Raising Hell: Issue 60: Go Off, King

I don’t like to brag but when I’m onto something, but in this case I’ll make an exception.

Regular Raising Hell listeners will know how way back at the start of the pandemic I teamed up with Electronic Frontiers Australia to use Freedom of Information to examine the building of the COVIDSafe contact tracing app. It was a story that investigated the machine that built the machine and used the documents I obtained to show the extent to which an app that was meant to solve the pandemic ended up an embarrassing exercise in techie, utopian solutioneering.

You can read what went down here as I won’t be going into any of that history in detail. What I do want to spend a brief moment talking about is the scathing Australian National Audit Office report published last week that pretty much confirmed I had been onto something when I began asking serious questions about the set up at the Digital Transformation Agency.

At the time the Agency fought to avoid having to answer questions and releasing documents — even going so far as to hit me with a charge of hundreds of dollars to access a handful of emails. When I appealed the decision later, they retracted it knowing it was indefensible. Now we know why: they were operating like cowboys.

Of course that’s not the official conclusion of the ANAO which prefers to stick to the clean and clunky language of the bureaucracy, but it is the spirit of what they uncovered. To give you the flavour, the word “ethical” was repeated 49 times through the document and the phrase “short of ethical requirements” was repeated separate five times to describe how the agency handled procurement, payment of suppliers and the process of actually checking whether the work requested was done right. Here is how the ANAO summarised the situation in its summary:

“The DTA has not been following its internal policies and procedures, and there are weaknesses in its governance oversight and probity arrangements for procurements”.

In so many words: cowboys.

All of this, of course, tracks with what we found at Raising Hell. When I asked for the Key Performance Indicators or similar measures of performance on the contract with BCG under Freedom of Information, the agency’s response was that the documents didn’t exist. That was weird, I thought, but then I moved on to the next pertinent fact. According to the ANAO it turns out this was just business for usual for the agency that didn’t like to generate a paper trail, as the ANAO report also concluded:

“For the two procurements related to the COVIDsafe app, the DTA was unable to produce any documentation to demonstrate that performance had been monitored.”

Of course, it’s impossible this would have led to any problems whatsoever, especially for an agency that had a habit of handing out bags of cash to its pets suppliers — oh wait:

At any rate the report is full of little tales such as these for the morbidly curious. Feel free to skim through at your leisure. Beyond validating the frustration of many within the tech community felt at how things went down, for me the big takeaway beyond the validation of my work is the proof of concept this offers for other deep dives into matters of public policy. The exciting thing now is choosing where to focus next…

For the Fortnight: August 31 to September 27

Reporting In

Where I recap what I’ve been doing this last fortnight so you know I’m not just using your money to stimulate the local economy …

***LIVE SHOW!*** ***UPDATED*** Due to the untimely demise of the monarch this the talk organised by Unley City Library had to be postponed. Do not worry, however, as this just means more time to buy tickets. Details below!

• Raising Hell went to Narrabri. But then you already knew that…

• The Oil and Gas Industry Refuses To Die (Rolling Stone AU, September 2022).

  Every year Australia's oil and gas industry gathers for its national conference. I went along to this year's event in Brisbane and wrote this for @rollingstoneaus about how the industry refuses to die.
  
  Out now.

  — Royce Kurmelovs (@RoyceRk2) 7:10 AM ∙ Sep 5, 2022

• ‘‘Technical glitch: frustrated AFL fans served episodes of Border Security instead of grand final” (Guardian Australia, 24 September 2022).

• ‘‘Fears for Indigenous rock art as construction begins on WA’s Burrup peninsula” (Guardian Australia, 24 September 2022).

• ‘‘AFP investigates $1m ransom demand posted online for allegedly hacked Optus data” (Guardian Australia, 24 September 2022).

• ‘‘Optus data breach: cybersecurity reforms expected to enable companies to rapidly inform financial institutions” (Guardian Australia, 25 September 2022).

• ‘‘Optus cyber-attack leaves customers feeling ‘powerless’ over risk of identity theft” (Guardian Australia, 23 September 2022).

• Tiny solar backpacks could help save the plains wanderer – one of Australia’s most endangered birds (Guardian Australia, 18 September 2022).

• Beachfront homeowners push to extend Collaroy seawall to protect property from erosion (Guardian Australia, 18 September 2022).

You Hate To See It

A dyspeptic, snark-ridden and highly ironic round-up of the news from our shared hellscape…

• Just Dude’s Being Bros

  In a fine display of geopolitical bipartisanship, Turkish President Recep Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev put aside their differences to sit down together, nail a delicious spread of fresh fruits and fine cheeses, and crack jokes. The moment gave these hard working public figures a chance to decompress and distract themselves from a string of human rights abuses they are collectively responsible for, and the military conflicts two-and-a-half of the four present were currently engaged in against their neighbours.
  

  

• Go Off King

  Australia is used to be told how it is a republic in all but name. The British monarch who reigns as official head of state only exists in something of a ceremonial figurehead with no real influence on everyday affairs. Turns out that living in a monarchy means actually living in a monarchy. Following the Queen’s death, British police arrested four men in Scotland for protesting the monarchy, another for heckling alleged pedophile Prince Andrew — so many people that the National Police Chiefs Council had to step in and put out guidance to all officers in the UK reminding them that the right to protest is actually a fundamental democratic right. Before you go thinking this was just something limited to the dark shores of the UK, a man from Gawler being escorted from Government House in South Australia for calling for the abolition of the monarchy. That said our regicidal cousins in the Anglosphere shouldn’t feel too smug though, what with the spectacle of LAPD Officer Toni McBride — who once killed a man — firing modified handguns like Rambo thanks to a lucrative handgun sponsorship.

• Vale, Liz, Queen Girlboss

  Australians, of course, have been greatly moved by the passing of their monarch. Between the wall to wall coverage on the ABC, including forensic reportage such as Prince King Charles struggling with a pen, a solemn tribute was made by none other than Sarino Russo (net worth $267m). Standing out the front of Berdorf and Goodman, the woman who made her fortune converting the working poor and unemployed into financial assets offered a salute to Queen Elizabeth, saying: “the woman who founded women power and women commitment and driving excellence for the last 70 years.” Meanwhile, behind her a person living with a disability begged for change.

• Meet The New Boss

  The new boss at the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association has been feted with a friendly interview in the Australian Financial Review, headline: “The expat out to convince Australia that gas is not so bad”. Samantha McCulloch where she offered sage insights to her friendly scribe such as: “[Gas] is a natural ally for renewables because it’s so flexible, because it’s so responsive, it is the fuel that is supporting a greater penetration of renewables deployment in our energy mix”. In another breath she sought to pour cold water on an IEA report from 2021 that found there can be no new oil, gas or coal developed to keep average global warming to 1.5C, saying:

  “This is one scenario produced by the IEA […] Two points I would make in terms of the IEA’s net zero scenario. The first one is it relies on unprecedented global cooperation. Unprecedented cooperation in terms of developing technologies, in terms of energy trade. This is not the direction of travel we’re seeing currently.”

• What’s Your Price?

  But then what is the opinion worth of those in the bottom forty per cent of the income spectrum? About .96 cents or thereabouts — which is exactly the figure single mother-of-four Sandy Smith was paid in compensation after being slapped with two separate debts under the Robodebt scheme. The Robodebt class action may have failed to bring justice and compensation for the victims, but then Afterpay may have a solution for those struggling to live their best life.

  “dance your climate crisis depression away with spiralling debt anxiety” is a bold approach

  — Jessica Alice (@jessica_alice_) 1:40 AM ∙ Sep 14, 2022

Failing Upward

Where we recognise and celebrate the true stupidity of the rich, powerful and influential…

• In a curious twist for Raising Hell’s elite satire unit, we are today recognising the fine contribution of Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews. What has the man done now, you ask well? Well, in a fit of a grief at the passing of Queen Liz it seems Andrews has promised to rename Maroondah Hospital in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, the dearly departed monarch. This act, on par with that time Tony Abbott tried to bring back knighthoods, has gone down about as well as you might expect.
  And look. We get the political calculus being made here. Who are Victorians going to vote for at the election? Matthew Guy? Please. Naming a hospital after the Queen is a cost-free way to sure up votes in the monarchy-curious centre right while also acting as an insurance policy the next time the right wing commentariat decides to haul you over the coals for not being sufficiently loyal (like during a referendum on becoming a Republic). It is still a display as cynical as it is craven.

Good Reads, Good Times

To share the love, here are some of the best or more interesting reads from the last fortnight…

• Enjoy reading through internal emails from the oil industry types that were provided to a US House Committee investigation into how fossil fuel companies have mislead the public about climate change.

• I would post the video but we’re already coming up on the maximum length, but some of the footage coming out from the protests in Iran is actually incredible and worth acknowledging.

• A poignant reminder…

  Graffiti in St Petersburg:
  
  "To start with you were indifferent to politics and now you're cannon fodder"

  — Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) 10:06 PM ∙ Sep 23, 2022

Before You Go (Go)…

• Are you a public sector bureaucrat whose tyrannical boss is behaving badly? Have you recently come into possession of documents showing some rich guy is trying to move their ill-gotten-gains to Curacao? Did you take a low-paying job with an evil corporation registered in Delaware that is burying toxic waste under playgrounds? If your conscience is keeping you up at night, or you’d just plain like to see some wrong-doers cast into the sea, we here at Raising Hell can suggest a course of action: leak! You can securely make contact through Signal or through encrypted message Wickr Me on my account: rorok1990. Alternatively you can send us your hard copies to: PO Box 134, Welland SA 5007
• And if you’ve come this far, consider supporting me further by picking up one of my books, leaving a review or by just telling a friend about Raising Hell!