Gladys Berejiklian and Daryl Maguire (Images: AAP)
Many of us spent more time consuming news in 2020 than any other year in memory. But never has information been so desperately sought and so frequently hidden.
Take the story of the year: a deadly virus that upended the world killing more than a million people. Almost a year on and we’re none the wiser about how it started.
And with China waging a trade war with Australia for trying to find out, we’ll be waiting a while for the answer.
It wasn’t just China dodging interrogation. It seemed like all across the world the powerful were perfecting the art of evasion. In Australia questions about alleged corruption, pork-barrelling and secret affairs were batted away with innovative PR, deflection and spin.
Sydney news: Major traffic delays on M1 heading north after motorbike and truck collide
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Major delays on M1
There are major delays on the M1, north of Wollongong, after a motorcyclist suffered serious injuries in a crash.
A truck and a motorcycle collided at Cataract, Bulli Tops, around 5:00am this morning, NSW Police said.
The male motorcyclist was treated at the scene for multiple injuries before being taken by NSW Ambulance under police escort to St George Hospital.
Northbound motorists are being diverted at Picton Road and can use the Hume Motorway to continue their journey north; however, motorists wishing to use the M1 Princes Motorway can divert via Memorial Drive in Wollongong and use Bulli Pass to return to the motorway.
Shanghai-Based Diplomatic Missions Inadvertently Hiring CCP Members Amid Major Data Leak
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has been prompted into action following the revelations.
At least 10 Shanghai-based consulates, including the Australian, American, British, German, Swiss, Indian, Italian, New Zealand, and South African missions had CCP members working in senior positions, according to The Australian.
Some have worked within the diplomatic missions for over a decade. A Chinese paramilitary police officer gestures and speaks over his two-way radio while standing at the entrance gate of the Australian embassy in Beijing on July 9, 2020. (Nicolas Asfour/AFP via Getty Images)
One intelligence source told The Australian that ASIO had begun investigating the matter saying: “There’s intelligence-gathering going on.”
Labor helps expand Australian spy agency’s secret interrogation powers
Last Thursday, just as parliament shut down for the year, the opposition Labor Party joined hands with the Liberal-National Coalition government to pass a bill to significantly expand the police-state powers of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).
In just a matter of hours, the ASIO Amendment Bill was pushed through both the House of Representatives and the Senate with virtually no debate, accompanied by lavish praise for ASIO, the main domestic political surveillance agency.
The legislation allows ASIO to secretly interrogate teenagers as young as 14, rather than 16. It also extends ASIO’s coercive questioning powers beyond alleged terrorism-related activity to suspected “foreign interference,” “espionage” and “politically motivated violence.”
ASIO investigating Aussie consulate after Chinese Communist Party database leak geelongadvertiser.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from geelongadvertiser.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.