Raided MP demands probe into AFP, ASIO ‘leak’
LAWYERS for NSW Upper House MP Shaoquett Moselmane have demanded an investigation into whether the Australian Federal Police, spy agency ASIO, or the office of Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton deliberately tipped off the media ahead of police raids on the politician’s home.
The Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, the Federal Law Enforcement Ombudsman and the AFP professional standards have been asked to hunt down the person who revealed the police operational details and Mr Moselmane’s address.
Letters from Sydney law firm Prominent Lawyers claimed the media was outside the Labor politician’s home in Rockdale before the AFP entered his home, and the tip-off could only have “come from a member of the government or someone employed by the government”.
The letters said the attendance of the media “smacked of tactics that resulted in a gross and fundamental breach of privacy”.
Mr Moselmane’s home and office were raided by AFP officers in the early hours of June 26. The warrant for those raids was only signed at 10pm the night before. The raids were part of an unprecedented investigation into foreign inter- ference in Australian politics. The home and business of Mr Moselmane’s part-time staffer r John Zhang were also raided as s authorities investigate wheth- er Chinese agents attempted to o influence the Labor politician n or others in his office.
Mr Zhang is challenging the e warrants in the High Court.
TOMORROW GINA MOSCH
on the web: asksue-belinda.com euphemism of ‘kicking the bucket’ and if being ‘beyond the pail’ might therefore be beyond the cares of this world? That is carefully considered thinking, but sadly it was based on a false premise, the spelling of the word as ‘pail’. When the spelling is corrected from ‘pail’ to ‘pale’ as exists in the expression ‘beyond the pale’, we need to reconsider.
Now we have a new problem.
‘Pale’ to 21st century eyes and ears is an adjective – ask most 20 somethings and they’ll possibly associate it with India Pale Ale. However, ‘pale’ was not always just a word to give depth and dimension to another.
Once it commanded strength and authority on its own.
‘Pale’ had two meanings. One related to faded colour or definition and one, the one to which we shall now address ourselves, did share an origin with our old friends the
Romans and the Latin language. The colour ‘pale’ links to ‘pallere’ meaning ‘to be pale’, while the word to which we must direct attention, comes from ‘palus’ meaning a stake.
You, like me, may have watched your share of gladiator movies during school holidays.
In those movies we sometimes saw soldiers and gladiators in training drills.
Think hard and you may recall the gladiators practising their sword drills on a huge wooden block that had been driven into the ground and was meant to represent their opponent. These blocks were the size of tree trunks, but cut neatly into a rectangular prism with pointed top and base before being driven into the ground as a vertical column. They were called ‘palus’.
When Romans created settlements, they would initially build barrier fences around their camps. They would anchor the fences at points with strong palus blocks. These would later be replaced with stone walls.
The area protected within the fence email: sue-belinda.meehan@outlook.com.au became known as ‘the pale’ and it was not safe to try to proceed beyond the enclosing palus points.
The boundary simultaneously exists in two ways – those within the barrier are protected from those outside and those outside the barrier should not become interlopers inside the barrier as they may be harmed.
In The History of Polindor and Flostella written by the Elizabethan writer Sir John Harington around 1612, he writes of a character who walked ‘beyond the pale’ – beyond the boundary – of his park residence and was set upon by five armed horsemen. Given the appearance of the term in literature, it is safe to assume it was still being used in spoken language some 1200 years since the Romans left England.
During the time of the Russian Revolution in 1917, there were Russian pales set up.
Within the barricades, the Russian Jews were safe, but outside their safety could not be guaranteed. Dublin too had a pale though it was marked figuratively by streets rather than actual fencing.
Over time the expression ‘beyond the pale’ took on a conceptual meaning. When someone asked of you a favour that was ‘beyond the pale’, it meant that you were being asked to perform a service which was beyond the bounds of reasonableness.
You were being asked to do something that was completely beyond your standard of conduct. For example, if a friend were to ask me to sit an exam for them, I would consider the request ‘beyond the pale’ and I would be unable to assist them.
If they asked me to help them study, I’d be happy to give aid and support.
So Ross, if something is ‘beyond the pale’, it’s beyond what you would feel safe or comfortable or legal to do. If it’s ‘beyond the pail’ it’s just past the bucket!