Spying for Big Coal

Martin Ferguson

Today the Age reported that the Federal government has been spying on Green groups, particularly environmental activists peacefully protesting at coal-fired power stations and coal export facilities. Martin Ferguson, the member for Batman and Minister for Resources and Energy, requested the additional surveillance, prompted by lobbying by the coal energy companies.

These companies are largely foreign-owned. Over the next five years, foreign-owned mining companies will ship some $50 billion per annum offshore in dividends.

Not content with their campaign against a tax on their super profits, these vast corporations are now using their influence to have Australian authorities covertly spy on their political opponents - and they have a ready supporter in Martin Ferguson.

This surveillance of community groups is one-sided: it is not directed at companies who break the law. There is no surveillance of board rooms to find out what other plans they might have to use their resources to alter the political debate in Australia. Nor is it being used to detect breaches of environmental laws by these companies. It is directed against the very community which should be sovereign in a democratic system.

You won't be able to find out if your group or your emails have been spied on. This would be exempted from disclosure under s 37 of the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act. This means that the community will not be able to challenge the use of these covert powers in any specific instance.

The latest news follows revelations in 2008 that police have been infiltrating community groups and spying on them.

Community participation is at the core of democracy. Once we allow our "security" forces to undermine the freedom to participate in public life we are on the slippery slope to a different kind of regime. As Benjamin Franklin put it:

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Today we need the voice of the community like never before: the corporations trying to protect their position are jeopardising the future of humanity - and the Earth itself - with their dig it up and burn it approach, and the community is our last best hope.

The chill effect on community participation where government agencies are spying on participants is well known and makes it so much harder to act against the big carbon economy.

Democratic power requires community participation: it is the very essence of the idea of democracy that all can have a say, that all can seek to lobby, that all can seek to change laws and indeed their representatives.

For Martin Ferguson to be siding with big coal against the future of the planet is not surprising. It is consistent with his dreadful anti-environment record, including recently promoting the sale of uranium to India. And of course he's no stranger to protesters - because they have taken their campaigns right up to him.

Now he's been caught urging the use of covert government power to spy on those who have challenged him - and who have challenged the companies whose interests he has championed.

Spying on community groups is a hallmark of totalitarian regimes. It is an unaccountable use of power which undermines the foundation of democracy itself. Australia should not stand for it.

Melbourne Occupied

Melbourne Occupied

they wore black uniforms

when they came

in frightening numbers

although with all their gloves and helmets

you wondered if there was anyone inside

and then you saw their smiles

as they sprayed their victims

and you knew they were not ghosts

unless it be

they echoed down through time

the dumb force of the dark ages

spectres of proud ignorance

mounted on snorting chargers

incurious churls for whom free thought was a dire threat

and whose subservience to vested power

mocked any who might hope and question

they said they were liberating public space

by beating those who came to mingle there

having told the community to leave they fenced them in

preferring captivity to freedom

twisting ideas as they twisted limbs unnaturally

while dragging citizens across hard tarmac

and as they did their work

the people could not get near

their city square

left stained and shamed

its democratic hope forgone

the witless emperor

gloating from his balcony

drank in the sight of red blood

unaware his withered nakedness 

was seen by jpegs round the world

as he traduced the city over which he lorded

smashing its chance to find its soul

Melbourne!

who has occupied your heart

that you can treat your dreaming young

in this barbaric way?

Make Melbourne Democratic

Melbourne Town Hall

The City of Melbourne provides local government representation for about 90,000 residents. Local government is important and valuable: it makes decisions on issues very close to the community, and has the capacity to be very responsive to the community.

In Melbourne, as the capital city of Victoria, there are also many businesses both small and large, and the Melbourne City Council must also consider their needs.

To have a strong connection between the community and local government, it is important to have the best possible electoral system. The electoral system for the City of Melbourne has several unusual features.

1. It is a postal ballot, so there's only limited information and often no real sense of the amount of community support particular candidates enjoy, and what's more the Victorian Electoral Commission has acknowledged that it does not have the power to check the authenticity of the signature or the date of birth on the envelope containing the ballot paper. Postal ballots are notoriously open to abuse: we should consider a return to attendance polling;

2. Businesses get two votes - even if the owners live outside the country. The nominees of the business do not even have to be shareholders. It's not clear how this weighting can be justified - especially for those without a genuine link to the community: it should be citizens who elect the Council;

3. There are no ward councillors: the whole electorate elects all of the councillors, so no one representative has responsibility for a particular neighbourhood;

4. Despite the size of the municipality, which runs from Kensington to East Melbourne, there are only nine councillors: that's a big workload for each councillor.

5. There are two separate elections - one for the Lord Mayor and Deputy, and another for seven other councillors: a candidate must choose which ballot to contest. That's not a good way to maximize the talent pool for the council. And it also means that only those with a large campaign budget are able to win the Lord Mayoralty;

6. There is a "deeming provision" under which many voters are deemed enrolled even though they have not applied and frequently do not even know they are on the roll;

7. Above-the-line voting is permitted for the councillors, so that voters need only vote for one candidate. A better system would require voters to number the squares for at least the number of positions for election (currently seven).

8. There are no requirements to disclose election funding sources.

For residents, there is no councillor who is dedicated to serving their local needs. With the small number of councillors, it is hard for councillors to respond to all the concerns that are raised.

It is time for a review of the Council. It is the only council which does not automatically have a regular review under the Local Government Act. That review should also reconsider the electoral system, and the effectiveness of local representation.

The Council has itself requested a review on more than one occasion, but has not had a satisfactory response from the State government.

A review is an important opportunity for improvement of our local government system: Melbourne deserves this no less than any other municipality.

External Links

• Councillor Cathy Oke - Greens councillor
• City of Melbourne
• Resident groups

Spying on the People

Just what kind of disguises do the police use?

In October 2008 “the Age” reported that police, just as in the days of the old special branch, are infiltrating community groups and reporting on their activities. This includes groups with no record of violence and a commitment against violence.

One officer from the Security Intelligence Group infiltrated groups such as Animal Liberation Victoria, Stop the War Coalition, Unity for Peace and Socialist Alternative.

The policeman posed as a vegan, left-wing activist, and had close contact with representatives of church and student groups involved in anti-war demonstrations. So successful was his operation that the organising committee for the Palm Sunday peace march in Melbourne appointed him its minute-taker at meetings.

The Palm Sunday event, held each year, has been attended by tens of thousands of Victorians opposed to war. It is organised and endorsed by a variety of groups across the community, including churches, students, unions and doctors.

Police rushed to justify this practice, and the State government also endorsed police infiltration of community groups. Police Minister Bob Cameron said the internal police controls covering the secret activities of the Security Intelligence Group were sufficient. "There is appropriate oversight in place as Deputy Chief Commissioner [now Commissioner] Simon Overland outlined."

It is possible that police spying on community groups gains them some useful information for fighting crime, but this activity plainly undermines the rule of law.

One of the features of democracy is that it encourages community participation. It is only as we have a market place of ideas that we can enrich each other and learn and grow as a society.

Having someone in a community group whose real purpose is to inform on that group has several effects. First, it means that the group is not so focussed on its task as would otherwise be the case. It is inevitably a distraction, because someone is there with an ulterior purpose. Secondly, if and when people find out about the police surveillance, they are discouraged from ever being involved in community activity again. They are left with a legacy of distrust. Why should they exercise their democratic rights if the result is that they will be treated as criminals? The chill effect spreads far beyond the immediate group itself. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, experience has shown again and again that there is a motive for people who inform on such groups to try to radicalise them, and work as agents provocateurs, and even falsify their reports to make their dull spying job seem more significant than it is. Often it is these informers who suggest using violence, or take the lead in anti-social activity.

Of course, all this police activity is completely selective, and one way. You won’t find the police infiltrating boardrooms where decisions are taken against which many community groups campaign.

And this interference with democracy is being done without any independent oversight. No judge issues a warrant. No report has to be given to a parliamentary joint committee. There is no opportunity for the community group to go to court to challenge this invasion of their activities.

What's worse, due to a 2006 amendment - see s 31(3) - to the Freedom of Information Act, you can't find out about what the police have done. Recently I've been asked by a number of community members to get their police files, but have been met with the objection - based on this amendment - that the documents have been created by the Bureau of Criminal Intelligence or the Intelligence and Covert Support Department of the Victoria Police. This covers all documents created in the process of spying on the community.

This spying by the police interferes in legitimate political participation in a way that cannot be justified in a democratic community.

The rule of law doesn’t just mean having laws – even tyrants have laws. The rule of law is a check on the arbitrary exercise of power. A central feature of the rule of law is that it allows the courts to stand between the citizen and the government and determine disputes between them. Courts protect the citizen from arbitrary abuse of power. Where a community group does not even know it is being infiltrated, it cannot call on the courts to help.

We have a choice in governing our society – a choice between some having unbridled power – the rule of the despot, the rule of whim - and a society with clear laws which provide checks to the exercise of power - the rule of law. It is, at heart, the choice between tyranny and democracy.

Police spying on community groups is a key feature of totalitarian regimes. It is an unaccountable exercise of power which fundamentally undermines the rule of law, because it undermines the democracy on which the rule of law is founded.