Comments on: Labor staffers quizzed on sex | The Daily Telegraph

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:49:43 +0000

Well, if it’s security assessments for staffers of cabinet ministers, my understanding is that falls under ASIO’s umbrella. Only ASIO officers would have access to the raw interviews — though presumably in The Age of the Continual War on Abstract Nouns there’s some sort of intelligence-sharing arrangement with other agencies. Given how jealously they guard each other’s turf, I assume that’s in the form of processed reports, not raw intel.

By: juzzy

juzzy — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:35:30 +0000

I agree Stil, it’s a bit of News Ltd shock jock article. However i would like to know who collects the information and who has access to the information.

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:39:52 +0000

This is a non-story. Asking about extra-marital affairs, homosexual experiences (and many, many other things) is standard security vetting procedure — and it rightly should be as long as there’s a section of society which frowns upon such things.

(Whether people should so frown is another issue, of course.)

Security vetting isn’t about finding out whether someone is gay or whatever. It’s about finding out whether someone has “secrets” in their life which could later be used to blackmail them into revealing classified material. It’s about finding out whether they’re honest. We’re all for honesty, yeah?

The security services don’t care if, say, someone isn’t monogamous — as long as it can’t be used against them.

By: cal_t

cal_t — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:13:52 +0000

thats crap
yay for being a greenie