The Challenges of Exposing Corruption

The question of how to expose corruption or abuse of office within a government has never been a trivial one to answer. This is particularly the case when the tentacles of the government in question extend so deeply into that nation’s media.

The Expendable Project was created to address this with respect to Australia, and to disclose appalling misconduct in the case of Schapelle Corby, a now mentally ill woman enduring her seventh year of twenty in an Indonesian prison, for a crime she patently did not commit.

The emails and cables between government ministers, the Australian Federal Police, and a multitude of other parties, tell their own tale. They reveal the withholding of critical primary evidence, wilful lies, cover up, and a host of other disturbing acts which typically materialize when a government takes the wrong path.

The volume of material is substantial, and it is authentic. The chosen strategy of the project was to release it at 48-72 hour intervals, to enable better public and media consideration of its magnitude. This process commenced from the project website, www.expendable.tv, on 15th September 2011.

CANBERRA’S REACTION
The interest from Canberra, and from those commercial entities involved in the case itself, was immediate. As disclosed from the website logs on 21st September, every major government department was visiting the website multiple times each day.

They are well aware of the significance of the information, of its national importance, and of its fundamental relevance to the concept of public accountability. They are also well aware of how close to home the disclosed abuse actually is.

Australian MP's and civil servants alike, can see acts of calculated malpractice, by the former administration, unfolding before their eyes. They can see political priorities being set; priorities which starkly placed the life of a citizen below that of reputation, vested commercial interests, and international relations.

They can see, for example, serious security issues at Sydney International Airport, involving wide scale criminality, being hidden, at the expense of a citizen, who just happened to pass through the quagmire on the wrong day and at the wrong time.

They can see the story being narrated by the Howard administration's own hands, through the memos, correspondence and government records.

They cannot dispute it, but they can ignore it, and they can seek to suppress it.

SUPPRESSION & INTRUSIVE MONITORING

Regrettably, this appears to be the route they have chosen to take. They are demonstrably aware of the revelations, and their horror is documented within the Expendable website visitor logs. But they have thus far failed to acknowledge the gravity of the revelations, or even their existence.

They are not alone. The Australian media, who are also aware of the disclosures, have maintained a wall of silence. Apparently, newly disclosed government emails and cables, exposing the most disturbing of conduct, doesn't warrant a single column inch in any mainstream Australian publication.

On 22nd September, however, the story took another sinister twist. The Australian Federal Police were caught deploying ripper software against the Expendable.TV website, taking unauthorized copies, intruding behind the public presentation, and simultaneously scanning for security vulnerabilities. The project immediately published the log entries, and informed the FBI in the United States, where the website is hosted.

The Australian government has also refused to respond to this latest disturbing matter, and again, it remains entirely unreported in the Australian media.

PUBLIC INTEREST

The project team intends to continue publishing the information on schedule. With respect to the current Australian government, however, the question becomes: at what point does refusal to acknowledge corruption or misconduct in a previous regime, become complicity?

Refusing to confront wilful acts of malpractice, and political wrongdoing, when the victim is still suffering its consequences, cannot reasonably be viewed as acceptable national governance in a democratic state. A media which purposely fails to report serious misconduct in its government cannot be regarded as a free press.

This is a script being written by Australia itself.

Even sharper focus is provided by the woeful state of the victim. Just a few weeks ago, Schapelle Corby overdosed on 9 days supply of her psychotic medication. Those psychiatrists, who were approached by the project, considered this to be a serious suicide attempt.

Public interest is clear, and it is being betrayed. Australia is facing its own version of Watergate, which has been dubbed SchapelleGate on the internet. Unlike the United States, however, Australia is failing the test.

ENDS

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