The ACT Government was accused yesterday of “”tin-pot fascism” over the sending of police to The Canberra Times on Tuesday with a search warrant to discover the source of leaked Budget documents.
Two detectives came to The Canberra Times on Tuesday armed with a search warrant directed at Federal Capital Press, publisher of üThe Canberra Times, and journalist Crispin Hull. The warrant was for all documents, diary notes and fax records relating to ACT Budget records, or matters to or from the ACT Department of Health or the office of the Minister of Health, Wayne Berry.
The Canberra Times ran an article last Sunday detailing the health budget. The ACT Budget is expected to be brought down by the Chief Minsiter, Rosemary Follett, on September 15.
The editor of The Canberra Times, David Armstrong, wrote to Ms Follett yesterday protesting about sending police with a warrant.
The letters said, “”If you and your government have a problem with the security of information, either in ministers’ offices of thein administration at large, it ought, I suggest, be dealt with as a problem at source, rather than in the clumsy and inevitably unsuccessful attempts to intimidate the media. .#.#.
“”I am very concerned at what I perceive to be an increasingly authoritarian and anti-civil libertarian tendency emerging at various levels of government in Australia. I hope that your government’s exercise in tin-pot fascism on Tuesday does not represent a new phase of this developing in Canberra.”
The letter said leaking of government material was commonplace. It was often done by people in government for their own ends as a means of news management.
Mr Berry said he viewed the matter seriously. The chief executive of the Department of Health, Gillian Biscoe, had called in the police. The Attorney-General, Terry Connolly, said the Government did not order the raid. It was a matter for the police and the Government did not direct the police investigation.