WEBVTT - Genesis | 2 0:00:02.360 --> 0:00:05.960 If I'm going to find Alan's missing forty nine million dollars, 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:10.000 I need to understand more about the man himself. Had 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:13.440 he done something like his safe World scheme before? Who 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:15.600 was he, what was he like and how did he 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:20.000 get his start? Looking into someone's past is a tricky undertaking, 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:23.000 as I'm about to learn, and I had no idea 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:26.040 what I was in for and how far back. Unraveling 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:32.920 the mystery of Alan Metcalf goes. 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:32.360 Inn. 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:35.519 He killed me A nine sixty nine and a car accent. 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:40.560 This is Gary Avis. Gary might be eighty years old now, 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:43.760 but he remembers it all vividly, the dirt road where 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:47.000 he and his then colleague Alan Metcalf should have died. 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:50.400 We're speaking over the phone, so it's not a great recording. 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:54.040 We told him at least four times to stop the 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:56.000 car or we're going to get out of the car, 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:58.240 and that's when he rolled up. I mean, it's a 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:00.760 lot of fun rolling a car in the middle central 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:04.560 Australia with nobody around in two hundred CA's from the 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:05.280 nearest down. 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:08.080 Did you think you were going to die in that moment? 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:11.560 Didn't that time to think a bloody thing? Roll five times? 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:12.920 Had ended up on its roof. 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:17.120 Alan and Gary were working together as life insurance salesman 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:21.440 at amp in Mount Isa in Queensland's northwest Outback, a 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.760 tiny Australian town even tinier back then. The cause of 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:29.039 the accident was simple. Alan was in his early twenties 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:32.399 and he was starting to make some serious money. Recently, 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:36.000 he'd bought a new car. His little Volkswagen Beetle was 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:38.559 upgraded to a VIP Valiant. 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:41.720 Also doing Alan, This car's too powerful for the speed 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:44.120 you were doing. You've never had a big car like this. 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:47.880 Alan was newly married to Mary. The young husband was 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:49.960 in a rush because he'd promised his wife he'd be 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:52.600 home in time for dinner. We should have died, but 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:56.840 they didn't. In fact, Alan Metcalf was just getting started. 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.720 He was about to launch his earliest recorded scale, but 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:04.560 it wouldn't be his last. I'm Alex Turner Cohen, a 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:08.120 finance and investigative reporter from newstock com do AU, and 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:20.760 you're listening to The Missing forty nine Million. This is 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:27.400 episode two genesis. Alan and Gary were down that lonely 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:31.120 road visiting a client. The papers in their work briefcase 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:35.959 went flying everywhere. After the crash, glass shattered all over them. 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:38.440 They tried to set the car on fire, the only 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:40.880 way they could think to draw attention as the desert 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.000 darkened around them. But Gary said it was the hardest 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:46.360 thing he'd ever attempted to do, and eventually he and 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.800 Alan just gave up. It took three hours for another 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:52.040 car to find them, and the police drove them home 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:56.120 to Mount Isa. They kept working at amp, but it 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.239 wouldn't be the last time Gary crosspaths with Alan metcalf 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:03.160 or her his name around town for all the wrong reasons. 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:07.320 Mount Oz is a raw town, a rough town. Most 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.320 of the pubs had a bearfisted fighting champion. It was 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:12.720 an exciting town to be in as a young black, 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:17.520 and people were making a lot of money, serious money. 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:19.600 I mean five hundred and eighty bucks a week in 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:24.160 nineteen sixty six is a lot of money. Allan was 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:25.919 caught up in that sort of hype. 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:29.480 Gary's right, it was a lot of money like making 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:33.919 nine thousand dollars a week in today's world. In Allan's 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:38.080 own words from a video uploaded to vimeo discussing his past, he. 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:41.760 Said Mount Isaza was an interesting place because there was 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:43.400 great job opportunities. 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:46.640 That's what attracted people, and there was good money to 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:47.680 be made in Mount Isa. 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:51.720 Alan grew up in Cannes, in Queensland's tropical north, but 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.120 he moved to Mount Isa for a mining job and 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:58.200 married Mary in nineteen sixty five. He was around nineteen 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:01.520 years old and she was about seventy. He became a 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:05.000 salesman at AMP shortly after, which is how Gary Avis 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:08.640 met him. Years later he'd be peddling the safe Worth product, 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:12.200 but then he was selling life insurance and he was 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:15.680 really good at his job, too good. In a eulogy, 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:17.040 Mary had this to say. 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.760 Just before he turned twenty one, he was approached by 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:27.680 the AMP Society and he became Australasia's top salesman. Three 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:31.560 years in a row. He broke all sales records, which 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:35.400 he held for over a decade or even longer. Keep 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:38.360 in mind that mat iSER had a population of twenty 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:43.400 five thousand people, and yet he still beat all these records, 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:47.800 writing in excess of seven and a half million dollars 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:49.880 in whole of life policies. 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:53.839 But Gary doesn't see how he never impressed me. 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:57.080 He was nowhere near the top sales in Australia got 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:01.120 nowhere near he wouldn't be in the top fifty. I 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:04.000 think I know what he did. He probably signed up 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:07.000 what they call temstans, these people that don't exist. 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:11.320 So essentially he was selling insurance to dead people and 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:13.880 he was pocketing a hefty commission in the process. 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:17.080 So like he probably got to check out to Highlight, 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:18.400 or he may not. 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.680 Someone else who knew Alan, who preferred to remain anonymous, 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:26.360 explain to me how it works. We're using a voice actor, 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:27.600 but these are his words. 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:31.680 You would go to a local cemetery, a Nudge cemetery 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:35.200 or pick a cemetery, and you'd literally write the person's 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:38.880 name down. And back in those days, the insurance companies 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:41.039 would pay like two or three years commission to the 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:44.360 insurance agent for having signed someone on an insurance policy. 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:48.200 So using your own money, you could give a thousand 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:50.400 dollars to the insurance company and they would give you 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.120 three thousand back. So a lot of dead people were 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:55.960 for udulently registered as owners of insurance policies. 0:05:56.600 --> 0:06:01.279 AMP did not respond to requests for comment. While trying 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:03.719 to find out more about Alan and his involvement in 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.400 tombstone scams, I come across an expert who can help. 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:10.040 My name's Clinton Free, and I'm a professor here at 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:11.679 the University of Sydney Business School. 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.000 Professor Free has researched con artists and fraud for a 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:18.080 long time and he's noticed some common and disturbing traits 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:21.760 among offenders. We talk in his office and swap stories 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.320 about some of the interesting characters we've come across through 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:24.880 our work. 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:28.280 I think some really interesting research in this space refers 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:31.520 to something called the dark triad of personality traits, and 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:38.719 those things are narcissism, machiavelianism, and psychopathy. And there's research 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:43.680 which shows that con artists or scammers tend to have 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:47.440 a much more elevated sense of the dark triad personality traits. 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:54.000 And narcissism refers to grandiosity, selfishness, importance of their self image. 0:06:54.200 --> 0:07:00.280 Machiavelianism is that capacity to manipulate and convince others gain 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:04.240 other people's confidence for your own benefits. And psychopathy is 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:08.360 just a lack of empathy, so not being alert or 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:12.120 attendant to other people's plights and being very self oriented 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:15.600 in the way that one thinks. And I think where 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:19.280 we see those sort of personality traits come together, we 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:23.360 see a very effective scammer, a very effective con artist. 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.640 But I think there's a category of white collar offenders 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:31.920 who where there's a lack of empathy for victims, where 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:36.040 there's grandiosity, and when there's a sort of exceptional ability 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:39.440 to manipulate others and gain their confidence and trust, that 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:42.520 is incredibly potent and dangerous in our society. 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:46.520 So you've obviously been doing a lot of work in 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:49.920 white collar crime for many, many years, and you actually 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:53.400 mentioned that you'd heard the name Alan metcalf before through 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:56.080 your work. So could you tell me a bit about that, 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:57.920 because that kind of came as a shock to me, 0:07:57.960 --> 0:07:59.920 But I thought, maybe it's a really small world, or 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:03.280 maybe he's been on some kind of radar for a while. 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:04.400 Yeah. 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:07.440 So, as part of a research project that I was 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.760 working on with a colleague, we had some research assistants 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:16.080 review internet sources for the names of people who had 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:20.080 received either custodical sentences or who'd been the subject of 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:24.160 inquiries or court cases going back several decades, because we 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:26.440 were trying to identify people who we might be able 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:29.480 to speak to. And one of the things we did 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:33.200 come across was Allen's name in Hansart where he'd been 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:38.160 identified as perpetrating a variety of scams, so he was 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:42.560 named publicly. So we had this sort of list which 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:44.760 we whittled down, and what we tried to do was 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:48.360 move from that to talk to people inside prisons. And 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:51.559 obviously Alan wasn't in the latter category, so we never 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.880 went forward there. But he certainly was someone who has 0:08:55.000 --> 0:09:00.640 been known and cited in Parliament as being associated with whitechrime. 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:12.800 Hansard is the official parliamentary record. Following Clinton's lead, I 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:16.160 discovered that Allan's time as a salesman was indeed mentioned 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:20.320 there nearly twenty years later by Queensland MP Jeff Smith, 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:24.840 part of Labour's Townsville branch. He said Allan was recognized 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:28.640 as amp's top salesman by routing the system, but that 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:31.360 the insurer woke up to it after customers didn't pay 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:33.160 their fees when they fell due. 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:37.240 The AMP undoubtedly had grounds for civil and perhaps other action, 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:40.120 but because of its embarrassment and the potential loss of 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:44.520 goodwill due to the inevitable unfavorable publicity, the AMP simply 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.080 cut its losses and its ties with mister metcalf. 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:50.640 That transcript from nineteen eighty five, which a colleague of 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:54.800 mine has read out, is still accessible today. Jeff's scathing 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:57.600 speech to Parliament has helped me piece together what Alan 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:01.240 did next. He didn't leave Mount ol straight away, even 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:02.680 after the Tombstone scandal. 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:05.920 With the advantage of some inside knowledge, he managed to 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:10.120 discover certain license and permit expiry dates, and as Minus 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:12.560 tend to be casual about such matters, he was able 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:15.280 to move in and register certain holdings in his own name. 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:18.480 The original and rightful owners would then be obliged to 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:21.720 negotiate a financial sediment with him to regain possession. 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.600 Jeff liken this to a modern day version of claim jumping, 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:28.280 something where people would take plots of land during the 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:32.439 gold Rush. It would be in today's terms like stealing 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:35.240 a domain name off the Internet as it expires and 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:38.120 then holding it to ransom. But that wasn't all. 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:41.760 He was coorforded and then a strong self promoter, and 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:44.559 he told himself very. 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:48.680 Well, that's Murray Byrd, an expert on the history of AFL. 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:51.440 When he was writing a book on it a decade ago, 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:54.000 he met Alan to find out more about the early 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.720 days of the sport in regional Queensland, Alan had become 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.760 involved in the mining town's emerging afi else In his 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:04.120 spare time, his sales skills were put to good use 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:08.080 trying against sponsors for the team. Years later, Allan would 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:10.880 set up a website describing his own pass in Mount iSER. 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:14.320 He claimed he was the founder and secretary of the 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:18.959 mount Is Australian Football League and the North Australian Football Championships. 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:21.920 That's simply not true, according to Murray. 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:25.000 Definitely wasn't the faner of the mount Is completely he didn't. No, 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:29.079 he wasn't the fan of the Northern Stroane Football League which. 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:32.600 Was just a really a one off carnival, as he. 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:35.680 Played a part in the promotion of that and the 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:38.400 genesis of the idea of it. But yeah, I could 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:41.440 be so for sure about being the founder. I think 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:44.040 he's stretching in a bit to say he's the founder 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:44.800 of that as well. 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:48.320 Alan worked as a sports journalist. Jeff Smith said that 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:50.640 Alan went on to launch his own paper in Mount 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:52.120 Isa called The Advertiser. 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:55.600 It is sufficient to say that the paper closed and 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:59.160 Metcalf left town with the investors in the Advertiser looking 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:01.839 for their money. He then moved on to Townsville. 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.800 Their shift to coastal Queensland happened in nineteen seventy eight. 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:09.120 By then Alan and Mary had their young son, Clayton. 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:13.120 In tow Metcalf went into a publishing business that produced 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:17.679 magazines entitled Rugby League North and Townsville Woman. Both the 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:21.040 ventures eventually folded, with a number of supplies and printing 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:25.319 firms still being owed substantial sums of money. Metcalf's projects 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:28.720 are widely different, and they bear little relationship to each other. 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.760 I am sure that the whole thing is suspect. 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:36.120 Jeff Smith, who launched this stinging attack on Allen's business 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:40.240 activities in Parliament, is still alive. He's ninety years old. 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:43.160 I knew it was a massive long shot, but I 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.920 really wanted to talk to him. I contacted Labor headquarters 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:48.960 to see if they had any way of getting in touch, 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:51.600 and I even managed to track down a home phone 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:55.560 number for him. 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:58.160 The number you have called is not connected. 0:12:58.720 --> 0:12:59.760 Please check the number. 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:00.800 This be calling again. 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:01.600 Not connected. 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:03.800 To check the number before calling again. 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.040 Looking for another lead to help me understand who Alan was. 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.600 Something caught my eye in his speech. Jeff said that 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:15.800 another politician had mentioned Alan metcalf in Parliament before him. 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:17.920 So I went to the library and dug through the 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:22.080 archives and what I found next honestly gobsmacked me. It 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.520 was blinking at me in black and white from the screen. 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:28.000 Quite frankly, mister Metcalfe is one of the greatest convent 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:29.840 to have resided in North Queensland. 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:32.920 That was a voice actor reading out the nineteen eighty 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:37.640 four handsard transcript of Kenneth Mechlagott, another labor politician from 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:40.560 Townsville who went on to become the Queensland Health Minister. 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:45.040 I'm very concerned about mister Metcalf's record in business, very 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:47.920 concerned about this is one of the greatest conments. 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:49.960 As well as Alan's track record of scamming at AMP 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:53.800 and his failures in the publishing world. Kenneth also plugged 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:57.560 another hole for me about Alan's early years. Alan had 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:01.760 attempted a political career with the Nationals, an Australian political 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:06.440 party known to represent farmers and other regional voters. I 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.760 wanted to talk to Kenneth Mcalligott, but unfortunately he passed 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:13.000 away in twenty twenty one. There was one thing I 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:15.800 could easily fact check to see who was lying, Kenneth 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:17.880 or Allen. Kenneth claims that. 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:20.640 Allan stood for election in the seat of Townsville South 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:23.240 in nineteen eighty and made no impression on the vote 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:26.120 of the sitting member, mister Alex Wilson, But. 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:29.400 On Allan's own profile, he claims he was narrowly beaten 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:33.600 in this election. I find the election results. Now it's 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:34.880 time to bring in an. 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.960 Expert testing one two three. 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:42.400 My name is Jessica Wang and I work at NCA Newswire, so. 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:44.880 We used to work together. Jess is a good friend 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.040 of mine. She's a great journo. And can you tell 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:49.960 me a bit about what you do at NCI newswiy 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:51.560 So what do you specialize in there? 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:55.480 I cover state politics for New South Wales. I'm sort 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.040 of a cross You're across the other states as well, 0:14:58.240 --> 0:14:59.360 just as part of the job. 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:03.760 That we're looking into. So Alan Metcalf, he's this colorful 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.720 character from Queensland. I'd be looking to him for about 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:10.800 a year now, and he was actually running in an 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:16.120 election campaign in the seat of Townsville in nineteen eighty. 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:18.480 So he says on his profile that he lost by 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:20.800 a tiny margin in the seat of Townsville. You know, 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:23.560 it was like a hare's length that he lost by. 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:28.760 But another politician who spoke in parliament about it said 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:32.280 that Alan lost by landslide. He lost by a country mile. 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:34.920 So I don't want to put any pressure on you, jests, 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:38.480 but in some ways the whole podcast could hinge on you, 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:41.680 because this is the moment where I can realize if 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.560 Allan is a bit of a truth teller or not 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:47.680 so much. So I might just show you the results 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:49.160 of the election, and I just want you to tell 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:52.640 me straight away what your first thoughts are. Analyze it 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:55.000 as a political journalist. So you're looking at the document 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:55.680 right now. 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.440 Did Alan Metcalf lose by a huge amount or by 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:01.560 a tiny as he claims. 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.000 Well, looking at what I have here, he only got 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.920 twenty five point five percent of the votes, whereas the 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:11.720 winning candidate, Alex Wilson from Labor, he got forty eight 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:14.440 point nine percent with the votes, so you can tell 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:17.480 that he wasn't even close to winning from a numbers 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:20.440 point of view. So the candidate who won got six 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.920 six hundred and sixty seven votes, whereas Ala Metcalf got 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.200 three four hundred and eighty one. If you'd look at 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:30.840 the two party preferred vote, Ala Metcalf was on forty 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:33.680 two point four percent and Alex Wilson got fifty seven 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.200 point six percent, you couldn't even say that he turned 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:38.920 the seat. He sort of helped the National sort of 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:42.560 clawback more ground in the seat because Labor won with 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:44.640 the swing of six point six percent. That means that 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:47.400 Labor essentially got six point six percent more of the 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:52.400 votes so than before in that essentially increased their ground 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:55.600 by six point six percent in the area. But yeah, absolutely, 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:57.080 he wasn't anywhere close to winning. 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.680 Speaking in Parliament, Kenneth also added this as a final 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:04.479 comment on Allan's political career. 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:07.439 I am aware of a strong rumor that circulated in 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:10.439 Townsville to the effect that mister Metcalf owed the National 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:13.879 Party seventeen thousand dollars as a result of that campaign. 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:17.640 I place credence on the veracity of that rumor, because, 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:21.920 as honorable members will recall, that campaign was a very 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:25.679 expensive one to be candid. Allan Metcalf could not have 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:26.399 paid for it. 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:29.480 The National Party wouldn't give me a comment on any 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:35.040 of this. The political chapter of his life behind him, 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:38.360 Alan moved on. By now, it was well into the eighties. 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:41.840 Australia's film scene was thriving and would forge some of 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:45.159 the all time greats in its crucible like Puberty Blues 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:48.800 and Crocodile. Dundee and Alan wanted in on the action. 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:53.399 I awak and recollect Metcalfe was going to turn Towns 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.919 Fall into the new Hollywood of Australia. He intended to 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:59.160 make it the film capital of the world. 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.440 This is Bob Bleasdale, an editor who worked with Alan 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.600 on a TV series set in northern Queensland called Big 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:07.520 Fish down Under. 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:09.400 Like I had just slowly. 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:16.960 Fish, This line is fifteen feet long and weighs more than. 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:17.840 A metrical time. 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:19.400 Back. 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:23.119 Is a big game fishing a contested fact with the 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:24.000 biggest game. 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:26.080 Fishing, White Shop. 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:29.920 Alan was the executive producer, so it fell to him 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:31.119 to pull the funding together. 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:36.879 It was the first, the very first fishing videos that 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:40.760 produced out of Australia for their time, the old very 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:44.760 big budget, so it was a amount of money he raised. 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:48.919 I don't know how much it was. I know farmers 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:51.800 were definitely is the main source of revenue on the 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:57.960 Big Fish down Under. Definitely came. Farmers were worthy investors 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:01.800 because they would occasionally throw into one of every now 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:03.960 and then were dropping to the edits week to have 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:06.280 a chat and see that his money was still being 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:07.560 put to good news. 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:10.879 In nineteen eighty the government introduced something known as the 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:14.760 TENBA tax offset. It meant if you invested any money 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:17.520 in the Australian film industry you got a one hundred 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:20.359 and fifty percent tax deduction on all of it. You 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:23.920 also got a fifty percent tax holiday on any profits made. 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:27.560 This might sound boring, but what it meant was money, 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:29.280 lots of it. 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:34.760 It really said film industry going bananas. There was money 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:36.000 coming from every where. 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:41.240 Bob is right. Between nineteen eighty and eighty eight, nearly 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:45.359 a billion dollars was invested in Australia's film industry. Peter 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:48.399 will is a designer who worked with Alan in Townsville 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:52.119 and he saw how Alan convinced people to invest the 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:52.840 film bombs. 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.160 But you know you've written off the attacks for the year. 0:19:56.680 --> 0:19:59.080 Yeah, so you still are. It's still ahead. 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:04.520 To the product. Gay look as a matter where the 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:08.080 film goes well not. It just saved yourself fifty thousand 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:09.200 dollars in tax. 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:13.159 This isn't a great recording, but what Peter's saying is 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:16.640 that Alan's pitch to investors was simple. No matter how 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:19.359 the film performed, they would get a massive tax right off, 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:21.679 so they'd be silly not to give him their money. 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:24.600 I think he took a lot of leeway out of 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:27.159 the generous film brand scheme that was going on at 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:29.080 the time. I think he profited handsomely. 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:32.960 Peter spotted Alan around town driving me a gold plated 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:37.159 nineteen seventy six Fordlando, which he was surprised about because 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:40.560 he knew Alan was a family man. I start looking 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:43.440 into the tax benefit scheme that Alan used to encourage 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:47.080 investors into the movie business. Our newspaper article in the 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:50.359 Australian Financial Review had a withering view on the whole thing. 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:54.159 It's a sad but inevitable observation that some of the 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:57.760 greatest acts of creativity associated with the local film industry 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:03.280 involved no actors, no directors, and certainly no cameras. These 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:06.879 creations came from men in plush city officers whipping up 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:09.720 film projects out of thin air, eagerly adding up their 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:13.359 fees and dreaming up ever more tenuous methods of using 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:16.919 films to raise money. The article also referred to it 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:19.879 as a time on a tax dodge. Peter says he 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:21.440 couldn't agree more and. 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:26.320 There was abused, would abuse people making shit movies and 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:28.200 they were never released or just bomb. 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:32.200 Alan went on to try to make thirteen more films, 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:36.040 The Kalkadoons and The Crocodile Man feature among them, but 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:39.520 it's unclear if they ever got off the ground. Looking back, 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:41.720 Peter has some choice words about Alan. 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:44.960 He was a shyster so used cars Hausman but the 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:48.199 swagger of one. But he was organizing investors, but I 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:49.840 think a lot of money disappeared. 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:53.240 Another person I spoke to worked with Alan on the 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:56.160 Big Fish Down Under series but wanted to remain anonymous, 0:21:56.520 --> 0:21:57.639 so we'll call him Liam. 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:00.400 He was a mix of Trump, God and Musk, an 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:01.480 incredible networker. 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:04.480 Liam says Alan had a big falling out with a 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:07.920