All sensitive Govt docs are ‘Cabinet submissions’ or ‘attachments’ to prevent access to them under #FOI 😡. But after a 3 year secrecy battle, lost by Govt, we now know in detail what real Cabinet docs look like. This 🧵 will assist you debunking false Cabinet claims. #auspol Real Cabinet submissions have a strict one page summary page with mandatory content. 🧵 #FOI #auspol

The Strategic Defence Review has highlighted fuel supply as a significant point of vulnerability and recommends creation of a national Fuel Council. The Govt has not agreed to this. Meantime #FOI documents shows our tanks are close to empty. 🧵1/4 #auspol #SNAFU After BP and Mobil shut their refineries in 2021, we now import 77% of our refined fuel. Of the 33% locally refined fuel, 3/4 of its feedstock is imported. Minister Bowen’s most recent fuel security brief reveals we only have 22 days of diesel stored in-country. 🧵2/4 #auspol

The Senate has just passed the #NACC Bill. It won’t be the blind and toothless corruption watchdog Morrison reluctantly proposed, but with public hearings only in “exceptional circumstances” it’ll be a watchdog with only one ear and rarely be seen outside its kennel. #auspol Open hearings allow the public to see the allegations being investigated, the evidence, the counterfactuals, and most importantly, the conduct of counsel assisting and the Corruption Commissioner him or herself. They allow the public to be the scrutineers. #auspol

Since 1969 @dfat has exploited complicit and unwitting prime ministers & ministers from both sides of politics to defraud #TimorLeste of its oil & gas resource. DFAT's made the bed we now sadly have to lie in. All Aussies should read this thread! #auspol theguardian.com/world/2022/aug… 1969: Australia granted 5 petroleum exploration permits over parts of the seabed that lay closer to Portuguese-Timor than Australia … and then refused to talk to Portugal about a sea boundary, even after their 1970 formal protest about Australia's Timor Sea claim. #auspol

.@PeterDutton_MP’s rationale for the unaffordable $171 billion #AUKUS program has enough holes in it to sink a submarine without the need for @AustralianLabor to torpedo it. 1/10 #auspol theaustralian.com.au/commentary/lab… He starts by incorrectly boasting that “the US had only ever shared their nuclear sub­marine technology with the UK – and that was in 1958.” In the late 50’s the US offered nuke subs to the Dutch, Italians and Canadians who ultimately walked away from the US proposals. 2/10

ICYMI: Nice work by @TheAusInstitute highlighting an increasing lack of #transparency in the Federal Budget with greater resorting to NFP "not for publication" references to keep info secret. This #secrecy cancer just keeps growing. #auspol #righttoknow tai.org.au/content/new-an… . @TheAusInstitute highlights a few NFP examples including the costs of managing an abandoned oil rig formerly owned by Woodside; money for the controversial Inland Rail project and expenditure relating to Australia’s Export Finance and Insurance Corporation. All are secret.

1/4 The Senate FADT Committee is examining the Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Bill today. All States & Territories were invited to make submissions. Few have done so and invitations to appear before the Committee have been declined. Why? #auspol 2/4 State/Territory responses so far. NSW - No submission, invite declined; VIC - no sub, invite declined; QLD - no sub, not invited; ACT - sub made, not invited; TAS - sub made, not invited; SA - no sub, not invited; NT - sub pending, invite declined; WA - no sub, not invited.

The #covidsafe App will be useful for public health and will save lives. However, there are still some areas of concern in relation to privacy that means whether YOU choose to download and use it is matter of YOUR circumstances #auspol In the Australian hierarchy of legislation, a ‘Ministerial Determination’ (under an Act) would not override the provisions in an actual Act passed by the Parliament - e.g. such as the search warrants provisions of the Crimes Act #auspol #covidsafe

#wuhanvirus More than 40 direct #China flights will arrive in Australia today. Only flights from Wuhan are being screened by biosecurity, but those flights have stopped. Why aren’t ALL direct flights being screened? #auspol #aushealth #bordersecurity #wuhanvirus now reported to have killed 18 people. 630 confirmed infections. Of 22 Chinese provinces & 11 other regions, only 7 have not reported confirmed infections. 5 Chinese cities are locked down but hundreds of millions of people will still travel in Lunar New Year period.

Australian Access Capital Company Pty Ltd: more questions for Gladys Liu to resolve in parliament next week, unless it’s just “clumsy” parliamentary disclosure #auspol

https://twitter.com/abcmelbourne/status/1172415499801485312

It is curious that Ms Liu’s initial parliamentary declaration of interests (as at the time of her election on 18 May) failed to declare her interest in Australian Access Capital Company Pty Ltd, of which she had been the director and sole shareholder for eleven years.

Listening to @RNDrive . I have seen the brief that was provided to @Barnaby_Joyce. The documentation came from the department, not the QLD Government. Before he approved the purchase he should have made his own inquiry. The Australian Government Solicitor acted for Commonwealth. Did he ask any questions of the AGS about the entity he was dealing with? #watergate