What's the US got that We Don't?
- Jul 7, 2017
- 3 min read
An independent body to keep the bastards honest, that's what!
Don't be mistaken, transparency and open justice are as integral to democracy as voting. Extreme transparency could bring huge benefits. To quote a famous phrase, it has the added potential to "drain the swamp" of corruption.
In America this body is called Judicial Watch - Because no one is above the law. Under Tom Fitton’s directorship, an experienced political analyst, the non-partisan Judicial Watch was named one of Washington’s top ten most effective government watchdog organisations.
Judicial Watch’s Litigation Department and Investigations & Research Department, headed by experienced jurists and and intelligence officers, oversee the legal team's government transparency operations who drive a consistent campaign that makes government secrecy properly accountable under current law.
In Australia, the government can make anything secret it so wishes without providing a valid or lawful reason for doing so. Operating under this unchallenged veil of secrecy, it has gotten away with some of the most indecent acts of cruelty against humans imaginable, including the purchase of transplant body parts from innocent political prisoners of China.
Australia's government has been open to political interference, electoral interference, espionage, unadulterated manipulation of our UN treaties, facilitation of bribery by mining corporations and banks, unchecked environmental devastation, unfettered land-right's abuses and a host of other international crimes that we aren't even aware of yet.
Without a public watchdog, they're free to do what they want, to whom they want, when ever they want and, if any other legislation stands in their way, they're free to change it - all the while keeping it a secret.
What might it look like?
To begin with, our own version of Judicial Watch might swamp the government with FOI requests under the same impunity as parliamentary privilege. They need the ability to publish the good, the bad and the ugly so the public can decide for itself whether particular matters of transparency have been given the regard they deserve.
And, if the government wants to continue on this farcical path of preventing political demonstrations in the name of 'terrorism', then let it be fully transparent so the public can judge for itself if it views (say) knitting nanna's a threat to our national security or not.
We have Media Watch for this very reason - to hold journalists accountable to the public. And it works, media organisations nation wide have been forced to act more honestly and transparently. Yet, we don't hold our elected representatives responsible for the same.
By not providing extreme transparency the government can continue to treat us like morons; because we REALLY don't know what's going on. The longer they play this game, the more Australians think "Perhaps they're right, perhaps we are idiots and can't be trusted".
Screeeeech! Rewind...
What kind of democracy do we have if our own leaders, who represent the citizens of this country, can't even trust the very people it claims to represent? For some reason, our government trusts the Communist Chinese but not it's own people. What the hell is THAT about?
We The People, have ALL become a terrorist threat.
And don't be fooled into thinking if one does nothing wrong one is somehow safe. That is not the case at all! One might be innocently listening to alternative music, or posting a social media comment on environmental concerns and BAM! Off to the anti-extremism interrogation camp for you!
As High Court Justice Gleeson keeps warning us: we are being robbed of our democratic right to political speech BY STEALTH. Are we going to just sit back in our armchairs and let it happen simply because we can't be bothered eating our vegetables?
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