The public release of secret intelligence can have a powerful impact on the political environment, as the revelations regarding Sam Dastyari demonstrate.
Labor’s Sam Dastyari has been sacked from his position as deputy Senate whip for his poor judgement.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The Sam Dastyari episode underscores the need for clear-cut rules to prevent those with links to foreign governments from using money to influence the political process.
Sam Dastyari has been forced to resign as Labor’s deputy Senate whip.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The FBI and police officials say they need to decrypt secure communications to fight crime. But they have other options, and modern threats make clear the importance of strong encryption.
The exit of George Brandis would be one less frustration for Peter Dutton.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
It’s ironic, but true, that the man who was lambasted for asserting the right for people to be bigots is at present the strongest voice in the cabinet for the protections of the rule of law.
In the main the public have accepted the world has changed, justifying altering the balance between security and rights. But there is still argument over precisely where lines should be drawn.
The special COAG on national security saw the leaders united on the need to do more.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The states’ handover of driver licence data for a beefed up national facial biometric matching capability would only bring existing arrangements into ‘real time’.
The AFP and state counterparts want longer questioning and detention time between a person being arrested and either charged or released.
Georgie Moore/AAP
Walt Rostow argued communism was incompatible with economic development and was influential in persuading Presidents Kennedy and Johnson to get more involved in Vietnam.
At least 16 people have died, and scores more have been injured, in a terror attack on Barcelona’s Las Ramblas strip.
Reuters
Barcelona 2017, London 2017, Berlin 2016, Nice 2016. In all of these cases the weapon of choice was a vehicle, driven at speed, into crowds innocently going about their daily business. Barcelona is just…
Police raided several Sydney properties over the weekend in relation to possible terror plots.
AAP/Dean Lewins
The government seems hell-bent on pre-crime arrest, prosecution, and punishment for terror offenders – while falling short in providing the necessary long-term support.
The University of Canberra’s Michelle Grattan and Frances Shannon discuss the week in politics.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the minister in charge of the new ‘super-portfolio’, Peter Dutton, announce the changes on Tuesday.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The move to consolidate security agencies under one minister upends generations of conventions on how security intelligence and executive police powers are managed separately.