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AFP lost hundreds of National Security files
by Ashlynne McGhee and Michael McKinnon via james - ABC (Oz) Tuesday, Jan 30 2018, 9:11pm
international / prose / post

Australia is part of the "five eyes" network of spying nations which were formed primarily by the NSA so host nations could spy on local populations without the need of warrants and to circumvent local laws; it is/was illegal for US agencies, for instance, to spy on Americans, so in order for agencies to circumvent local laws they spied from other compliant nations, a despicable dirty trick to say the least.

Infant, apron-stringed Australia since WWII has always unquestionably obliged America regardless of legalities, the Iraq war with its horrendous civilian death toll, a' la criminal PM John Howard, is a good example. However, as is evident from the ABC article (below) our national security structure and bureaucracy leave a lot to be desired -- understatement of the year!

In a nutshell they simply do not pay qualified employees enough to retain the best in various fields, particularly in IT matters which are VITAL today. Our best are lured overseas by high wages, usually THREE times, for the same work, they could obtain here. And yet successive local governments of both political stripes, persist in policies that depress real wages and syphon existing monies to useless corporations, CEOs and executives, whose pay is clearly not performance based -- which incompetence outrage is sure to be proven with the Royal Commission into the Banks, whose IT systems, I would add, particularly NAB, are in DRASTIC need of updating/renewal -- notwithstanding this insider 'disease/incompetence' is now widespread throughout the Australian private and public sectors.

Australian agencies and subcontractors are routinely hacked by foreign entities for highly sensitive information simply due to the fact, as previously stated, our best work for Big Tech in Silicon Valley, which companies have no qualms about paying very high wages for skill and competence.

Now we learn that government agency incompetence and a care-less attitude have compromised highly secret, hard copy files, well done agency and regulatory clowns; which reminds Australians of the joint effort by regulatory and spy agencies to remove the Martin Place bomber/terrorist from constant surveillance/monitoring only weeks before his attack, even though the public alerted numerous agencies and police of posts to his internet site indicating a terrorist attack. Thinking Australians would also note that no heads rolled as a result of this clearly orchestrated event -- who are you people trying to kid? They were all complicit in this unusual concerted action. So not only do we have obvious incompetence, we have collusion and corruption at the highest levels of State and Federal government.

So is it really a surprise that the situation is now out of control?

The price for this level of ineptitude is of course allied nations would think twice before sharing or alerting Australia to highly sensitive data and necessary information, as clearly Australia cannot be trusted.

ABC article follows:

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) lost nearly 400 national security files in five years, according to a secret government stocktake contained in The Cabinet Files.

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet regularly audits all government departments and agencies that have access to the classified documents to ensure they are securely stored.

The missing documents are not the same files the ABC has obtained.

The classified documents lost by the AFP are from the powerful National Security Committee (NSC) of the cabinet, which controls the country's security, intelligence and defence agenda.

The secretive committee also deploys Australia's military and approves kill, capture or destroy missions.

Most of its documents are marked "top secret" and "AUSTEO", which means they are to be seen by Australian eyes only.

An email exchange between the cabinet secretariat and the AFP reveals the documents were lost between 2008 and 2013, while Labor was in government.

The exchange does not reveal any investigation by either the secretariat or the AFP into how the documents were lost, who lost them, or where they might be now.

It also does not reveal the nature, nor the content of the missing NSC documents.

Troop deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, counter-terrorism operations, foreign relations and Australia's border protection were among the top-secret and sensitive issues decided in the five-year period.

The cabinet secretariat's general practice was to give up searching and write off lost documents if they could not be found after consecutive audits, according to another document in The Cabinet Files.

The ABC has contacted the AFP for comment.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-31/cabinet-files-reveal-inner-government-decisions/9168442