Government logic; Electricity down, call us re your cashless card

Things are done differently in the land called ‘down under’, a colony of the Monarch who is currently having issues with Her insubordinate grandchild (PMSL).

The colonialists (in government) have this mentality from their ancestors that stems back to 1788, where the population at large is considered to be criminals, either past present or future.

With the advent of electricity, it became easier to ‘administer’ the convicts where today a cashless society (Indue welfare card) is being imposed on the serfs, for the cheaper and quicker ‘administration’ of those pesky tax slaves who pay the taxes large corporations dodge.

The colonialists who have limited mental capacity (see picture below) ‘forget’ that with the lack of electricity, ‘cashless’ terminals do not work, where it is generally accepted that you cannot call your local welfare ‘business’ to spot (lend) you some cash’, noting that mobile tower and landline exchanges have limited offline electricity run time.

See text version of article from 9 Jan 2020 of the by sbs of the headline:

Calls for people on welfare in bushfire-affected areas to be exempt from cashless card 

Welfare agencies say people in bushfire affected areas need to be able to withdraw cash, but the government says no one relying on a cashless debit card has been impacted by the disaster.
Updated 4 hours ago, By Rosemary Bolger

Anglicare Australia has called for welfare recipients in bushfire-affected areas to receive their payments directly, rather than have to use the cashless debit card.

In places where the cashless debit card has been rolled out, 80 per cent of a person's income can be stored on the device, known as an Indue card, preventing purchases of alcohol and gambling.

One of the trial sites is Ceduna in South Australia where bushfires triggered a power outage to 25,000 customers on New Year's Eve.

Anglicare Australia executive director Kasy Chambers said it was unrealistic to expect people to rely on the card in areas where the power has been cut.

"People must be able to get essential supplies to live and adapt in the wake of the bushfires. With the power out and many outlets closed, people must be able to withdraw cash," Ms Chambers said.

But a spokesperson for Social Services Minister Anne Ruston said there had been no impact on terminal availability in trial sites as a result of the fires.

"The department continues to actively monitor the situation and will ensure that cashless debit card trial participants have access to their funds should there be an emergency situation in any of the trial sites."

Other trial sites in East Kimberley and the Goldfields in Western Australia, and Hervey Bay in Queensland are far from the bushfires.

Anyone travelling to bushfire-hit areas is encouraged to call the cashless debit card hotline for assistance.

Earlier this week, Centrelink advised people on the cashless welfare card to call them if they have been affected by fires. 

Ms Chambers said that’s not good enough.

"With the power out and phones unavailable, contacting Centrelink is just not an option for people in the thick of the crisis. The card must be suspended indefinitely."

Ms Chambers said Anglicare had been contacted by several people, some who had been visiting friends and families in bushfire-hit regions, who had had problems using their cashless debit card.

"It's really an inconvenience at best, huge difficulty at worst on top of an already chaotic situation when you haven't got access to pure cash to buy food.

"This is an extreme example, but it does bring home that real inconvenience and lack of dignity."

On Monday, one social media user asked how someone on the cashless welfare card was expected to feed their family.

"Are they just expected to die?" they tweeted.

In response, Centrelink said: "If anyone is in that situation, they should let us know."

The government has deployed mobile service centres to the NSW's South Coast and East Gippsland in Victoria to assist Centrelink customers in those bushfire affected regions.

On Monday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that job seekers in fire-affected regions would be exempted from mutual obligation requirements for at least two months.

A spokesperson for the Employment Department said they were working to implement appropriate arrangements and to identify areas in which they will apply.

Will a Royal Commission into the bushfires mention this?

That’s right if it was to be held, will a Royal Commission into the bush fires mention a post from the ‘Corporate Australia’ site?

More importantly will the Royal Commission address the law contained within the meme within a post within the site?

That’s right, the people in government in Victoria have been able to make it rain ‘legally’ since 1967.

So why have there been so many so called ‘droughts’ throughout the years, when the people in government can literally make it rain?

This law is current as of this post,

and is available for your perusal at:

http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb/au/legis/vic/consol_act/rca1967198/ 

See the 'Rain-Making Control Act 1967' within the post below, which is different to the current one within the Austlii reference above:

Chemtrails in Victoria since 1967

Chinese manufacturer adds spyware to smart phones

So, this is how they do it:

Companies like Foxtel, Google and now Realme get you hooked on their product, where no advertisements or low cost is the emphasis or the reason to purchase it.

They then add 'spyware' for the purpose of providing a 'better end-user experience' or whatever other BS term the marketing department can come up with.

We should all know how competitive the Chinese are, or rather how good they are copying, and not wanting to be outdone by the five eyes surveillance network, they want a slice of the "surveil the shit outta everyone" pie too, by installing 'adware' on Realme branded smartphones.

See article from 31 Dec 2019 by 9TO5Google of the headline:

Realme is bringing ads to its ColorOS Android skin after a year of huge growth

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Ads in software are a great source of revenue for companies, but it’s usually something that users don’t appreciate. This week, Realme announced that it would be bringing ads to ColorOS following a year of massive growth in the Android market.


Realme, for those unaware, is a popular Android smartphone maker, especially in India. We haven’t covered Realme much, but in 2019, the company managed 400% year over year growth which saw it take the #4 spot in India behind Xiaomi, Samsung, and Vivo. Part of that growth is thanks to Realme’s value on its smartphones which are usually priced lower than the comparable competition.

Going into 2020, Realme wants to “continue offering more surprises” by bringing “content recommendations” to its ColorOS skin over Android. Essentially, Realme is bringing ads to its software in order to help maintain a “healthy and sustainable business model” going forward.

This change will affect devices running ColorOS 6 and the ads on Realme devices will appear in two different places. The first is in the Phone Manager app while the second is on the Security Check page. The ads are enabled by default, but Realme users can disable them by going to Settings > Additional Settings > Content Recommendation and toggling the “feature” off.

Ironically, Realme made fun of Xiaomi earlier this year (via Android Authority) over ads that Xiaomi placed within MIUI, even showing it as a selling point of the Realme 3.

Why you should stay away from cheap Chinese phones (and cameras)

It's bad enough that the general population has to contend with 'Team America - World Police's', "we're gonna surveil the shit outta ya" policy which is monetised via something called surveillance capitalism, but also the commies/socialists are in on the act as well.

From [well known] spying 'digital assistants' humans willingly introduce into their homes to mobile phones, cameras and now [hackable] IoT (Internet of Things) devices, not forgetting cashless transactions they LOVE their self sponsored (government/corporation) spying devices.

Here are a couple of articles that highlight the dangers:

How to keep yourself safe from Chinese spyware on budget Android phones
By Kyle Wiggers August 1, 2017 10:59AM PST

The last thing you want your smartphone doing is sending your text messages, contacts, and location history to a server in China. But according to mobile security firm Kryptowire, a particularly nasty brand of Android software did just that, transmitting text, data, call, location, and app data to a Chinese server every 72 hours.

Researchers began to raise red flags last fall, when it was discovered the the data mining tool in question — called Adups — had been living inside hundreds of millions of devices produced by more than 40 manufacturers. Florida-based Blu Products was one of the affected parties, and assured at the time that the problem had been identified and every trace of the spyware had been removed from its phones.

Now, nearly 10 months since the initial report, Amazon has suspended the sale of several Blu devices from its Prime Exclusive lineup over re-emerging security concerns. Kryptowire appeared at July’s Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas to say the spyware still existed on some of Blu’s current phones, which led to Amazon’s decision the following week.

The code, which comes preinstalled on certain Android devices, sends the data surreptitiously. “Even if you wanted to, you wouldn’t have known about it,” Kryptowire vice president of product Tom Karygiannis told The New York Times last year.

How to know if you’ve been affected, and what to do

An investigation conducted by mobile security researchers at Trustlook in December found that as many as 43 manufacturers, including brands like Lenovo and Gionee, contained similar spyware. According to the firm’s report, the software collects serial numbers, software version numbers, operator information, and texting and call data from infected phones; the company found traces in All Win Tech smartphones in Taiwan, Archos devices in France, DEXP phones in Russia, and Prestigio hardware in the Czech Republic.
Here’s a list of manufacturers with affected devices:

Aaron Electronics Aeon Mobile All Win Tech Amoi Technology Archos AUX Bird BLU Cellon Coship Mobile Cubot Mobile DEWAV Communication DEXP Digital Experience Eastaeon Technology Electronic Technology

Gionee GOSO Hisense Hongyu Huaqin Huiye Inventec Corporation Konka Group Lenovo Logicom Longcheer Malata Mobile Mediatek Helio Prestigio Ragentek

RDA Micro Reallytek RUIO Sanmu Sprocomm Tinno Uniscope VSUN Water World Technology Wind Communication WingTech Yifang Digital Zhuhai Quanzhi ZTE

At this time, there’s no sure way to know if Adups is sending your personal information. However, some phone makers use Adups, rather than Google, to push over-the-air system updates, which is a clear indicator that the software is at least present on your device. The offending file, com.adups.fota, typically appears as “System Update” or “Wireless Update” within your phone’s list of apps in the settings menu. These are system apps, so they cannot be uninstalled — though they can be disabled. At the moment, disabling is the only known way to prevent Adups from running without rooting or installing custom firmware, which are riskier measures that will void your manufacturer’s warranty.

In November, Trustlook updated its Antivirus & Mobile Security app on the Google Play Store to check for Adups’ presence. The firm says it has updated the app continually to search for new Adups system programs linked to data collection as they’ve been discovered.

Specific phones known to include Adups more recently are the Blu Grand M and Cubot X16S. In addition to discovering the spyware in those two devices, Kryptowire’s Ryan Johnson told CNET he hasn’t found it in any handsets priced over $300. Additionally, only MediaTek chipsets have thus far been linked to the scheme. It would seem Adups is targeting low-cost hardware, predominantly from manufacturers that don’t sell phones in the U.S.

For those reasons, at this time we recommend staying away from budget smartphones powered by MediaTek processors built by any of the companies listed above.

Where it came from

The spyware is the product of Chinese firm Shanghai Adups Technology Company, and it targeted more than 700 million low-end Android devices. Adups said it worked with phone makers like Huawei and ZTE to develop the tool to monitor user behavior — ostensibly to identify junk text messages and calls.

But the software was never intended for American phones. An apparent bug caused more than 120,000 phones sold by Blu to become infected with the Adups tool. “Blu Products has identified and has quickly removed a recent security issue caused by a third-party application which has been collecting unauthorized personal data in the form of text messages, call logs, and contacts from customers using a limited number of Blu mobile devices,” a spokesperson for the company said in November.

In Blu’s case, the malware appears to have originated from a seemingly innocuous support app. Adups provides a utility that manufacturers use to perform remote firmware updates. “It was obviously something that we were not aware of,” Samuel Ohev-Zion, Blu’s chief executive, told The New York Times.

Blu claims Adups disregarded its request not to mine users’ data. “We have an email history with Adups saying we did not want that functionality on our devices, and they violated our request,” Ohev-Zion told PCMag. The company retained the services of Kryptowire to “keep tabs” on its software for a year, and partnered with chipmaker MediaTek to ensure its phones receive up-to-date, “clean” versions of Android.

Adups said that it had destroyed all information collected from Blu phones. “Today there is no Blu device that is collecting that information,” Ohev-Zion said last year. Now, Kryptowire is claiming that statement is false, while Blu maintains the situation has been dealt with. Meanwhile, an Adups spokeswoman told CNET all issues were resolved in 2016 and no longer exist.

It is not the first time Adups has raised the ire of an American tech company. Google, Android’s primary developer, instructed the Chinese firm to remove its surveillance tools from phones that shipped with the Google Play Store.

It is unclear precisely which devices are vulnerable. So far, the company has declined to publish a list of affected phones and said that there was not an easy way for customers to determine whether or not their devices contained Adups’ monitoring software. A representative for the company told The New York Times that it was incumbent on phone manufacturers, not Adups, to inform users that their personal information was being collected.

ZTE USA released a statement to press in November. “We confirm that no ZTE devices in the U.S. have ever had the Adups software cited in recent news reports installed on them, and will not,” it said. “ZTE always makes security and privacy a top priority for our customers. We will continue to ensure customer privacy and information remain protected.”

Update: Added newest information regarding Blu’s Amazon Prime Exclusive phones, in addition to an updated list of affected manufacturers and recommendations on how to spot the spyware and avoid buying a device that may contain it.

Source: Digital Trends.


Google disables Assistant Mi Home integration after bizarre Xiaomi camera bug

Ricky 03 January 2020

Following a Reddit thread about an issue with Google Assistant and Xiaomi-branded home security cameras, Google has indefinitely disabled integration with Mi Home, Xiaomi’s smart home platform. Google is investigating a bug that caused a user with a Xiaomi Mijia security camera to inadvertently view camera feeds from other homes.

Redditor Dio-V posted images in a post that detailed the issue. As per the post, when he asked his Google Next Hub to view one of their Xiaomi camera feeds, the Nest Hub displayed distorted still images from other homes, including one of a sleeping baby. The feeds looked like they came straight from a horror movie.

A Google Spokesperson said: “We’re aware of the issue and are in contact with Xiaomi to work on a fix. In the meantime, we’re disabling Xiaomi integrations on our devices.”.

We’d tell you to disconnect any Xiaomi cameras that you may have until the problem is fixed, but Google is already a step ahead. We’ll keep you updated when a fix arrives.

Source: GSMarena 

Heatwave power problems a deliberate failure of government

  

With the heatwave in Melbourne on Friday the 20^th of December 2019, where 44 °C (111 °F) was recorded in the 'burbs, the authorities stated that blackouts would be a common occurrence, where the blame is put on the weather or maybe an act of god.

The reality is that the weather is no longer an ‘act’ of god but rather an ‘Act’ of parliament. 

To be more specific the Parliament of Victoria under the Rain-making Control Act 1967, see: http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/Domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/LTObject_Store/LTObjSt3.nsf/b1612aeaf0625227ca257619000d0882/6d1f7c915fc138ecca257761002b4914/$FILE/67-7637a011.pdf

The mainstream media reported that two electricity generators were not functional, in order to activate when peak power is required by ‘consumers’.

So, we have an approx influx of 2,500 people or rather ‘consumers’ from overseas per week coming into Melbourne.

These consumers need to be housed in the process consuming infrastructure resources that the government has deliberately not expanded on, in this case electricity.

You can bet your tax payer funded politician’s pay rise that the humans in government have not missed out on providing themselves with sufficient resources (e.g. tax payer funded holiday 'allowance') to carry on with their business activities.

Australia, the most corrupt colony on the planet?

Remembering, that in order to put the bushfires out, all the (Victorian) government as to do is to ‘make it rain’ as per the above mentioned Act, but that’s another post altogether.

Did you hear about this in the news?

We should be aware that the ‘news’ or rather public news media does not tell you ‘everything’, especially when it comes to certain matters or depending on who’s pulling the strings.

Very briefly,

A nondescript plane landed at Essendon Airport.

To the naked eye or unsuspecting plane spotter, that would not be a big deal.

The plane was tasked with transporting cargo by one of Australia’s richest families, which again does not seem out of the ordinary.

The ‘problem’ in this case was that the plane’s pilot was met by police upon landing.

The plane had on board a significant amount of (illegal) narcotics in tandem with (once again ‘illegal’) a cache of firearms.

Since the ‘family’ did not want an unnecessary spotlight drawn to their name, the ‘incident’ was kept under wraps.

So this ‘significant’ event, an event that is in the ‘interest of the public’ has been kept from the public, by none other than a (corrupt) police force.

Don’t forget that the commissioner of (NSW) police Mick Fuller  stated that people should ‘fear’ police, a typical (penal) colony / police state attitude, remembering that Australia is still a colony.

Source: supplied

Traffic congestion:- government caused people punished

In the [penal] colony of the British empire called Australia, the colonialists sure have a ‘funny’ way of punishing their tax slaves.

The government of the year implemented a mass invasion of (banker’s) slaves, under whatever pretext, be it ‘human rights’ or refugees, where in ol’ Melbourne ‘town’ the uptake of the overseas slaves is at approx 2,500 ‘consumers’ per week.

This number is far more than the infrastructure can handle, where public transport and automobile traffic congestion on the roads are just some of the problems the residents of Melbourne must face, problems that were created by those in government.

The people in government do NOT face the same problems as the serfs do, even though of example Bill Shorten may have lived in the ‘burbs but his commute to his office was just a short distance where he and his wife, the daughter of Quentin Bryce lived.

As a result of ‘traffic congestion’ the people in government’s solution is to punish the slaves, by taking more cash away from their household budget, by taxing them for using ‘congested’ roads, where the ‘congestion’ was caused by those in government in the first place.

Another tax on the serfs to fund the luxurious pensions MPs receive for stuffing up the people.

It’s absolutely astonishing that there are no protests with regards to this, but then again, given the vegetative state of the herd population, it’s really no surprise.

DVA a major contributor to veteran suicide

So, this is how the administration government of a colony of the British empire rules over the people.

The people in government send their cannon fodder over the seas to kill other nation's people for their benefit.

As a result of killing other people, those who make it back alive, have enormous (mental) health problems, but they are literally discarded by the very people that sent them overseas to kill other people.

In typical colonial fashion those in government then hide/falsify the problems they caused to the returned veterans.

Briefly,

When veterans deal with the Department of Veteran Affairs, they are up against an opposing force that deals with their claims to such an extent that many commit suicide where the modus operandi is not to acknowledge any claims first and foremost, and change the ‘goal posts’ on the claimant, after completing what that 'person' was told to.

When a suicide occurs a cover-up is made by those in government, stating that the death was an ‘accident’.

Whether people ‘volunteer’ or get told to go overseas to kill other people for the benefit of those in government, at the end of the day it’s up to you to say no to enrolling to kill people for those in government, in other countries.

The corrupt police state's secret court rulings

This is what goes on in the (penal) colony we call Australia.

From an article by the ABC of the headline:
'The quiet person you pass on the street': Secret prisoner Witness J revealed

Exclusive by political editor Andrew Probyn

Updated about 10 hours ago

Just 13 words are all there are on the public record to note one of the most extraordinary episodes in Australian legal history.

Key points:

•     Witness J was a prisoner who was tried, sentenced and imprisoned in secret

•     The former military intelligence officer worked in various parts of the sprawling military and defence network

•     He has been accused of acting so dangerously he was imperilling lives and national security

After a secret trial of a secret prisoner, the sentence was delivered — you guessed it — in complete secrecy.

You have to know what you're looking for, but even when you find those 13 words, they are not at all illuminating. In fact, they would defeat the purpose of being there at all, were it not for the legal tease they present.

"Before Justice Burns, in Court Room SC4, at 10:00am," it starts promisingly enough.

Then comes the inevitable punchline: "Sentence: Matter Suppressed."

The date was February 19 of this year. The venue was the ACT Supreme Court in Canberra.

Exactly why the Commonwealth and the justice system should conspire to allow such exceptional measures has unnerved legal experts and dismayed former judges.

"Permanently secret legal proceedings is not the kind of conduct we want an Australian justice system to include," said barrister Bret Walker, a former independent national security legislation monitor.

An investigation by the ABC has uncovered the remarkable events that led to the secret trial, the unravelling of a man's impressive career and the circumstances of his arrest, which led to a jail sentence of two years and seven months for serious national security offences.

Photo: ACT Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker remanded Witness J in custody in May 2018. (ABC News: Tegan Osborne)

The secret case of Prisoner 123458

By February 19, the defendant had already been locked up for nine months as Prisoner 123458. He had been remanded in custody by ACT Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker in mid-May 2018.

After a month in solitary confinement, he was placed in the high-security sex offenders' wing of Canberra's Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC).


He was not a sex offender. Not at all. Housing him with convicted paedophiles and rapists was deemed a better option than putting him alongside murderers, gangsters and other hardened criminals in the other wing.

The legal proceedings before his sentencing had not gone entirely unnoticed. That was impossible with two burly security guards sitting outside the courtroom, barring the curious from entry.

Two professionally curious court reporters, the ABC's Michael Inman and The Canberra Times' Alexandra Back, jointly wondered what was happening inside SC4.

It was decided Back should make an inquiry with the Chief Justice, Helen Murrell.

The response, which came from Justice John Burns, seemed regretful, practically apologetic, for what he described as the "generally undesirable" and "unusual" security arrangements.

Justice Burns said that on November 19, 2018, he had agreed, at the request of the parties to the proceeding, to make "consent orders" under the National Security (Criminal and Civil Proceedings) Act 2004, closing the court to the public "during the taking of evidence and submissions".

"The particularly sensitive nature of the material to be exposed in the proceeding, and the grave harm that could occur if the material became public, outweighed the desirability of ensuring that proceedings before the Court are open to the public," Justice Burns said in a note to the reporters.

"The decision to close the Court was not taken lightly," he told them, adding that he regretted not being able to say any more.

The nation's chief law officer insists secrecy was needed to protect national security.

"The court determined, consistent with the Government submission, that it was contrary to the public interest that the information be disclosed and the information was of a kind that could endanger the lives or safety of others," Attorney-General Christian Porter told the ABC.
The raid that led to a secret becoming public

What happened to Witness J, as he has become known, might not have become known were it not for the fact that the day before he was sentenced by Justice Burns, his cell was raided by Australian Federal Police officers under court warrant, looking for a memoir Witness J had written during his time locked up alongside sex offenders.

What can be gleaned publicly about Witness J came almost by accident, when he took action in the ACT courts to complain about his treatment and what he claimed was a breach of his human rights.

The action failed, at his own considerable cost, but it did at least drag Witness J's fate from the darkest shadows into the half-light.

Photo: Little is known about Witness J's appearances in court. (ABC News: Emma Machan)

Witness J was convicted under the myriad security laws that can trigger wide-ranging suppression of any outside scrutiny or media reporting.

Since his civil action against the ACT Government became public last month, a person purporting to be Witness J has been testing the bounds of the suppression orders, taking to Twitter to claim he is the victim of an unfair prosecution.

    "Persecuted. Jailed after asking for mental health support three times, and falling through the floor," he has tweeted.

A former military intelligence officer, Witness J is a Duntroon graduate in his mid 30s who served in East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq. He has a distinguished record.

Witness J worked in various parts of the sprawling military and intelligence network.

But Witness J's downfall began during a civilian posting in a South-East Asian country when he was undergoing a re-validation of his Top Secret security clearance, which by practice is about every five years.

He would have been one of 25 or so people in his service undergoing a re-validation process that month and the questions from the vetting officer would have been standard, including about his financial and personal circumstances.

But there were some anomalies in his answers that prompted more and more inquiry. Truthfulness is key in these interviews.

Photo: A Twitter account belonging to a "Witness J" appeared in November.

It is understood his lack of candour prompted concerns being raised with Witness J about how he was conducting himself as a single man in the South-East Asian capital. There was a worry he could be compromised.

This coincided with a mental health crisis, which is not uncommon with people who have given many years' service in hostile environments.

Witness J sought internal help on three occasions for his mental health but his security clearance prevented seeking help outside his employment.

Internal complaint lands Witness J in the crosshairs

The ABC has been told Witness J was infuriated by the accusation that his behaviour while overseas had made him a compromise risk. He complained internally to the head of security and a departmental psychologist back in Australia.

It was an unwise decision delivered dangerously. It is understood his complaints were communicated by email and other unsecure electronic means.

Witness J immediately found himself in the crosshairs of an organisation that had been his employer for five years.

    In his complaints, he accused fellow case officers of behaviour which he believed was more egregious than his own. Worse, he identified agents who had been recruited for direction and control. These were grave, unforgivable sins in his line of work.

His employer said Witness J had breached secrecy provisions. It believed he was acting so dangerously, he was imperilling lives, national security and the very working environment of his colleagues.

According to one person, Witness J had to be "shut down".

On Twitter, "Witness J" claims his case was unprecedented. From what the ABC has uncovered, he is probably right.

"How do I know? The open-mouthed gapes from my defence team and the DPP as they waded through unwalked ground," he has tweeted.

However, he did not contest the five charges and he pleaded guilty, as advised by his barrister Kieran Ginges, even though Witness J had argued there had been no public disclosure and no release of information outside his employer.

That is not how the prosecution or his employer saw it.

"The orders provided for a mechanism for closure of the court in circumstances where highly sensitive national security information would have been disclosed, but did not prevent the defendant or his counsel from accessing the information," Mr Porter said.
Release prompts complaints about treatment

Witness J's complaints had put critically sensitive information within the potential grasp of rival espionage capability, if the unsecure communications were electronically "triangulated".

Witness J was released from jail on August 16, some 16 months or so before the expiry of his sentence. It is understood there are conditions attached to his release, including six-monthly regular psychological testing and an overseas travel ban without prior permission.

By negotiation, he is able to describe his convictions as having been for "mishandled classified information". Other descriptors of his crimes, perhaps less damning, had been offered to him, in the hope it would help him find employment.

Photo: The prisoner was held in secret at the Alexander Maconochie Centre in Canberra. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore )

Since his release, Witness J has complained about his treatment to the inspector-general of Intelligence and Security. She, however, has no power to overturn his convictions.

Witness J appears to claim being the victim of an injustice; that what should have been treated as an internal complaint left him with a criminal conviction and serious mental health issues.

Witness J admitted to serious breaches of security protocols, but observers say his secret dispatch by Australia's legal regime raises considerable concern for a robust democracy.
Calls for secrecy to be explained

John Dowd, a former NSW Liberal leader, attorney-general and Supreme Court judge, said there needed to be an explanation for the secret trial.

"Society has to be very careful in the circumstance in which we hold limited-publicity trials and it's important that we know the extent of such trials and the reasons for them," Mr Dowd said.

"There are obvious circumstances where trials have to be limited in terms of publicity but these should be extremely rare.

    "There needs to be some explanation to the public as to why this has occurred — and if it's not a matter explained to the public, then the matter should be explained to the Parliament."

Photo: Bret Walker fears our national security legislation is not working. (Supplied: The Kings School)

Mr Walker's criticism is similar: "The public has an interest to know when information is being kept secret from them — it's not good enough for the public to be told 'it's in your interests that you are not told'."

"What the [Witness J] case has produced is a concrete example of the dangers of not publishing, in real time as they occur, the fact of the orders being made; it's a really interesting example of the way in which a perfectly well-intentioned piece of national security legislation might not be operating in the way one would like."

Federal independent MP Andrew Wilkie, a former military analyst, is circumspect about the Witness J case, perhaps surprisingly so given he has been outspoken in his criticism of the pursuit of Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery.

"I have made my own inquiries and decided not to comment," is all Mr Wilkie will say of the Witness J case.

Photo: Independent MP Andrew Wilkie has made his own inquiries. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)

But this opaque episode provokes big questions for Australia's legal regime.

Even if there are serious matters of national security at issue, should questions of wrongdoing be held entirely in secret and covered by blanket suppression orders?

And how is it that a man who has given considerably to his nation over a decade and a half — and has the physical and mental scars to show for it — should have his contribution effectively scrubbed out in 13 words?

"I am you. I am an Australian," the man purporting to be Witness J said on Twitter.

    "The quiet person you pass in the street. Tonight, I want to do my best to answer your questions, but as a secret prisoner from a secret trial who worked for a secret organisation, I am limited."

But as one informed person observed: "Some secrets must remain secret."

Follow this story to get email or text alerts from ABC News when there is a future article following this storyline.

Optus ordered to pay $6.4 million over misleading NBN disconnection email to customers

Telecommunications giant Optus has been fined $6.4 million for sending nearly 140,000 people an email that falsely warned their home broadband services would be "disconnected very soon".

 

Key points:

• The consumer watchdog described Optus's conduct as an "extremely bad" attempt to win new broadband customers
• In a statement, Optus said the email was sent in error and the company had cooperated with the watchdog's investigation
• The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said Optus's excuse of a mistake was "just not good enough"

 

 The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) took Optus to court after it sent the email to 138,988 of its mobile customers in May last year.

 

The email said the customers' broadband services, which were supplied by a competitor, would be "disconnected very soon" because of the National Broadband Network (NBN).

"Make the switch [to Optus NBN broadband] before it's too late," the email said.

On Friday, the Federal Court found the statement was misleading or deceptive because the customers who received the email were not facing immediate disconnection of their existing broadband services.

Optus was ordered to pay $6.4 million in penalties.

ACCC chair Rod Sims said Optus had displayed "extremely bad" behaviour by sending a message to potential customers with an untrue claim.

"Optus was trying to get those customers who were on the broadband of one of their competitors to switch to Optus and that's just not the way to go about acquiring customers, you really should not be misleading people," Mr Sims said.
 

'Saying it's a mistake is just not good enough'

In a statement, Optus said the issue occurred when a marketing email was "mistakenly sent to customers in May 2018 about the disconnection of their broadband service".

"Optus co-operated with the ACCC throughout this process and we reaffirm our apology to customers who received the mistaken communication in 2018," the statement said.

"We have already offered a costless exit for those customers who took up the offer."
Mr Sims said large companies such as Optus — which is the nation's second-largest telecommunications operator — should not make such a serious error.

"The email was put together, someone put it together, it therefore was put together by somebody with the intention of going out. Saying it's a mistake is just not good enough," Mr Sims said.

He said the nationwide change to the NBN was a confusing period for many Australian consumers because they needed to change their telecommunications arrangements.

Mr Sims said the ACCC would therefore be scrutinising telecommunications providers "closely" to ensure they did not mislead customers about the move to the NBN.

The ACCC has taken Optus to court five times and issued 29 infringement notices in the past decade and Mr Sims said the watchdog "had concerns" about the company's behaviour.

"Error or not, when you are found to be misleading consumers you've got to put the systems in place to make sure it doesn't happen again," he said.

Once the NBN has announced an area is ready for service, consumers will generally have 18 months to move their landline phone and internet services to the new NBN network, according to the ACCC.

Source: abc.net.au