Why News Limited is too embarrassed to properly cover new counter-terrorism laws

Democracy is threatened by the constraints on the media.

I can't claim ownership of this sanctimonious motherhood statement.  It was the opening line of an editorial in The Australian on 6 November 2007 just before the Federal election of that year.

It went on to proclaim: "When it comes to media freedom, it should be second to none."

No qualifications. No caveats. Media freedom trumps everything else.

Now some may disagree with this proposition. This Government does. The last Government did. The security agencies do and so do many public servants. So do I as it happens; in western democracies no rights are absolute. A balancing of rights is required when they come into competition, as they often do. Similarly, in limited situations, the public interest in good government decision making and public safety may take precedence over the public interest in full transparency.

However, it is not the purpose of this piece to have an academic argument about press freedom. Rather, it is to highlight the rank hypocrisy of News Limited papers in recent weeks in the debate over new national security laws and also the breadth of those laws in relation to the press.

Between 2007 and 2013, News Limited papers used the club of press freedom to batter Labor governments: freedom of Information, privacy laws, media regulation, court suppression orders, journalist shield etc etc.

So I was surprised to read the editorial of The Australian this week with the headline "Terror laws protect unity rather than undermine it".

"GNASHING of teeth about anti-terror measures disrupting social cohesion is often misplaced and overblown.....  As reported today, we now know Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani has called on followers to unleash violence against this nation. We need not be apologetic that thwarting this goal should remain our top priority.

How times have changed. Seven years ago, media freedom was second to none. Now preventing "violence against this nation" trumps everything. In another editorial by the paper last week it became clear that The Australian was now on board with the Prime Minister’s argument that certain rights had to be traded off to keep the community safe.

"So far the extended powers proposed by the Abbott government seem to strike a reasonable balance between its obligations to keep the community safe and preserve its freedoms."

Of course, times change; not least the view of News Limited papers about who the real enemies are. In this case, it is not supporters of ISIL. Rather, the Australian has in its sights those on the left that are critical with the scope of the laws. Just like everything else in recent years, this debate gets transformed into the one-dimensional culture war that fascinates News Ltd, particularly in the offices of the editors in Holt Street in Sydney and Bowen Hills in Brisbane, but no-one else.  In this culture war - on the left and right - critical thought goes out the window. That becomes much clearer from the editorial last week in the Daily Tele - "Denial won't stop this evil madness".

"MANY on the political Left, particularly from the ABC, have either dismissed or downplayed the threat of terrorism since Australia’s terror alert level was increased in recent weeks."

"To give one example, former ABC Media Watch host Jonathan Holmes complained t this week about “more and more laws to stop terrorists” while there were “fewer and fewer measures to limit greenhouse gas emissions. And of course, no carbon price”."

In three sentences, the paper managed to pull together their culture war hobby-horses: the ABC, climate change, the political left and terrorism.

I won't bore readers any more with this predictable diatribe; in most part because I will lose most of you who will have already have switched to something more interesting.

However, there is an interesting back story to these new laws that I was a part of that not only help explain their provisions but also make the acquiescence of News Limited papers even more galling.

Let me take you back to July 2009 and the high profile anti-terrorism operation Operation Neath that captured headlines at the time. At that time I was working as an adviser for the then Attorney-General Robert McClelland. Our attention had been consumed by the National Labor Conference - Kevin Rudd had gone AWOL  and the Labor delegates at Darling Harbour were at each others throats over gay marriage and parallel import arrangements for books. 

Mid-afternoon during one of the days of the conference a call through from McClelland's media advisor informing us that a journalist from The Australian had found out that raids would be conducted in coming days on suspects houses as part of Operation Neath. The journalist had called him and was proposing to go to press the next day. I am not breaking any confidences or committing any offence in telling this story because the events were subsequently canvassed in the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

The concern of the AFP and McClelland at the time was that the publication of the information about the raids ahead of time would compromise them by tipping off the suspects. Over the coming hours, the media advisor and other government officials begged, cajoled and pleaded with the journalist to hold off from publishing the story. But he wouldn't be swayed, nor would his pugilistic editor Paul "Boris" Whittaker - now editor of the Daily Telegraph - who aggressively asserted the right of the free press to publish the story.

Late that evening, it was only after Boris and Chris Mitchell demanded and received a commitment from McClelland that his paper be given the exclusive about the details of the raid after it was conducted, that he agreed to hold the story. Security and law enforcement agencies were furious but they had little choice but to agree in order to prevent the publication of the story. And so The Australian got its inside story.

So it is no surprise that those agencies pushed hard for new provisions in the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979 to prevent such an incident occurring again. Yet with the Daily Telegraph and Boris Whittaker on the morphine drip of stories from the Abbott Government, it is also no surprise their tune has changed. Or maybe they are just embarrassed they are the cause of the new laws.

There have been some fine pieces recently written by Katherine Murphy in The Guardian and Laurie Oakes (notably in the News Limited papers) about the failure of most of the media to cast a critical eye over the laws. They are strong reminders that it is not the role of journalists to be a cheer squad for government, opposition or any other cause. It is to question, probe and challenge those in authority. I like Murphy's analysis of part of the problem-

"Any objective look at the week would present a report card that said: running too fast, filing too much, revealing too little."

Among Murphy's and Oakes' principal concerns is Schedule 3 of National Security Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2014 dealing with so-called "special intelligence operations". Authority to launch such operations can be granted if the Attorney-General (originally the Director-General or deputy D-G of ASIO but the Government amended their Bill in the Senate) is satisfied on reasonable grounds of a number of factors including:

·       the special intelligence operation will assist the Organisation in the performance of one or more special intelligence functions;

·       the circumstances are such as to justify the conduct of a special intelligence operation;

·       any unlawful conduct involved in conducting the special  intelligence operation will be limited to the maximum extent consistent with conducting an effective special intelligence operation.

Clearly, it’s all pretty general and vague, leaving a great deal of discretion to the decision maker. And once permission has been given for such an operation the new laws provide for heightened protection of the special intelligence operation, including a new offence of "Unauthorised disclosure of information". Under a new s. 35P of the ASIO Act a journalist would commit an offence if they disclose information and the information “relates” to a special intelligence operation.

Again it is the broadness of the provision that is problematic. The offence simply requires that the disclosed information relates to a special intelligence operation. The conduct giving rise to the offence it is not time limited and indeed could occur after an operation has finished. It also extends to operations conducted overseas. Further, those found guilty under the provision face higher jail terms of up to 10 years if "the disclosure of the information will endanger the health or safety of any person or prejudice the effective conduct of a special intelligence operation".

The meaning of the term "prejudice the effective conduct" is in the eye of the beholder and the journalist bears the onus of proving that they fall within one of the exceptions to the offence provision. 

Once again, the actions of News Limited have made it harder for all journalists.

Dispatch from the national wind farm battleground

Just over one hour's drive outside Canberra is the heart of the national battleground against wind farms.

While the anti-windfarm movement had its origins further south in Victoria, the epicentre of the battle are now the ridge lines and green rolling paddocks of the Upper Lachlan and Southern Highland regions.

This is prime agricultural country where farming families live side by side with the wealthy weekend Sydney hobby farmers, joined together by a distrust of their new neighbours.

It may appear an eccentric protest group of right-wing warriors and sceptical farmers but supporters of wind energy and clean energy companies have underestimated the strength of the campaign against them on the ground. As a result, those companies are now  behind the eight ball.

The opposition is small but they carry enormous clout through the involvement of high-profile individuals  who own properties in the region like Alan Jones and Maurice Newman - close confidants of Tony Abbott.

A grassroots opposition movement is reinforced through the national press by these high-profile individuals with megaphones.

At the Federal election, the region elected another high profile opponent of windfarms, former management consultant and member of one of the region's landed gentry, Angus Fraser. During the campaign, while Tony Abbott was promising to stop the boats, Taylor promised locals he would help stop the turbines.

The Coalition Government is now set to move on the Renewable Energy Target and the introduction of real-time noise monitoring for windfarms, and renewable energy companies are increasingly fighting an uphill battle in the paddocks and hills of the Yass Valley and Upper Lachlan.

It is no coincidence that in giving the clearest sign yet that his government intended to water down the RET, Tony Abbott cited the turbines reaching to the sky at Canberra's gateway, Lake George.

“If you drive down the Federal Highway from Goulburn to Canberra and you look at Lake George, yes there’s an absolute forest of these things on the other side of the lake near Bungendore,” he said.

“I absolutely understand why people are anxious about these things that are sprouting like mushrooms all over the fields of our country. I absolutely understand the concerns that people have.
Newman - chairman of Abbott's Business Advisory Council -  also got out of the blocks early this year to soften the political ground for a move on the RET.

"Where is the media scrutiny?" hyper-ventilated Newman in a national newspaper.

Anecdotally, at least there are signs the anti-windfarm campaign has won traction in the region among locals.

A trip to the Gunning windfarm owned and operated by Spanish company Acciona last year highlighted to me the problems clean energy companies and their supporters now face. Wind farm companies are desperately trying to win hearts and minds and open days are a key part of their strategy. But if some of the locals on the bus out from Gunning last weekend for one such open day are any guide there is still much work to be done in counter-acting a grassroots campaign with a real head start.

The introduction of exclusion zones in Victoria and low wholesale prices in South Australia restricting the ability to build new wind farms means that NSW is where wind companies are directing much of their attention.

The Upper Lachlan and Goulburn has a great wind resource, which whips over the ridges with a dull roar and powers the 81 metre turbines.

In close proximity to the Acciona wind farm are Origin's 30Mw Cullerin and Goldwind  Gullen Range project, which is under construction and will have 73 turbines when completed. It's not quite a forest of wind turbines but it is getting crowded.

"I don't mind one or two, but there are so many of these windfarms that they all become one," said one local farmer surveying the countryside out of the bus window as we drive out to the Acciona facility. When not remarking on the turbines she and her husband spent the time identifying the owners of the properties we passed and those who had been unable to get compensation for windfarms on their properties.

Not everyone on the tour is so indisposed to wind-farms. Some university students from the Australian National University spend the trip out discussing heady topics of consumerism and environmentalism, pausing sometimes to glance out the window to look at the sentinels of the ridges.

"They're pretty cool. Funny how people find them unpleasing ya ?" says one student.

Another is Labor senator, Doug Cameron. Cameron has chaired two Senate inquiries into wind power and his views have been heavily influenced by witnesses like Simon Chapman at the University of Sydney who have identified the "nocebo" effect.

Despite conducting the "Stop the world I want to get off" inquiries, it is Cameron's first trip to a wind farm and he is keen to see for himself an operating wind farm.

"In English speaking countries there are problems but in non-English speaking countries nothing. If you tell people they are going to get sick and tell them again and again they will," he says.

"We got a lot of evidence of the farmers who have turbines on their properties and are getting paid having no problems. But those next door - who are not getting paid - complain. People up to 10km say they can hear it!"

The Gunning windfarm has 31 turbines and produces double the energy needs of Goulburn - the region's largest town.

When we arrive, site manager Craig Simon jumps on the bus to give his spiel. A former control room operator at a coal fire power station for 20 years, Simon says he wants to make amends for his past.

"I look at it and see I have a due to pay for burning literally thousands of tonnes of coal. I love my job and I am very proud to show you my workplace," he announces.

Landowner Alan McCormack is also on hand to meet the arriving bus. His sheep gather in clumps in the shadows of the turbines and Simon explains they appear to have a "turbine fetish". Simon won't disclose what McCormack is paid for the use of his property but says it has effectively "drought proofed" the farm.

"This isn't our property, it's Alan's. It's his backyard," he says.

"The income does assist in the management of the property and it is a large property - 1000 hectares."

Another tour bus is already on site and one of those on it is former NSW Labor flack and now lobbyist, Michael Gleeson. Gleeson recognises an industry with a PR problem.

"Yes, it has a PR problem and it is called Alan Jones," he says.

The local Lions club is helping out with lunches at the open day. A long line has formed in the shadow of a wind turbine in front of a caravan in which three elderly country women serve up sausage and steak rolls. On the counter is  an apt offering at a windfarm - a pile of fruit cakes; nutty with a hint of bitterness.

Most on the bus are keen to get their photo taken in front of the large pylons and rush of the buses with iPhones at the ready. But it is clear some have come with a sceptical attitude.  One asks Simon about lightning strikes and another wants to know what happens when over 100km winds arrive.

"A great wind spread for production is 10-20 metres per second but at 25 the turbines cut out, which is around 100 km/h," says Simon.

Another local collars Cameron to ask if he has seen a recent documentary on nuclear power.

"The total contribution to energy needs of these things worldwide is only 1 percent. Coal is 80 percent," he explains.

"It's clear we'll need baseload and something has to provide the power when the sun goes down and the wind stops blowing."

Maybe, but it would be interesting to hear the views of locals when they discovered that rather than building a wind farm, a nuclear power plant was going to be built instead. Good luck with that idea.

Simon is also quizzed on what will happen to the wind turbines when Acciona's lease runs out.

"Who pays to pull them down?" asks one local farmer.

Simon assures him Acciona will do the land remediation.

"We leave it the way we find it," he says.

The questioner remains unconvinced.

"We were told it was the landowners...we get told a lot of things."

Another wants to know about whether the 80 metre high turbines have lights on the top of them, like occurred at one wind farms in Victoria, to alert low flying planes.

"If you are going to have a light air plane that low you are in trouble," interjects another attendee.

Undeterred the skeptics then ask about the cost of wind power.

"So when are our power bills going to go down from all this because they haven't gone down yet mate."

Not all are sceptical. AGL has proposed a gas plant in the region and one person wants to know if rural communities can get their own turbines. Another proudly discloses she has just installed solar panels on her roof.

Eventually, Simon suggests that people should judge for themselves and get out to a turbine on a nearby ridge.

"Let's go and see what it's all about," says Simon.

"Good idea mate," responds one local sceptically.

Simon calls the Melbourne Acciona control room to turn off one of the 31 turbines. It's a beautiful day and people pile off the bus to see the now dormant wind turbine and catch a great view over the Upper Lachlan. A door at the bottom of the turbine pylon has been opened to allow people peer into its guts.

I strike up a conversation with one of the other people on the bus. He turns out to be the unsuccessful Labor candidate for Hume, Michael Pilbrow, who was defeated by Angus Taylor. He isn't terribly complementary about Taylor saying the Liberal's candidate followed Graham Richardson's maxim of "whatever it takes".

Taylor's family property is next door to one of the local wind-farms but he has long had a Met Mast - installed by renewable energy companies to determine whether there is a sufficient wind resource to construct a project.

"I thought internal Labor politics were bad," says Pilbrow.

"Taylor made a lot of promises to people around here. He effectively promised to close things down."

But Pilbrow concedes the wind farms were a big factor in the local election.

"They have caused collateral damage. Speak to real estate agents and they'll tell you they have affected prices of surrounding properties.

Taylor - along with senior figures both sides of politics - was invited to the open day but did not respond to the invitation.

While talking I listen carefully to see what noise I can detect from other turbines around. There does seem to a kind of dull roar. As a former resident of Sydney's inner west, it reminds me of the sound that used to alert me of the impending arrival of a jumbo jet landing at the nearby airport.

When I ask Simon about the sound, he says it is the sound of the wind whipping over the ridge and through the trees.

"The wind makes more wind going past your ears [than the turbines]," he explains.

Simon then announces he is going to get the control room to restart the wind turbine so people can judge for themselves the noise it makes.

There is not much to hear from the turbine except from a soft "Phwp. Phwp. Phwp. Phwp" but as you move away the dull roar earlier identified can again be heard from the surrounding turbines. Others notice it as well, particularly when the wind periodically picks up.

"It's not the wind you can hear, it's the bloody turbines," says one local.

It's clear companies like Acciona have much more work to do to in their growing public relations battle.