Home Spy Kit

It’s a novel approach for many Australian’s, the old Stalinist, spy on your friends and neighbours routine. [to dob, the act of reporting suspicious or bad behavior to an authority]

Most, in the past, have prided themselves on an antiauthoritarian stance, which precludes tattling, dobbing, coppering, telling tales on supposed wrong doers.

Obviously things change, and the tensions from an increasing racial mix make some groups fair game.

Apparently more than 80,000 people have called the national security hotline to report suspicious behaviour since it was set up 3½ years ago

This is the "Be alert, not alarmed" campaign. Out of 12+ million, over 3 ½ years 80,000 is not a significant portion of the population, but still unheard of in the country’s history.

Oh, there has always been do-gooders and moral policemen [usually women], those during wartime ever ready to secretly mark apparently eligible men, who stayed home, with white feathers. No country is perfect!

Now comfortable, middle class European Australians have any number of obviously suspect foreigners for neighbours. So for some at least, all bets are off – dob a neigbour, feel the power!

"Be alert, not alarmed"

What is the result of the hard work of all these vigilant Aussies, so quick to the phone to tattle on some suspicious behavior? Well if you assumed every terrorist arrest in the country was sparked by a phone call by a lert (the country needs its lerts), no more than a few dozen dangerous customers have been identified.

But the ratio isn’t even that good. One ‘dobber’ quite rightly reported the suspicious purchase of quantities of material, which added up to a fairly specific bomb making scenario. The purchaser was put under surveillance which led police to a wider group.

Now note, this particular ‘dobber’ was a specialist in his field, not Mrs Kafoops, a genuine lert, hiding behind her venetian blinds.

In short, while the government is crowing about the effectiveness of this campaign, in reality it is a costly croc of dog droppings; probably great for seeding their sick message in the community, but useless as a crime fighting tool.

Dob in a lying, sleazy, thieving, cheating politician

Okay, a bit wordy, but I think we should start a counter campaign. According to the rules of the game, there is no need for hard evidence – just suspicion.

Anyone, and I mean anyone, who is or is associated with, or dresses like, or walks and talks like a politician is open game.

I think outing crooked lawmakers could become a worldwide sport, if only I can find a server large enough to carry the list of names and supposed crime they have committed.