Law Lecture Theatre 1, Grosvenor Crescent, Sandy Bay Campus
Summary:The former editor of The National Times discusses new secrecy laws, whistleblowers and why intelligence is often wrong.
Presenter(s):
- Brian Toohey, Author
(Photo: Lorrie Graham)
Brian Toohey was a columnist with the Australian Financial Review who has also written for The Nikkei Asia Review, The West Australian, The Sunday Age and other publications. He was editor of The National Times and a Canberra and Washington correspondent for AFR. He is the author or co-author of five books: Oyster: The Story of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service; Tumbling Dice: The Story of Modern Economic Policy; The Book of Leaks; The Winchester Scandal; and his latest offering Secret. Among other subjects, he has written extensively about national security policy since 1973.
Brian's talk will cover several themes, including: The bipartisan support for new laws that severely erode long-standing individual liberties and undermine the ability of whistle blowers and the media to expose abuses of power; Why intelligence is often wrong: leaked intelligence has never killed anyone in Australia but keeping intelligence secret often kills innocent people; How secrecy conceals irrational thinking and encourages abuses of power in the public and private sectors; and how the rise of China and, to a lesser extent,India and Indonesia, has rekindled ill-based fears of a threat to Australia from Asia.
