Classified Cabinet Docs Leak Down Under Via An Actual Cabinet Sale... Just As Aussies Try To Outlaw Leaking
from the what-a-world dept
Back in December, we reported on an effort underway in Australia to criminalize both whistleblowers and journalists who publish classified documents with up to 20 years in prison. 20 years, by the way, is also the amount of time that Cabinet documents are supposed to be kept classified in Australia. But just recently Australia's ABC news suddenly started breaking a bunch of news that appeared to come from access to Cabinet documents that were still supposed to be classified. This included stories around ending welfare benefits for anyone under 30 years old as well as delaying background checks on refugees. Some explosive stuff.
On Wednsday, ABC finally revealed where all this stuff came from. It wasn't an Australian Ed Snowden. It was... government incompetence. Apparently, someone bought an old filing cabinet from a store that sells second-hand government office furniture. The cabinet had no key, so he drilled the lock and... found a ton of Cabinet documents in an actual cabinet.
So... if that law were to go through in Australia... would that mean the government employee who didn't check the filing cabinet would get 20 years in jail? Or the store that sold out? Or the guy that drilled it? Or do all of them get 20 years? Why don't we just support whistleblowers and the press for reporting on important news that the public should know about?
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Filed Under: australia, cabinet, classified information, leaks, reporting, security, whistleblowing
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Honesty
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Re: Honesty
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AND this is WHY needs criminalized, to make secretaries more careful of leaving secrets around.
as if were already ordering the grinders to start
producing Google's Soylent Rainbow. By your notion,
NO study or consideration could ever be given to
new ideas, as some part of population will always
benefit or suffer.
And of course you go off on usual fantasy that
prosecutors won't at all apply common sense.
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Re: AND this is WHY needs criminalized, to make secretaries more careful of leaving secrets around.
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Re: AND this is WHY needs criminalized, to make secretaries more careful of leaving secrets around.
prosecutors won't at all apply common sense."
Except there is court doctrine defining vindictive prosecution. Why would that even be needed if all prosecutors applied common sense.
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Re: Re: Honesty
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Re: Re: Re: Honesty
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Re: AND this is WHY needs criminalized, to make secretaries more careful of leaving secrets around.
I would insult you, but your post is more than insulting for the both of us.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Honesty
B: They aren't human.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Honesty
an excess of exuberance
the new and improved "afraid for my life"
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Re: AND this is WHY needs criminalized, to make secretaries more careful of leaving secrets around.
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Or do all of them get 20 years?
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Re:
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Re:
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Re: Re: AND this is WHY needs criminalized, to make secretaries more careful of leaving secrets around.
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I wish someone would drill out the fucking cabinet in Australia, incompetent, self-serving corrupt loonies the lot of em.
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Does Australia have a similar concept to "no ex post facto laws"?
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Re: Honesty
Humans are fallible, that's the way it is. No one is perfect.
A well run system of checks and balances might work if it is allowed to function.
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Re: Re: AND this is WHY needs criminalized, to make secretaries more careful of leaving secrets around.
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I read an article like this and I think, "used to be?"
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Proposed law would make the problem worse in this case
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