by Dee McLachlan
As I have noted previously, there is already a law to provide that a journalist can be jailed for years, for “recklessly” disclosing “a special intelligence operation” — even if that operation might be deemed by the Australian people to be treasonous.
And now there is new legislation. I have only skimmed the lengthy bill and will write more later in the week, but here is my initial reaction.
Potential Excellence
On Thursday night, legislation was rushed through Parliament (June 28, 2018). It’s supposedly about restricting foreign political influence and people looking to “disrupt Australia’s democracy.” My first thought was – Excellent! Maybe there is something in the law that can be used against the Canberra gang.
Past and present Australian politicians seem to have been frequently infected by foreign political influence and interference (especially by the US). They influenced us to join a war in Afghanistan and Iraq in which over 40 Australian soldiers died.
And think back to politicians like Trade Minister Andrew Robb encouraging the sale of the Port of Darwin, and then taking a $800,000 annual salary from the Chinese company (backed by Beijing) for consulting on nothing.
Plus, we know that almost all recent prime ministers have paid their respects to Rupert Murdoch by meeting with him in New York. Is he a foreign influence? Where do his loyalties lie?
I repeat: the new law aims to deal with those who would “disrupt Australia’s democracy.”
National Security?
Reportedly, it was thanks to our intelligence chiefs that we got the warning about a need for the new law. They showed that “foreign countries are trying to access classified information about Australia’s global alliances and military, as well as economic and energy systems.”
(You would think it is the basic job of the foreign nations to do that, wouldn’t you?)
Attorney-General Christian Porter said, as quoted in the SMH:
“This sends a strong message, to those who would seek to undermine our way of life, that Australia is acutely aware of activities against our national security and will continue to take the steps necessary to thwart their activities.”
Question: Can you trust the Australia’s intelligence chiefs when they refuse to acknowledge what really happened on 11 September, 2001?
Spy Charges
What else happened on Thursday June the 28th? Attorney-General Christian Porter signed off on spy charges over a 2004 bugging case, and has approved the laying of criminal charges that could put a former spy and his lawyer behind bars. Why? For exposing Australia’s bugging of East Timor during contentious oil and gas negotiations.
This was reported in the SMH about former officer of spy agency ASIS known only as Witness K and a lawyer previously contracted to the agency, Bernard Collaery:
“Both men have been charged with telling the East Timor government about the bugging operation in 2004, in which surveillance devices were placed in the tiny country’s ministerial offices. This was allegedly done to gather intelligence… about how revenues would be split…
“Mr Collaery, a former ACT attorney-general, is also charged with revealing details of the operation in a series of media interviews… “
The message: don’t expose what Australia or its proxy corporations are doing, even if they are doing something wrong or illegal.
Backfire?
But maybe this legislation will be a case of Canberra shooting itself in its collective foot. I am indeed hoping that the recent law will be used against those not acting on behalf of the Australian people.
Note: both major parties voted in favour of this new National Security package. The Greens railed against it. They claim it curtails press freedom. Greens senator Nick McKim told Parliament on Thursday,
“This is a sad day for Australia. We’ve taken giant steps today down a dangerous path for our country… You don’t protect democracy by smothering it.“
McKim said we are becoming a totalitarian police state (I thought we were already):
As I have often stated, I lived in South Africa when it was a police state (1950s to 1980s). It is clear to me that the best way to silence a population was with laws. Laws carefully managed “non-free” speech, and people were jailed for just being critical of the government.
After all, they broke the law.
The assistant editor of GumshoeNews, Mary Maxwell, has just pointed out to me that laws don’t have retroactivity, so this “Don’t Hurt Our National Security” thing won’t be usable against Andrew Robb for “selling Port Darwin” or George Brandis for playing the Bella Vista game (remember that one?). The law of treason was in effect well before those events…
I have great difficulty in trusting the politicians in Canberra when they continue to protect the lies of the many false flags that have eroded “democracy.” So what about the Australian people locking the gates on the new fence at parliament house — and allowing out only those politicians who can prove they are NOT colluding with a foreign principal.
More to come on this Bill, which was passed by both houses of Parliament — as it has some tricky new definition of espionage. Stay tuned!
UPDATE:
AG Christian Porter has opened a can of worms. The sorry saga of past actions against East Timor was almost forgotten. But in the last few days, the government has once again revealed its true colours. On the very same day as passing laws to criminalize “foreign influence”, they reveal their actions in 2004, manipulating ASIS to behave like outlaws.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie has blasted the government, and Mr Collaery said:
“It’s a sad moment in the history of a country I love and I have served… One thing I want to make abundantly clear: Witness K was not a whistleblower. He went with his complaint to the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, received approval and I received approval to act.”
In a Gumshoe article published about Alexander Downer, we reported:
“It was Woodside Petroleum that wanted to exploit the field, and ASIS (Australian Secret Intelligence Service) was used to spy on the East Timorese to gain a commercial advantage. It was only when a former ASIS operative learned that Mr Downer had become an adviser to Woodside Petroleum (after retiring from politics), that he decided to blow the whistle.” [complaint]
“…[a] former ASIS operator decided to blow the whistle [complain] after learning Mr Downer had become an adviser to Woodside Petroleum… Mr Downer says the allegations are old and he will not comment on matters regarding national security.”
Now we know what ‘national security’ means.
Downer advises for Woodside; Robb consults for Landbridge Group. There is a long list. (Maybe good people at ASIO are sick of seeing the political class moving into “advisory” capacities with bloated paychecks for big corporates and foreign government affiliated businesses.)
“Attorney-General Christian Porter signed off on spy charges over a 2004 bugging case, and has approved the laying of criminal charges that could put a former spy and his lawyer behind bars…”
A case from 2004 coming to be prosecuted in 2018?
And why on the day of the new legislation?
There has been no more treason against Australia and the Australian population in recent years than that of Canberra politicians and their public servants. From 1967 to 2014 there has been treason activated from Canberra on several occasions.
More damage in these actions than any foreign identity could get away with, using the laws at those times, was done to this great country. We at Gumshoenews.com know of these acts of treason but unfortunately most of Australia’s population is still asleep.
This new legislation will do nothing to curb the real security threats to Australia. In fact it will make it easier for the perpetrators to get away with their evil actions.
Dee, I like the sign on the fence. However there does not seem to be any correction being implemented. In fact the behaviour seems to be getting worse.
Does this new legislation mean that the foreign interference in our country by the US and UK is a thing of the past? The end of political interference and security interference by CIA, MI5, MI6 and Mossad, I don’t think so.
Persons at their Parliamentary workstations would be well advised to keep a couple of changes-of-clothing in their desk, in case the gate really does shut.
And maybe a year’s supply of lipstick.
[quote]Attorney-General Christian Porter said, as quoted in the SMH:
“This sends a strong message, to those who would seek to undermine our way of life, that Australia is acutely aware of activities against our national security and will continue to take the steps necessary to thwart their activities.” [/quote]
Ah yes! Mr Porter! claims to be the beloved representative of “my” electorate of Pearce in W.A.! I suggest that what he is selling as “our way of life” means the “way of life” of the supranational secretocracy that cares nothing for the commonwealth of Australian citizens and their National Sovereignty.
While all the “debate” about trying to limit the predatory powers of banks and their subsidiaries is going on in Federal Parliament the best he can offer is a smokescreen disguised as a lollypop on a stick with strings attached called “tax relief” that wouldn’t even buy two tyres for a family vehicle; and there’s a “critical” swimming pool for Toodyay.
A “homeless” meth addict could come up with a better sales-pitch than that for less than a hundredth of Porter’s pay.
Of course, “new security legislation” will be designed to allow all sorts of criminal and traitorous activities to be “classified” as “National Security” issues to further protect the operatives of the ‘Masonic Globalist and “Five Eyes” network. Let’s ask Fiona Barnett what she thinks about it.
“the best he can offer is a smokescreen disguised as a lollypop on a stick with strings attached called “tax relief” that wouldn’t even buy two tyres for a family vehicle; and there’s a “critical” swimming pool for Toodyay.”
OlDavid, I have seen some mixed metaphors in my day, but really…
Still I agree with you about Fiona.
Yair! I’m not good at political speeches, eh?
Called a lollypull.
[quote] OlDavid, I have seen some mixed metaphors in my day, but really…[/quote]
Not metaphors, MM; clipped quotes from his idiotic sales-pitches.
In regard to Harry Holt. SLIGHTLY OFF TOPIC, BUT ALSO ON TOPIC.
Under the article about Brice Taylor’s son and Henry Kissinger, Mal Hughes made a comment inviting us to look at a website about Harry Holt. I did not look at it then, but I have now.
I asked Mal in the comment to please provide the Statutory Declaration made by the ex-Navy man GARY SIMMONDS who says he transferred Holt’s body to deep sea. Someone other than Mal has now submitted it to Gumshoe.
Rather than post it here, I now repeat the link Mal gave us. It contains the stat dc and many other bits.
Personally I have no background in the Holt death, other than to be skeptical.
https://harold-holt.net/Page08.htm
At 4 minutes, see Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos attending Holt’s funeral, and a bit later, Pres Lyndon Baines Johnson wearing a TOP HAT.
Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.
PROVERBS 26:27
The flag pole at the gated community in Canberra hangs in the air. It does not touch the ground. Generally, if someone wants to claim something, like say a mining tenement or even a continent, they have to hammer their claim into the ground signifying by divine providence yada yada. So does an ungrounded flagpole mean Canberra has no authority over this continent and its inhabitants or that it reports elsewhere. It would be great if it’s the former because all we would have to do to fix the matter is hammer our flag into the ground then kick those inside, out. But if it’s the latter, and not an oversight, where does that place us. And why in God’s name would we vote. Talk about a waste of time.
For a couple of decades , I’ve had a feeling the ballot boxes are not even opened but thrown into the recycling bins. I hope this feeling is wrong. But how can they possibly count all the votes and know the results in three or four hours.
Guess with Internet voting all will change for the better NOT.
Until we expose and prohibit freemasonry and debt slavery we are imho in sewage.
“no authority over this continent and its inhabitants or that it reports elsewhere”
Aren’t the two issues simply the two sides of the same coin? I can’t really see how one could exist without the other.
Pretty keen observation re the flagpole though; the closer you look the more obvious it becomes that the entire shebang is being held together by a series of bizarre rituals
“Foreign political influence and seeking to disrupt our democracy”? That raises a number of questions. There is a curious lack of discussion about the multiple paid for trips to Israel by our politicians (in fact exceeding US trips). Is it curiosity about the Holy Land? More likely a (successful) attempt to influence our democracy. How else does one describe the relentless support for the Israeli regime in UN votes.
What exactly is “our democracy”? Is it the system whereby someone with fewer than 100 primary votes gets elected to the Senate? Where the Nationals, with a third of the vote of the Greens, get three times the number of Senators and House reps?
Are we democratic when we endlessly go to fight the US’s imperial wars?
Is it a democracy when such lawlessness (including the bugging of the East Timor cabinet) is unpunished and nary a hint of accountability?
Do we have a democracy when two families control nearly all the print media, and both sing from the same neocon warmongering song sheet?
Are we so conditioned that this legislation, another long step on the path to a Police state, is met with so little public resistance?
There are many other questions, but these make the point. Our so-called democracy is a sham.
“Our so-called democracy is a sham”.
Well put James. It can be the only conclusion to the annual billion dollar farce that is Canberra
These creatures in Canberra are really sick if they can’t see that the treason is within their political parties, public service, judiciary and themselves and not so likely foreign embassies.
This legislation is not so much in what is in it, but the show of upholding the false impression that Canberra is concerned about security of Australia on behalf of their constituents. There is nothing further from the truth. The Intelligence Agencies now have more power and with it will go more taxation dollars to “uphold” these new “laws”.