The government should not be setting up witch-hunts at the behest of the USA to pursue Mr Assange of WikiLeaks, Adrian Rumsey says. Instead, it should be ensuring the freedom of speech of Australians, and working to enhance all our civil liberties.
Why WikiLeaks has my sympathy
By Adrian Rumsey
I am very supportive of WikiLeaks, based on present knowledge. I hate all this government, spook and police secrecy, based on personal experience.
It seems to me that if governments have secrets or sensitive information – which I believe should be restricted to military operations and Cabinet processes – then it is up to them to employ servants who will keep their secrets. If those secrets are leaked to an organisation such as WikiLeaks, then I am all for them being published.
Some 13 years ago (1997), my house was raided based on an anonymous phone call to Crimestoppers. The whole house and everything private was searched and my electronic media taken away and returned two months later…with no apology, no charges and no adverse comments. The caller had falsely claimed I had child pornography.
Yet when I tried to bring my wife and her five-year-old daughter here from overseas in 2004, the visa for the daughter was refused. I appealed and the tribunal did not even bother holding a hearing – they granted my appeal. Processing then started afresh by Immigration and eight months later my family arrived.
Last year I adopted my new daughter without any problem and began to think things were behind me. However every time I go for a police clearance it is delayed by months. My police record is two speeding convictions in the 1980s, noting that the ACT did not have an on-the-spot system at the time and so speeding matters were court prosecutions.
In mid-2010, I gained employment as a carer for the aged at one facility. I commenced work and worked for three weeks but was then suspended pending the police clearance, which was delayed as usual. This cost me a $1,000 per fortnight in income and I quit in disgust. This happened despite a statutory declaration from me stating that there were no charges pending and my having a February 2010-issued police clearance to work with the aged at another village in a nearby suburb.
I support the idea of police checks for people working with these vulnerable people but surely police can distinguish those convicted of offences from a person who has never even been charged?
If I sound bitter about this then I am…and I continue to be appalled at the state of justice in Australia. The government’s willingness to hound Wikileaks and its Mr Assange is merely a public demonstration of what privately many other Australians go through because the government and its agencies think they have a right to intrude into everyone’s life, when their role should be to stay out of people’s way, encourage freedom of expression, and expand our civil liberties.
My experience is germane to our concerns with secret reports and fairness…we have a government and its various agencies heading in the wrong direction. kowtowing to America when they should be supporting the freedom of speech of Australians.
Capt Adrian L Rumsey, BA CPA (retired),
CLA member,
Weston Creek, ACT