E-Crime Police Raid Melbourne Newspaper 52
beaverdownunder writes "Police from the 'E-Crime Squad' have raided The Age's offices in Melbourne today, executing a warrant in relation to an investigation following allegations of illegal access to the ALP (Australian Labor Party) database. 'Victoria Police E-Crime Squad is investigating the allegation personal details of Victorians were electronically accessed by a media outlet via a confidential political party database without authorization,' a police spokeswoman said. Last November, The Age revealed the Labor Party held the personal details of thousands of Victorians — including sensitive health and financial information — in a database that was accessed by campaign workers before the Victoria state election."
Cops turn a blind eye to public service corruption (Score:5, Interesting)
This is hilarious. There have been many reports of hundreds of cases of corruption in the Commonwealth Public Service which the AFP has refused to investigate.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/public-service-keeps-fraud-cases-private-20110923-1kpdr.html
http://www.smh.com.au/national/corruption-claims-dog-foreign-bureaucrats-20110923-1kpc7.html
http://www.smh.com.au/national/federal-agencies-lack-firepower-to-deal-with-fraud-20111003-1l5dt.html
A guy reported corruption in the reserve bank but the AFP wouldn't investigate until he went on TV and forced them. Even now the Reserve Bank is being dragged to an investigation kicking and screaming.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/reserve-officials-in-evidence-coverup-20111004-1l7dr.html
http://www.theage.com.au/national/fresh-corruption-claims-rattle-rba-20111123-1nv2l.html
http://www.theage.com.au/national/rba-scandal-to-force-bribery-law-change-20110702-1gw9t.html
But the Labor Party has a leak and suddenly the cops are raiding the newspapers. What a joke!
Re:Witchhunt (Score:4, Interesting)
The Age is friendly to the government*. Maybe they aren't friendly to the police.
(The Age and other Fairfax papers are generally considered to be friendly to the ALP and the Greens. The ALP is currently in power federally. At the time The Age published the story, the ALP was also in power in Victoria, though they were recently replaced there by the Liberals. The story was about the state ALP database, though it is widely acknowledged that the Libs also use a database system to collate information they gather from correspondence and surveys.)
Re:Witchhunt (Score:4, Interesting)
The age is generally considered to be unfriendly by whichever party is in power although the general perception is that they tip the scales a little towards the ALP (Labour Party)
However, the Liberal (read Conservative) Party is in power in the state of Victoria, so even by your logic, even though they are 'Friendly' to the Federal Government, They are considered 'unfriendly' to the state government.
as someone once said, "The best laid plans of mice and men are filed away around here somewhere......"
Injuction made (Score:5, Interesting)
The latest is that The Age has prevented the police from taking the computers through legal injunction [theage.com.au]. Nice to see that occasionally this kind of madness can be stopped sometimes.