In A Secret Australia, eighteen independent and prominent Australians discuss what Australia has learned about itself from the WikiLeaks revelations. This is an Australia that officials do not want us to see. However Australians may perceive our place in the world, whether as dependable ally or good international citizen, WikiLeaks has shown us a startlingly different story. This is an Australia that officials do not want us to see, where the Australian Defence Force's 'information operations' are deployed to maintain public support for our foreign war contributions, where media-wide super injunctions are issued by the government to keep politicians' and major corporations' corruption scandals secret, where the US Embassy prepares profiles of Australian politicians to fine-tune its lobbying and ensure support for the 'right' policies. The revelations flowing from the releases of millions of secret and confidential official documents by WikiLeaks have helped Australians to better understand why the world is not at peace, why corruption continues to flourish, and why democracy is faltering. This greatest ever leaking of hidden government documents in world history yields knowledge that is essential if Australia, and the rest of the world, is to grapple with the consequences of covert, unaccountable and unfettered power. Contributors include author Scott Ludlam, former defence secretary Paul Barratt, lawyers Julian Burnside and Jennifer Robinson, academics Richard Tanter, Benedetta Brevini, John Keane, Suelette Dreyfus, Gerard Goggin and Clinton Fernandes, psychologist Lissa Johnson, as well as writers and journalists Andrew Fowler, Quentin Dempster, Antony Loewenstein, Guy Rundle, George Gittoes, Helen Razer and Julian Assange.
Peter Cronau (Editor) is an investigative journalist, and producer for ABC TV's investigative documentary program Four Corners, and has won numerous journalism awards including the Gold Walkley on the political violence in East Timor in 2006. He has reported for ABC Radio's Background Briefing, most recently with the groundbreaking report 'Pine Gap's Role in US Warfighting'. His forthcoming book is titled The Base: Australia's Secret Role in America's Global Wars.
Felicity Ruby is a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney undertaking research on surveillance and democracy. She was advisor to Scott Ludlam for his first six years in the Australian Senate. Prior to this she headed the UN Office for the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and was a policy advisor at the UN Development Fund for Women and at Greenpeace International.
Sad but true: Eisenhower in his retirement address, Curtis LeMay's reaction to Cuban missiles and the disclosures in WikiLeaks teach us, as citizens, the need for greater transparency in relation to our dangerous governments. -- The Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG
Exceptional, illuminating, and deeply disturbing. With commanding breadth this superb collection highlights the dangers to democracy of proliferating information control and official secrecy, exploring the powerful transformative work of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks in exposing dark secrets as an exemplar of Australian investigative journalism. His persecution is our shame. -- Emeritus Professor Jenny Hocking
