Yes, Ian, perhaps you are right, I did jump the gun with my "black and white" comment. Unfortunately there have been some instances of people insisting that an event was tainted in their eyes due to the spectre of improprietry. I therefore tend to avoid those situations, and encourage others to do the same. However, you can certainly see in this thread where those who did not avoid that situation were involved in a bit of a problem. Wouldn't it have been wiser to stay as neutral as possible? Perhaps some might have a problem with that, but I'm sure that the head judge, or TO could have taken care of the situation with the available info and help at hand ...... if they would have had it on hand. I won't pretend to tell you I'm a smart guy. In fact, I know for sure there are guys who are way smarter than me - and that applies to 99% of the population. Of the 1% who I don't figure are smarter than me, they probably are smarter than me in some other area, that I may not care about! However - I'm sure I have the confidence to handle just about any situation in pokemon judging, if I have the right info from the players, and the right guidelines to use to my advantage. Now if I can be that confident, and I'm not the smartest guy on the planet, others can too. If your personal situation is such that you have been asked for info (just to be clear on this, I have been asked too when I wasn't a judge), you as a NON-judge have to weigh the consequences very carefully. Sure, if you feel you can answer the question, then do so, but don't pretend that your answer won't have consequences - as this thread clearly proves.
As for the Australia thing is concerned, I don't think the thread is an Austalian beef. This could be a situation covered in any country. If you feel slighted by it due to a personal experience, well, perhaps there's nothing we can do about that, but the answers are the same if the event considered was played in Australia, Antarctica, or America. Don't feel bad. We're all in the same boat in this.