Bravo, via Domain:
South Australian Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick is seeking to overturn a decades-long convention in Australia that ministers, assistant ministers and parliamentary secretaries – unlike their staff and public servants – are exempt from security checks before accessing classified government material.
…Importantly, the security services would not be able to veto ministerial appointments, which would be left to the prime minister’s discretion.
In an explosive adjournment speech to the Senate on Tuesday night, Senator Patrick fleshed out the backdrop to his proposal and took aim at prominent Labor identities Sam Dastyari and Joel Fitzgibbon over unanswered questions about their ties to Chinese political donors.
Look out Labor’s China flunkies.
