Spying, Sorry & Free Speech

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3878650.htm Panellists: Yulia Supadmo, Indonesian Senior Journalist; Josh Frydenberg, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister; Chris Bowen, Shadow Treasurer; Kurt Campbell, Lowy Institute Distinguished International Fellow; Tara Moss, Author; and Julian Burnside, Barrister and Human Rights Advocate. -- Yulia Supadmo Yulia Supadmo is currently the Vice General Manager for News & Current Affairs at Kompas TV Network. In the position, Yulia, co-manages the day-to-day operations of Kompas TV News, supervising editorial as well as technical aspects of the daily news programmes. Prior to joining Kompas TV News, Yulia worked for the news division at Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia (RCTI), culminating her 16 years at RCTI News as News Production Manager in December 2012. Yulia earned an MA in International Communications from Goldsmiths College – University of London, and a BA in International Relations from the University of Indonesia. -- Josh Frydenberg Josh Frydenberg was elected as the Member for Kooyong, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, in the 2010 election. He is the seventh person since Federation to hold this seat that was previously held by such Liberal blue-bloods as Sir Robert Menzies and Andrew Peacock. Widely regarded as a future key player for the Liberal Party, Josh was promoted to the position of Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister after Tony Abbott’s election victory. He is a former senior adviser to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Prime Minister John Howard. Josh attended Bialik College in Hawthorn and completed his secondary schooling at Mt Scopus College in Burwood. He has Law and Economics honours degrees from Monash University, and completed his articles of clerkship at Mallesons Stephen Jacques. He went on to graduate with a Masters in International Relations from Oxford University and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Josh is a keen tennis player and represented Australia at the World University Games in England in 1991 and the United States in 1993. He currently sits on the Board of the Kids Tennis Foundation which provides coaching to disadvantaged kids. Josh and his wife, Amie, live in Hawthorn. -- Chris Bowen Chris Bowen emerged from the recent turmoil engulfing the Labor Party – including the leadership drama and the election loss – with his status as a senior Labor identity confirmed and enhanced. After Kevin Rudd’s victory over Julia Gillard for the leadership, in which he played a significant role agitating for change at the top, he was made Treasurer – the second most demanding job in politics. Following Labor’s defeat he held the fort as Acting Opposition Leader while the party ballot to elect a leader took place. Now he is shadow treasurer, a role that puts him at the forefront of the political contest. Since entering Parliament in 2004 as the member for Prospect (now McMahon after a redistribution) in the western suburbs of Sydney, Chris has risen rapidly through the ranks of the ALP. He became a minister after just three years as an MP and has held several senior portfolios, including Human Services and Immigration. Chris was born in the western suburbs in 1973 and attended local schools before going to the University of Sydney, where he gained a Bachelor of Economics degree. He joined the ALP at 15 and worked for State and federal politicians, and for the Finance Sector Union, before entering Parliament. He also spent many years on the Fairfield Council and was mayor at the age of 25. Chris is married to Bec and they have two children, Grace and Max. -- Kurt Campbell Dr Kurt Campbell is the inaugural Lowy Institute Distinguished International Fellow. A former US diplomat, Dr Campbell most recently served as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, where he was a key architect of the ‘rebalance to Asia’ strategy. He is Chairman and CEO of The Asia Group, LLC, a strategic advisory and investment group specialising in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2007 Dr Campbell co-founded the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a Washington DC think tank. He remains Co-Chair of the Board of Directors at CNAS. Dr Campbell has co-authored many books, including Difficult Transitions: Why Presidents Fail in Foreign Policy at the Outset of Power (with Jim Steinberg), To Prevail: An American Strategy for the Campaign against Terrorism (with Michele Flournoy), Hard Power: The New Politics of National Security (with Michael O’Hanlon) and The Power of Balance: America in Asia (with Nirav Patel). He is currently writing a book entitled The Pivot, about his experiences working on Asia-Pacific policy in the Obama administration. -- Tara Moss Tara Moss is a novelist, TV presenter and journalist. Since 1999 she has written and published nine bestselling novels – Fetish, Split, Covet, Hit, Siren,Assassin, The Blood Countess, The Spider Goddess and The Skeleton Key, and been published in 18 countries in 12 languages. Her writing has appeared in Australian Literary Review, The Sydney Morning Herald News Review, The Age, The Daily Telegraph, The Australian and more. She has earned her private investigator credentials (Cert III) from the Australian Security Academy and is currently undertaking a Doctorate of Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. Tara is an outspoken advocate for the rights of women and children. She has been an ambassador for the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children since 2000 and has hosted their annual charity flight for over a decade. She has also been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2007 and UNICEF Patron for Breastfeeding for the Baby Friendly Heath Initiative (BFHI) since 2011, advocating for better support for breastfeeding mothers in hospital, the workforce and general community. As of 2013, she has taken on a larger role as UNICEF’s National Ambassador for Child Survival. Her in-depth novel research has seen her earn her private investigator credentials, tour the FBI Academy at Quantico, spend time in squad cars, morgues, prisons, the Hare Psychopathy Lab, the Supreme Court and criminology conferences, take polygraph tests, shoot weapons, conduct surveillance, pass the Firearms Training Simulator (FATSII) with the LAPD, pull 4.2 G’s doing loops over the Sydney Opera House flying with the RAAF, and acquire her CAMS race driver licence. She has hosted the true crime documentary series Tough Nuts – Australia’s Hardest Criminals on the Crime & Investigation Network, Tara Moss Investigates on the National Geographic Channel and the author interview show Tara in Conversation on 13th Street Universal. Tara is a dual Australian/Canadian citizen and has lived in Australia since 1996. She is married to philosopher and writer Dr. Berndt Sellheim, with whom she has a daughter. She was listed as one of the 20 Most Influential Female Voices in Australia in 2012 by The Sydney Morning Herald’s DailyLife, and one of Australia’s Most Inspiring Women by Women’s Health magazine in 2013. In mid 2014 her first non-fiction book, The Fictional Woman, will be published with HarperCollins. -- Julian Burnside Julian Burnside is a barrister based in Melbourne. He specialises in commercial litigation. He joined the Bar in 1976 and took silk in 1989. He acted for the Ok Tedi natives against BHP, for Alan Bond in fraud trials, for Rose Porteous in numerous actions against Gina Rinehart, and for the Maritime Union of Australia in the 1998 waterfront dispute against Patrick Stevedores. He was Senior Counsel assisting the Australian Broadcasting Authority in the ‘Cash for Comment’ inquiry and was senior counsel for Liberty Victoria in the Tampa litigation. He is a former President of Liberty Victoria, and has acted pro bono in many human rights cases, in particular concerning the treatment of refugees. He is passionately involved in the arts. He collects contemporary paintings and sculptures and regularly commissions music. He is Chair of Fortyfive Downstairs, a not for profit arts and performance venue in Flinders Lane, Melbourne, and Chair of Chamber Music Australia. He is the author of a book of essays on language and etymology, Wordwatching (Scribe, 2004) and Watching Brief (Scribe, 2007), a collection of his essays and speeches about the justice system and human rights. He compiled a book of letters written by asylum seekers held in Australia’s detention camps. The book, From Nothing to Zero, was published in 2003 by Lonely Planet. He also wrote Matilda and the Dragon, a children’s book published by Allen & Unwin in 1991. In 2004 he was elected as a Living National Treasure. In 2009 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia. He is married to artist Kate Durham. ---- Audience: ALP 35%, Coalition 46%, Greens 10%, Other 3%, Not Specified 7% INDONESIA SPYING Cepheus Yap asked: Do you think the current response from the Indonesian government is a chest beating exercise in preparation for the upcoming Indonesian presidential election or is it a start to a long-term decline in Australia-Indonesia relations? INDONESIA SPYING - FOLLOW UP QUESTION Cepheus Yap then asked: If Mr Josh Frydenberg thinks the relationship with Indonesia is that important, why doesn’t the PM apoliogise? It didn’t happen on his watch and he could guarantee that it will not happen again. Isn’t that a good reason to placate SBY? INDONESIA SPYING: ILLEGAL Maeve Curry asked: Geoffrey Robertson QC has pointed out that Australia's mobile phone-hacking of 10 top Indonesians was not only unacceptable, unethical and downright stupid, but also in breach of Australian law. The Intelligence Services Act provides only 3 legal grounds for such an invasion of privacy by the security services: it has to be in the interests of Australia's national security, or foreign relations or economic wellbeing. The Indonesian President's wife's personal mobile phone was hacked! A disgraceful invasion of her human right to privacy, but even more alarming, it is illegal. When you consider that Scott Morrison is calling Asylum Seekers illegal, when there’s no Australian law he can point to that they’re in breach of, how can we, as mere members of the public, be expected to respect the law when our own Government shamelessly uses it to violate our human rights? INDONESIA SPYING: POLITICS? Padraig Walshe asked: Recently on the ABC’s 7:30, the Prime Minister replied to questions about the Indonesian spying scandal. On 2 occasions he asked the questioner: “When did this so-called spying allegedly take place?” and on a further 2 occasions he answered his own question stating: “Under the former government”. When discussing delicate international affairs on the world stage, I expect my Prime Minister to speak on behalf of Australia. Instead I watched as he embarrassingly tried to hide behind political party lines and blame others who have governed before him. Was this response good enough? INDONESIA SPYING: THE ABC Roslyn Coutinho asked: The Australian public have trusted and valued the ABC as a source of truth. However the Indonesian phone-tapping story will potentially have negative consequences on innocent parties such as Australian cattle farmers and asylum seekers in Indonesia. Was the choice to run this story a selfish decision by the ABC or should governments be more mindful of the possible implications of their intelligence operations on their citizens? NATIONAL INTEREST LEAKS John Kendall asked: The Gillard Government always maintained that their intervention to award the Australia Network $233 million contract to the ABC was to ensure that Australia’s national interest was protected. Were the ‘Snowdon leaks’ in our national interest? INHUMANE AUSTRALIA Brian Davies asked: Our government vilifies asylum seekers by incorrectly describing them as illegals, they have imposed a wall of secrecy, they lock up innocent men, women and children indefinitely without charge or trial in what are effectively concentration camps, now Mr Abbott has condoned human rights abuses in Sri Lanka and abetted them by giving warships to prevent persecuted people from leaving. Shouldn't Australians be appalled and condemn these inhumane actions as unworthy of Australia? INDONESIA – TAKE AWAY AID Peter Hindeleh asked: Indonesian military officials were recently caught red handed assisting in the smuggling of 105 individuals into Australia. When will Australia ask Indonesia whether they are either with us or against us? And if they are against us as perhaps it is time to divert the aid given to Indonesia instead to Australia’s needs like clean energy production. INDONESIA – TAKE AWAY AID - FOLLOW UP Peter Hindeleh then asked: Whilst seeking Asylum is a human right and we should be helping Indonesia as much as possible, if the Indonesian military is putting all these individual lives at risk by encouraging them to spend $20,000 to make this perilous journey across to Australia when they will most likely be turned back – why are we funding this illegal operation? Q&A – TABLOID ASSAULT Terence Hewton asked: Recently the editor of the Adelaide Sunday Mail launched a vitriolic attack on Q&A calling it elitist, boring and costly. Is this sort of rambling and emotive tabloid assault on quality journalism symptomatic of a serious debasement of popular taste, sensibility and intellect which is characteristic of our times? Or is the point here more that we see in this kind of thing the last gasp of a section of our media as it struggles for survival in the daunting brave new world of the twenty first century?