– Identifying local interest, national and international news stories: Consistently pitching two to three news stories which balanced local interest with hard news each week at Radio Adelaide’s Breakfast news.
– Developing a news story from concept stage through to publication: During my ABC internship, identifying a Congressional Hearing on NSA Surveillance as newsworthy, pitching it to the Executive Producer and then briefing Foreign Correspondent Michael Vincent on the hearing and providing necessary audio grabs for both an ABC National Radio and TV segment. I have since also written an article summary currently being considered for publication.
– Application of Legal knowledge: Actively applying knowledge of common law and precedence in covering live streams of the Zimmerman court proceedings over several days.
– Finding and building a balanced network of contacts: Finding a wide range of experts on local council issues, government policy onto Middle East affairs for Radio Adelaide’s Breakfast news. Also, looking to personal networks in finding talent for coverage of the Adelaide Fringe month.
– Certified in Radio Production (Radio Adelaide training intensive)
– Basic Lighting and Sound skills: Assisted with indoor/outdoor lighting and sound during a daylong ABC Catalyst shoot. Also, I was soundman for a Bradley Manning rally which involved capturing a rapidly moving crowd and on demand interviews.
– Proficiency across both Windows and Mac platforms
Julian Assange’s 3:30 am convictions during Wednesday 7th August’s Fairfax Election Hangout reinforced the intrigue surrounding the whistleblower archetype as the audience gripped a Wikileaks Party reality.
Concerned only with all-or-nothing governmental oversight, Assange stepped beyond panel speculation on his current political asylum, instead directing attention towards DFAT’s inadequate procedures for Aussies abroad. In a landscape of personality politics, Wikileaks can credit Assange’s answers for finding an informative balance between the Party’s ethos and self-promotion. Aptly, a pro-Assange panel does seem the predictable company for a webcam ‘hangout’ with little serious cross-examination of the Wikileaks policy platform, or lack thereof.
Assange was honest in declaring, ‘We are not a party of government, we are a party of oversight’. Undoubtedly, Wikileaks’ presence in the Senate would answer the call for much needed scrutiny of ‘systematised injustice’ within government. Choosing Wikileaks as an insurance policy against a major party’s monopoly over the Senate is an attractive idea. Although, Wikileaks passes the buck on introducing a contrasting policy platform to our current politics of the center.
Assange views such a platform as ‘fantasy policies on the side’. Unfortunately his perspective on both refugee policy and the NBN rollout went little further than non-answers criticising both parties for tackling complex issues with reductively simple solutions. Here, it becomes clear that stepping society forward under openly disruptive Wikileaks transparency will certainly be a thorn in the foot of parliamentary process. For better or worse, the Wikileaks Party will function at the expense of governmental cohesion until its institutions are exposed and ‘diminished in political power’ or transformed into a transparent operation.
Assange responded to high school panellist Elaine Koh’s online privacy question by indicating our movement towards a dystopian surveillance state. Yet, the evolving concept of privacy complicates Wikileaks’ yardstick on surveillance. The whistleblower ethic certainly excels at holding a single actor to account. However, the hyperactive evolution of social media through networks like Facebook sees Society, as a whole, willingly divulge the intimate.
In responding to social media, Society’s perception of appropriate personal information to publicise is still up for grabs. Consequently, accountability becomes an instrument to influence the privacy standard that society will land upon in the internet age. The Wikileaks Party wields governmental accountability as a tool for such activism. After all, the potency of Wikileaks is not in revealing the new, but rather, in bluntly confronting society with the practices it has consented to. Their senate bid may be mistaken as vying to be accommodated by Government, but Wikileaks very much aspires to set the agenda on surveillance.
For fellow transparency activists, this is a beautifully crafted step forward if they get the votes. Assange’s success lies in whether Society deems the dismantling of unjust governmental systems to be an election priority. The public must consider whether Senate is the appropriate venue for an ideological move operating at the expense of policy reform. Equally, the undecided majority should not underestimate the virtues or scope of transparency under the Wikileaks Party.
The past Thursday found ex-Goldman Sachs trader Fabrice Tourre liable for a fraudulent $1 billion securities deal, pre cursing the 2008 financial crash. In a three week trial whose complexity justifies our confusion at what caused the GFC, a Federal jury upheld six of the seven counts against Tourre.
Far from smooth sailing, the SEC’s case encountered problems in relaying necessary financial concepts to a visibly alienated jury with one juror notably nodding off several times. The jury’s struggle captured the gulf between the complex structures driving global finance and a confused public. Even the legal elite drawn by Tourre’s high profile case were hounded by presiding Judge Katherine Forrest, who repetitively urged the lawyers to avoid using too much financial jargon. Tourre’s lead attorney, John ‘Sean’ Coffey remarked that the “jury’s lost”.
Tourre, self-nicknamed Fabulous Fab, misstepped in an incriminating email to his girlfriend which the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) used to establish his intent to mislead investors regarding the 2007 ABACUS deal. Tourre’s failure to inform investors about the role of John A. Paulson’s hedge fund in ABACUS, known as a Collateralized Debt Obligation, led to a deal constructed to fail in favour of Paulson.
Whilst Tourre was the responsible Goldman Sachs representative for ABACUS, a deal of this size undoubtedly passed Goldman Sachs’ mortgage capital committee. Why have the committee members not been pursued? Simply, Tourre’s email claiming “the whole building is about to collapse anytime now’ made him easy sport for the SEC.
The finding against Tourre holds a significant place in the SEC’s pursuit of parties responsible for the financial crash, especially Goldman Sachs who had settled with the SEC in 2010 to the tune of $550 million. With Tourre’s liability now established, the SEC’s credibility rests in its next move. Will they continue to fry small fish or go after the Wall Street giants responsible for the financial crisis.
Potentially incurring large fines and a ban from the Securities industry, Tourre is currently awaiting his punishment.
Pickwickian 