Please feel free to email, phone or visit this man with your opinions.
The Guardian has this afternoon reported that Human Services Minister Alan Tudge “accidentally” authorised the sending of confidential internal briefings concerning Centrelink complainant Andie Fox and marked “official use only,” to Fairfax journalist Paul Malone for publication.
The documents included information about Ms Fox from the Australian Tax Office. It’s unclear whether or not DHS has notified the ATO of this data breach.
The Guardian became aware of the “mistake” when the same documents were sent to that publication after journalists requested further information from DHS on the Tudge debacle.
Tudge has assured parliament that he lawfully authorised the release of Fox’s information to Malone. However, given he now claims some of those documents were “accidentally” released, he could not also have authorised them unless he authorised an accident, which is entirely possible and if so, situates us in even more bizarre territory than we found ourselves in yesterday.
It was also revealed today that Alan Tudge requires regular updates from his staff, gleaned from social media, on which Centrelink users are complaining about their experiences with that department.
Centrelink is stalking customers who publicly complain about their services.
Any Centrelink employee who released documents marked “for official use only” to the media would be sacked and prosecuted. I expect the same treatment for Minister Tudge. Don’t you?
Andie Fox is a single mother, chosen by Tudge as a scapegoat to distract from his astronomical incompetency. As I’ve noted in earlier posts, the power imbalance between Alan Tudge, Paul Malone of Fairfax, and Andie Fox is incalculable. As I’ve also noted before, there are thousands of complainants Tudge could have chosen to attack, however, he chose a single mother, one woman because, I suggest, he imagined her to be an easy target, and we know how the LNP feel about single mothers.
And yet not one leading feminist has seen fit to speak out about Ms Fox’s plight. Not one feminist with a platform has chosen to use it to discuss this situation. Not one leading feminist has got Ms Fox’s back, not one has questioned Tudge’s persecution of a single mother, not one has questioned the injustice of Ms Fox being in this situation in the first place because of her ex partner’s actions. A woman is under unprecedented attack by the Australian LNP government, and not one public feminist has said a word about it. WHY NOT?
To be continued.
No Place For Sheep 
I watching the early news on ABC ( feeling numb after a visit to my dentist) and hearing about Tudge and Centerlink, I said to hubby: I’m so pleased that Jennifer has written , not one, but TWO good articles on this…
You are better than the so -called prominent feminists, you care…
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Thanks, Helvi. I’m not shutting up about this anytime soon 🙂
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The top so-called ‘feminists” in Australia actually don’t like single mothers, they actually think we are lazy bludging sluts. I know because I have been subjected to the crap for 43 years.
The thing is though I think I am the epitome of a feminist as per the 1960;s because I don’t need or want a male handbag, I managed to raise my kid alone, I am a grandma and great grandma alone and I am proud of that but the so-called feminists think I don’t matter a damn.
My daughter was involved with the fathers of her children, she did far better when she dumped them both and she is a force to be reckoned with, something she now recognises was ingrained in her because of my own influence.
If the girl had a male hand bag she would be worth supporting – if that sounds bitter I don’t apologise, most of the so called leading feminists don’t know what the word means and are just frigging hypocrites.
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Feminism seems to be in its death throes in Australia, if its proponents can’t get behind Andie Fox.
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I WAS watching
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You could include just about all of those who should be opening their mouths on this example and Centrelink in general.
Vast numbers of male offenders who usually parade themselves as guardians of democracy ,justice and civil liberties have remained silent, as if joining their sistas in keeping muting in unison off the same hymnal.
To what extent, we need to know whether msm editors and executives are joining in on this silencing and why.
There is no doubt ideological neoliberalism has a grip on the white collar community, but it seems these folk are dumber than whole dumpsters of hammers when it comes to recognising how similar how they think and what they do resembles what people in control in the twentieth century dictatorships thought and did.
No doubt there is a link between Centrelink hounding of recipients, wages policy (eg overtime pay), 457 visa workers brought in at cheap wage rates and ripe for exploitation and the continued attack on trade unions, who finance Labor and to some extent the Greens.
Like the Cosmic Hum, we should recall there is certain amount of dog whistling involved, since many of the less informed have been brainwashed over time as to Centrelink beneficiaries and unskilled workers…all very Judenhechtish and it is true we are surely on the Road to Serfdom.
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I suppose it’s too much to expect Fairfax to run any commentary, given they published the stuff in the first place. Apparently the Canberra Times claims it asked DHS not to give them any private information. But when they got it, they published it.
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Great article Jennifer. Please do not shut up about it. Good point Paul. The silence on this is deafening.
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Thanks Trish
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And on that we agree, but the so-called leading light feminists neither respect or care about single parents.
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Good to hear from you, Trish.
One of the few more persistent voices features in the following article.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/mar/02/centrelink-labor-asks-police-to-investigate-release-of-welfare-recipients-data
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Jennifer, I agree wholeheartedly with your comments about Tudge. But I think it’s a long bow to draw blaming ‘feminists’ for not speaking out specifically on this issue. One can only speculate whether Tudge chose to attack Ms Fox because she was a single mother. If indeed feminists chose to attack Tudge from this position, it may well create a convenient strawman for Tudge to respond to rather that addressing the real issue of the breach of privacy.
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Hi, Suzie, I can’t think of a more currently appropriate issue for feminist attention. The speculation argument can be used in any situation and doesn’t work for me in this one. Tudge could have chosen any number of men with far more lengthy and disputable histories than Fox, but he didn’t, he chose a woman & a single mother
I’m not advocating that feminists attack Tudge from this position. I’m saying feminists should be speaking up in support of Fox & against the power imbalance that permits DHS & Fairfax to go after her in this way.
Feminism is about equality. Feminists speak out in the interests of a woman who is being persecuted by a government on very flimsy grounds. I’d expect feminists to speak out if Tudge had chosen a man as well: the issues of privacy and power are feminist issues.
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Well Tudge knows that Australian’s in general and ‘feminists” in particular don’t give a shit about single mothers, we are sluts, bludgers and losers.
The fact that Tudge chose to abuse a single mother instead of any of the thousands of blokes who have spoken out is proof he doesn’t give a stuff about single mothers either.
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Exactly. I think he was playing into the stereotype.
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This minister is in big trouble. Linda Burney and Labor are referring the matter to the federal police but in the meantime Tudge will resign to limit the damage to the government. Or be sacked, with greater prejudice to his career prospects.
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You reckon he’ll go, DQ? I keep coming back to Brandis who seems to hang n despite the most unimaginable stupidities.
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