NSW Libs received donations of $44,275 from TOP Education Grosup
The recent discussion with regards the targeting of whistleblowers journalists has been concerned with the respective governments frustrating the public's right to know. However it does appear that Australian Commonwealth and State governments are equally if not more concerned about protecting their defence of plausible deniability.
This writer has become increasingly aware of Australian government agencies relying on the excuse of "numerous emails" or worse, perceived threats and intimidation in the language used, to refuse answering questions about their decisions.
These excuses seem to be designed to protect civil servants from information that may undermine or compromise their preferred narrative . While the tactic may have worked even a decade ago, cheap and easy access to open source data means means that departmental narratives can now be easily compared with information in the public domain to determine truth and accuracy.
In this new world the civil servant tactic of deny, discredit and ignore can have serious consequences for both the civil servants involved and their political masters, who bear ultimate responsibility for reports and documents prepared by their departments.
In this understandably terrifying new world the acts of whistleblowers may carry far greater consequences for they could also reveal the creation of false records and documents, and the identites of those involved in their production.
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