NBN raids paint us as “Asian democratic backwater”, says Assange

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news The Australian Federal Police’s NBN raids last night on Labor MPs and their staffers must not be tolerated and make Australia look like it has become an “Asian democratic backwater”, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a statement this afternoon.

Late last night AFP officers raided the Melbourne office of former Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, and the house of at least one Labor staffer working for Shadow Communications Minister Jason Clare, in an apparent attempt to ascertain the identity of whistleblowers who have leaked a series of key documents from within the NBN company.

Delimiter and a number of other media outlets have also been reportedly named as part of the search warrant issued last night, although the AFP has not been in contact with Delimiter regarding the issue.

Although the AFP has denied any political influence on the investigation, opposition Leader Bill Shorten subsequently blasted Malcolm Turnbull for what he said was the Prime Minister’s attempts to stop the public from knowing the “truth” about the National Broadband Network, which the Opposition Leader said had become a “national disgrace” under Turnbull’s watch.

In a statement issued this afternoon, WikiLeaks Julian Assange strongly criticised the Australian Federal Police, as well as both major sides of politics for the events last night and the broader media freedom situation in Australia.

“The Australian Federal Police (AFP) raids on the opposition (ALP) cannot be tolerated,” Assange said.

“Raiding a suspected media source for a story embarrassing to the government is bad enough. But to raid the Opposition during a Federal Election campaign in order to hunt down the source of such stories makes Australia look like it has become an Asian democratic backwater.”

Assange said, however, that it was “hard” for him to have much sympathy for what he described as the “hypocritical” Australian Labor Party, because the WikiLeaks founder said the previous Labor Government had created a whole of government task force against him, including the AFP, “in order to ingratiate itself with the US”.”

But the issue is not about ALP or the Government,” said Assange. “It is about the rights of all Australians to know what their government is up to.”

“When the Opposition and the media work together to publicly reveal infrastructure mismanagement, they are doing their jobs and doing it well.”

“When police conduct raids on the Opposition during an election to hunt down media sources, they are not doing their job. They’re stopping all the rest of us from doing ours. It is not the role of policemen to interfere with elections–whether instructed to do so by the Government or not.”

Image credit: Snapperjack, Creative Commons

23 COMMENTS

  1. Good on Assange for weighing in on this so quickly. The more this is talked about the better – I can only hope that this gets cracked wide open and becomes an ongoing topic rather than a 24 hour trend.

    • This, I’ve been pretty peeved that Labor didnt give Assange the support he deserved as an Aussie citizen. I doesnt surprise me that LNP havent but the ALP should be better than this!

    • The last thing Turnbull needs during his election campaign is continuing NBN leaks that expose the lies & wasteful mess he has created in his quest to “Demolish The NBN”

      Having sacked then replaced it’s management with hand picked mates & cronies he now expects us to accept he had no part to play in getting them to plug the leaks by arranging those AFP raids?

      Pull the other one AllBull.

      • The last thing Turnbull needs during his election campaign is continuing NBN leaks that expose the lies & wasteful mess he has created in his quest to “Demolish The NBN”

        He isn’t pitching it to us, he’s pitching it to the same folks that voted Tony in. Just make sure to spread the word so those folks are actually informed this time.

        Having sacked then replaced it’s management with hand picked mates & cronies he now expects us to accept he had no part to play in getting them to plug the leaks by arranging those AFP raids?

        Most folks wont care unless it becomes “an issue”. Thankfully, Malcolm’s raids have made it “an issue”, just need to keep the awareness of that up.

  2. “Raiding a suspected media source for a story embarrassing to the government is bad enough. But to raid the Opposition during a Federal Election campaign in order to hunt down the source of such stories makes Australia look like it has become an Asian democratic backwater.”

    I’m more inclined to them acting like it’s a banana republic, but I fully agree with his sentiment.

    • Of all the news stories I’ve seen on this today, I’m yet to see one that puts the Lib’s in a positive light… Even the Turnbull ones saying “we had nothing to do with it” dont really say anything positive, and are neutral at best.

      Generally though, every story is reading like there was some political motivation, accidental or not, behind this.

        • Malcolm’s story is he missed a call from Michael Keenan who was informed earlier (being the minister the AFP report to). I guess it is plausible, it’s not like Malcolm would be watching his phone for calls from cabinet ministers during an election…

          • No, but what about the past six months that the AFP have been running an investigation, on a request by NBN Co? What, the Communications Minister and the Finance Minister didn’t know the NBN Co were requesting the AFP to investigate the leaks? How is it even possible such a decision didn’t go up to the board? So if they knew, how is it plausible that the PM, the very guy who was the Communications Minister, who personally implemented pretty much everything the NBN Co is doing, who’s political career may hinge on the revelations not just of those leaks, but potential future leaks – indeed, the electability of the whole party may be affected by the fallout from this. So the shareholder Minsters didn’t discuss this with the PM or the rest of the Party at all, not once in the past six months?

            Suuuure they didn’t. Because that’s plausible.

          • I have no problem with the plausibility chain, and I have no problem whatsoever with the AFP pursuing lines of investigation like that.

            I think Andrew Colvin really screwed the pooch when it comes to timing though, the AFP should not be involved in an election like they did.

            If they really want to appear impartial, also investigate the leaks about the subs and immigration (you know….actual national security issues).

  3. Spread this far and wide. We want freedom of knowledge. Can only pray the right winged MSM put this in papers. Both sides of politics are guilty.

    • Newscorp (Murdoch) will no doubt label this as “telling news about the Labor party, and why they should not be in Government”…

  4. Australia became a North Korean fascist state bordering us all in when the Liberals took over thanks to the dumb. The dumb will do anything for you when you promote a faulty network as $1 $1 cheap cheap, same shit you already have, cheap cheap.

    Economic vandals and business killers.

  5. Murdoch and Newscorpse runs this country also. They are still hopelessly trying to defend Foxtel which Telstra is planning on dumping into the trash so an absolute waste.

  6. Wouldn’t it have been easier for the government just to ask Julian, for the info they needed ;)

    • You joke, but it’s not too far from the truth of what Australia has become in light of these recent developments.

      Assange hit the nail on the head. In my view he is a true Aussie, not like the mindless knuckledraggers in Government or the moron mining bogans who vote for them.

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