Letter

In response to Mike Burgess on the ASIO soapbox, again

Spooks and the need for fear

Paddy demonstrates a realistic view of the self-promotion of spooks. They are the least accountable public organisations as they cover their activities with a cloak of “national security” more often than not to prevent the public from seeing the vast waste of public funds involved.

Burgess deals in generalisations and vaguely worded, but titillating, assertions without ever being required to produce for the public paying for this any substantive evidence. It is the position many public servants envy. Much public money and no accountability for its use or misuse.

The estimates of savings that he suggests ASIO achieves are equally based on deliberate exaggeration, fantasy and wishful thinking. His statements, rather then confirming his necessity, suggest the need for the reallocation of the billion dollars he consumes to more useful public services.

— Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041