Greenwash Political Action Party and Urban Grassroots Movement for the Green Party

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Police investigating Greg Sheridan's Scott Parkin leak

You may remember when American peace activist Scott Parkin was deported last year there was intense pressure on Attorney General Philip Ruddock to reveal the reasons for Parkin’s deportation. Mr Ruddock refused all requests, continually stating that for security reasons he couldn’t divulge the details. The ALP was briefed and declined further detailed comment, in contrast to Bob Brown's vigorous pursuit of the issue.

The pressure continued to mount on the Government for deporting someone who looked and sounded very much like a non-violent peace activist with no record of anything remotely related to terrorism. Then, as if on cue, the infamous Greg Sheridan article appeared on page 1 of the Australian on September 22, claiming that Scott was involved in all sorts of dodgy activity.

So how did a right-wing columnist well known for his government sympathies get access to information so security sensitive that even the Attorney General couldn’t tell us about it?

I wrote to the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) about the matter last year asking him to investigate the affair. While IGIS is (or was) conducting an inquiry into the matter overall, he said the specific issue of leaking was a matter for the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and he referred the matter to them for consideration.

I later wrote to the AFP asking if they were going to investigate the matter.

Now the Minister for Federal Police, Chris Ellison, has written back saying an investigation is underway.

So what news from Greg Sheridan? Has he been interviewed by the police? Has he been raided? Speak up Greg, we want to know what is going on.

While the right of journalists to keep their sources confidential is critical, it is also important to know if our top security agencies are leaking in such a way that provides political cover to the Government.

The Scott Parkin affair leaves huge unanswered questions about our security agencies and how politicised they might be. I hope this police inquiry can help start to get to the truth.

posted by Ben Oquist # 12:00 PM 2 comments