The Sunday Times [Perth]

10 December 1995

	"Bennett's Beat"

FILE UNDER 'MISSING'

Academic Dave Rindos must be starting to think he's walked
under a ladder.

The weight of the University of WA seems to have crashed
down on him.

Since being given the flick by the uni he has been fighting
for what he considers to be his unfair axing. 

It has meant building a case from details harvested from
Freedom of Information documents.

He intends to ask Governor Mick Jeffery to adjudicate on
the case as the Visitor of UWA.

It's an unusual action but not without precedent. 

Dave's found all sorts of interesting items, including
contradictions in correspondence about his sacking.

A year ago the uni claimed that a document he inquired
about did not and had never existed. 

Yet in a letter in October to a journalist, who wrote a
feature on the bubble surrounding Dave's unceremonious
dumping by the uni, Deputy Vice-chancellor Alan Robson
acknowledged the document did exist.

And now as he prepares his case, Dave has been advised by
the uni's Freedom of Information coordinator that they
have mislaid his personnel file. 

And because it has vanished, Dave has been stymied.

He now finds himself in a catch-22 situation.

The uni bloke regretted that until the file became available
he would be unable to comply with Dave's request for info.

And without the file Dave may not be able to present his
petition to the guv for him to judge the case.