...cont
Are we entitled to know what's going on with the NBN? It's spending, we think, more than $50 billion of our money on infrastructure for our benefit. If it's screwing that up and wasting our money, is it not reasonable that we should be told?
As the Government has consistently chosen to give us nothing other than PR spin on this project, the media has stepped into the breach and told us some of what the Government won't. That, in a functioning democracy, is a critical media role.
By all means, leaks of information relating to national security should be investigated and prosecuted. The NBN context does not engage the bigger WikiLeaks-style debate about balancing security against freedom. There's nothing to see here except embarrassing revelations about a project that has proved to be much harder than either party promised.
The AFP's choice to raid the Opposition party's headquarters in the middle of an election campaign may have been pure coincidence. The context gives us every right to doubt that, and to question why everyone's so desperate to prevent us from finding out what exactly the story is with the NBN.
Michael Bradley is the managing partner of Sydney law firm Marque Lawyers, and he writes a weekly column for The Drum. He tweets at @marquelawyers.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-20/bradley-why-voters-are-sceptical-of-the-af...