand the closest public scrutiny -- however Inland Revenue doesn't open itself to any scrutiny. In an effort to draw attention to this and a major abuse of process ...

... I drove my car through the Christchurch NZ Inland Revenue's closed front entrance, through two sets of glass doors, through the staff only door, then backed out into the foyer to wait for police.

You sure as hell wouldn't know it from Google or the papers. It was on Saturday morning and it's now Monday night.

I filmed an interview, across from the patched up hole, done by our local television station CTV. I popped in there today because I'm out on bail of NZ$500. In fact today they forgot to serve a tresspass order so I walked inside, showed my tag, and almost got access through to the staff only area. This is symptomatic of the place -- I've dealt with stupidity by pointing it out when and where it occurs and can give you megabytes of examples because I just BCC'd myself in on the responses. Walking out with taxpayer information (which I haven't done -- I have absolute integrity with regard to taxpayers) would be as simple as photographing the terminal the information is on.

Some of this is comic, some serious, but all worthy of public discussion. However the NZ Inland Revenue while driving staff harder for less, doesn't permit any discussion. Discussion at team meetings is cut off if the team leader can even understand it.

This all sounds surreal, but I've played music, my job supported that, and part of their action screwed with my music. So one group have added a webpage where we intend to put everything up relating to the crash.

A sample page is at:

http://theaxemen.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/mick-elborado-the-car-crash-set/

We're taking the piss and they know it. But Inland revenue have some pretty heavy lawyers -- they've just upped the charge to Criminal damage which is 7 years maximum.

Can you add this to the Cryptome Collection? I assume then it would be archived on the DVD and any gag orders redundant. I did everything I could through the system. The checks and balances that should catch incompetence or bias failed. Also the checks that should stop Carol, the bully mentioned above from calling staff native to the country 'my little black jungle bunny' and then claiming it was a joke. In fromt of maybe 20 staff who all look the other way. She also tried to get me committed but my sanity hopefully is reasonably evidenced by the fact I'm on bail and not in jail.

It's late ... I'm tired ... far more of this if you want it, my stack of paer is about 6 feet high. I've been with the place 20 years and believe it's time the public scrutiny test was applied. I'll name names, give detailed analyses of abuses, failures, incompetence. If our media is too scared to deal with it I will pass it to you until I'm gagged. I've played this for laughs to keep sane and am proud of some of there responses and the fact they couldn't fire me, and it was I that ''was the decider" as our HRSouls put it.

If my kinetic statement about 'moving forward' won't do it, I invite you to. I'll give you the information until I'm stopped, principally so the low income NZ taxpayers see that a tax system called fair by IRD certainly isn't t fair to them

Cheers

Dave Theobald. (aka Mick Elborrado)

A sends 18 August 2009:

There's also a picture. See he did make the local news.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/2765173/IRD-drove-me-to-this

A taxman driven around the bend by continuing work woes drove his car
through the building where he had worked for 25 years.

David Jerrold Theobald, 47, drove his Mazda 626 through the foyer of the
Christchurch Inland Revenue building on Cashel St at 6.30am on Saturday
after a three-year employment dispute.

He crashed through two sets of glass doors and smashed a third on the other
side of the foyer before coming to a stop.

Mr Theobald said he had gone to great lengths to avoid risk to any staff.

"I checked with the cleaners the night before to make sure no-one would be
in the building. I drove right up to the doors, looked both ways, then
slowly pushed forward till the doors broke."

Mr Theobald said he was fed up with what he saw as concealment of workplace
bullying and incompetent management at Inland Revenue.

"This has been going on for three years, and now I've got four official
information requests in with them and they're making that as onerous as
possible ... This was just a way to make a gesture."

He also wanted to highlight how easy it would be for someone with terrorist
intentions to ramraid the building with a truck full of explosives. "It's
just another 9/11 waiting to happen."

Mr Theobald is a fixture of the Christchurch music scene. He is known as
Mick Elborado when he plays with his band The Axemen and in other groups.

He appeared in Christchurch District Court yesterday charged with
intentional damage and reckless driving and was remanded on bail till August 31.

He told The Dominion Post he had not decided how he would plead, but was
prepared to accept the consequences of his actions.

Inland Revenue would not comment on the incident as it was before the court,
but Mr Theobald has received a letter from human resources head Patrick
Crawford.

In it, Mr Crawford said: "Information has come to my attention which
indicates that you may have intentionally driven a car through Inland
Revenue's Christchurch building ... I am concerned that your conduct may be
inconsistent with the Code of Conduct."

Mr Theobald could face up to seven years in prison if found guilty of
criminal damage.

Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:34:48 +1200
Subject: TV1 spin of the news
From: mickle Borrado <nosombrero[at]gmail.com>
To: John Young <jya[at]pipeline.com>

Hi John,

Want a story about news spin -- TV1 (an NZ news station) are a bit clumsier at editing than the professionals.

Here's the TV1 footage

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/disgruntled-employee-crashes-into-ird-building-2926890/video

All that information from a thirty minute plus interview -- and camera stage directions -- I think I must have spoke all of a hundred words in the newsbite -- and the voice over described me -- i certainly didn't.

So let's look at what happened today so people in NZ see how TV1's news is spun.

Lisa Davies of TV1 news rang -- I originally said where were you yesterday andprobably mentioned something about investigative journalism -- the fact that NZ has no-one like Daniel Hopsicker is a national shame -- anyway I said I'd meet her at Madras Cafe Bookshop -- lovely place with lovely food. I ordered breakfast and they interrupted it. They apologised for that though.

Lisa then talked to me at length -- we discussed numerous things including the way the rich (who I define as anyway with family trusts, loss attributing qualifying companies, and suchlike) are stopping the poor getting hospitals and education -- we then filmed the segment completely disturbing the business of the cafe -- I suggested they buy food -- they bought coffees -- If they don't actually eat food maybe they could have given it to the people who follow the 'Free Soup' arrows in Latimer Square (to Christchurch's shame).

Anyway look at what I personally say and do in the vid that link points at and read this:

1) 00:15 -- 'Dave let's go through each of the photos on your camera one by one -- no go back to that one' -- the actual photo on axeblog is at http://theaxemen.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/img_6421.jpg in its full glory -- hmmm

2) 00:16 -- that's funny this looks like a home video -- oh no it's a professional cameraman (who knows a friend of mine so for once I'm not naming names) filming me holding my camera and either he or I are moving the camera -- again the actual photo is up.

3) 00:17 'I feel pretty good actually' -- who knows what question was asked -- could've been something sympathetic like 'How do you feel after getting out of IRD after all those years of bullying' or even 'Dave ,me old friend, treat me as a confidant and tell me how you feel having barely eaten yesterday being able to buy that yummy empanada today'

We retook this shot two or three times because the cameraman wasn't satisfied 'higher, lower, tilt it a bit more to Lisa, Dave, yeah that's fine'

4) 00:25 -- hey that looks like it wasn't a complete sentence '...at the end of my tether going for one last kamikaze move, this was a very carefully calcualted protest...'

Um a bit of context here Lisa -- just put the whole sentence on the TV1 website or I'll arrange for someone somewhere to find out what else you've put in less staunch peoples soundbites.

Let's see did I say something like '{Instead of allowing my team leader Pip Lloyd and manager Yvonne van Grinsven to subject me to 4 weeks of pressure to achieve the impossible and putting me} at the end of my tether making one last kamikaze move, this was a very carefully calculated protest {when every other check and balance had failed to make an undeniable statement without hurting anyone}

I have no idea TV1 has the footage -- so TV1 put up the whole thing say 20 seconds context either side of the soundbite if you're too shit scared to broadcast what I told Lisa about massive abuse of the tax system -- if your context in the soundbite is correct I'll apologise in public, if it isn't and you've distorted the one little bit of the interview you could (30 mins maybe) then I expect TV1 to either no longer use the word news in its 'news' coverage or as a fair compromise the TV1 Chief executive can donate an amount equal to his annual salary to Rape crisis and the Battered women's refuge -- I don't think any rich men can find a way to benefit from those two and they really need the money.

00:37 'i-i Catharthic, I actually feel a great relief now' -- maybe 'Dave my little innocent what did you say to the police straight after the crash' Because I don't feel that way now -- it certainly isn't a description of my current state.

My overwhelming feeling at the moment is a broadcast like the TV1 segment will drive (no pun intended) seriously unbalanced people or people with a grudge into similar acts -- feeling that what I appear to have said in those tiny little bits reflects their own feelings. It doesn't -- I carefully read 'The Psychology of Political Violence' by Emma Goldman several times and even then I would have stopped if there was a person who could be harmed -- even if it meant arrest. I'm pretty sure anyone unbalanced will not have similar concerns -- I was already prepared to accept 50% of the responsibility if anyone died (along with the people responsible for closing off any more responses) -- however now it's 33% due to the TV1 spin -- that feels better but I'll still grieve, and apologise sincerely and personally, if anyone gets hurt by a deliberate car ramming incident.

00:39 -- Newspaper shots under 'catharthic': 'Dave you've got the paper on the table there, it'd be nice to get a shot of you reading it. Can you hold the paper a litte higher, no tilt it more toward me, now lookk at the photo, OK now the news item, look like you're reading it for thefirst time, good'

I'd just bought the paper and was more interested in an article buried on page two suggesting shaming drunken drivers by publishing photos and names -- I'm pretty sure I discussed that being a great idea to apply to white collar criminals, although in retrospect maybe they should do it for the criminals whole family if they took more tyhan $100,000 -- might be just the disincentive they need.

00:41 'He describes himself as a paranoid and a depressive' -- um shouldn't my voice be used to describe myself instead of Lisa's, or even my doctor's. I think my self description was I have had paranoia and depression, I take medication for it which works, I see my General Practitioner once every three months to obtain more medication (Venlafaxine and Quitiapine -- we won'tr even look at the wiki article on discontinuation syndrome for Venlafaxine)

I'm currently not on any mental health registers or seeing anyone other than my GP and three police medical experts who had a very good understanding of mental illness talked to me at length to decide if I was paranoid or depressed. The record will show I crashed on the morning of Saturday and was released the same evening under my Brother's recognizance.

Currently paranoid and depressed, Lisa? I don't think so -- I co-host a radio show most Thursdays, play music, and visit friends, I play trivial pursuit some Fridays, For f'k's sake I'm so depressed and paranoid that I've arranged and learn't Bohemian Raphsody for solo guitar and can play it without looking at any prompts (starts with C6 so a different key, and needs a 5 string guitar) -- um, I think I'm a fully functional member of society who can dissect a hack and spin job the night it's played -- unless I'm being paranoid here

So Lisa, as you said you had to get back urgently to edit this so you couldn't buy food -- You've set mental health in NZ back from where it was gradually getting seen as being acceptable and possibly given a person or maybe 1,000,000 of them with no previous reason to identify with a person on TV1 news every reason to take their car and crash it.

I showed you photos of the front of the barely scratched car. I talked with you at length in the pre-interview discussing all of this.

OK, detour, back to the video 'says he was driven to it after a three year employment dispute with IRD' -- I'd imagine I cracked a wry smile with the word 'driven' -- check Axeblog, you'll see we've got a great sense of humour.

Oh that 'employment dispute'? You didn't really ask, Lisa, but in depth:

I have a record of depression (about once every ten years or so)

I self-referred myself to a doctor for paranoia, mainly -- let's see; Helicopter noises over the house at night, fleeting glimpses at the edge of peripheral vision, increased signification(?) -- basically where every numberplate looks like a personalised numberplate, but part of that would go with the fact that Pynchon, Gaddis and Oakley Hall are my favourite authors.

Ah my outputs aren't good and surprisingly I have trouble getting up occasionally. Let's help him by assigning him someone everyone is shit-scared of (right up the line -- all employees in CHCH in earshot of her voice will remember that the poor high ranking sod who dared to ask her not to call him Dick but to use Richard, was forever tagged with 'Hello Richard not Dick' when he visited. Maybe he enjoyed it. Anyway IRD NZ has a perfectly working Employee Assistance Program, usually you refer yourself, but according to the EAP website managers can refer staff who don't wish to go on it if the referal is for behavioural or performance reasons.

Actually John -- I'll send this the way it is but I have my entire personal file on camera -- put this up, I;ll send you the file (including psych reports) with my blessing to make ita lla vailable for downoad and I'll carry on the story -- eventaully returning to that video

Thanks heaps

Dave/Mick (work/Music)

Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:15:29 +1200
Subject: Re: David Theobald
From: mickle Borrado <nosombrero[at]gmail.com>
To: Lisa Davies <Lisa.Davies[at]tvnz.co.nz>
Cc: mcwilson[at]mediaworks.co.nz, jya[at]pipeline.com

(LSM -- you konw the drill -- blog it!)

(Mark -- when I said I don't like spin -- this is to TV1 -- the first interviewer and cameraman that messed me around. I have no problem CC'ing it to you)

John -- this is becoming familiar!

Hey Lisa,

If they were interested in what I had to say they'd have heard it, rather than the guy whose glass I broke -- analysis of the TV1 interview process including suggested poses for the guy thatr kinda new John on cryptome.org fairly shortly and I've very publically requested that TV1 at the same page add another video with 20 seconds context either side of each soundbite -- double dare ya!

I've also pointed out publically that you were too cheap to even buy a pie from the poor shop that had to suffer the charade of getting 'my side' and losing business whileyou worked out just what you needed -- I checked at MCB that you guys had paid for the drink, cause otherwise I would have.

More seriously -- and this is also up in al ot of places -- you should be aware I don't mess around -- if any unbalanced person does a copycat crash because they identify with a 'Paranoid Depressive Kamikaze who needs catharsis' I didn't edit it and put it on National TV, you did.

I'm CC'ing this to cryptome.org -- deal with it and start to learn what a reporter does. Or as I've already memed. Spin this ONE.

After talking with me, who went up against IR, you should quickly have realised not to mess with me -- you did. Bad Mistrake.

Now about that stuff I said about massive abuse of the tax system by the wealthy. Donations, Imputation, Working for Families Credits, LAQC's? Guess you're a wannabe rich person.

Accountability/Transparency/Integrity it means something.

Bye

Dave

_________

On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 9:38 AM, Lisa Davies <Lisa.Davies[at]tvnz.co.nz> wrote:

Hi there,

I am really keen to catch up with David for an interview today – a lot of people are very interested to hear his version of what happened at the weekend!

Please get him to give me a call or email me his details?

Thanks heaps, Lisa

Lisa Davies
ONE NEWS - Reporter
[Phone numbers deleted]
lisa.davies[at]tvnz.co.nz

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