Man Formerly Charged With Rigging Student Ballot Exposed As Labor Official

First time accepted submitter pocock writes "Motivated by reports of Matthew Weaver's twelve month jail sentence for rigging CalState student elections, a comprehensive blog describes in detail how a generation of student ballot riggers from the late 1990s have graduated unhindered into federal politics, playing a pivotal role in Australia's upcoming federal election. One can only wonder if Weaver had not been caught, would he too have eventually swiped a million dollars and put the SRC into liquidation?"

Comments

"Ratfucking"

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

A similar dynamic of student-election "dirty tricks" graduating into general election bugging and sabotage of election opponents played out during the Watergate scandal. Donald Segretti cut his teeth in election fraud during his USC days, and later applied his skills in Nixon's reelection campaign, the resulting "Muskie letters" effectively knocking a democratic senator out of the campaign. Karl Rove came from the same school of campaigning.

These incidents are as perfect an example of "Broken Window Theory" in politics as you are likely to come across. "Shenanigans" in college, if left unchecked, lead inevitably to outright election fraud. If you permit criminals to train their skills, operate unpunished, and indeed enjoy the rewards of their misdeeds, they are unlikely to change their ways in a hurry.

On a related note, I regard most student politcs in universities as a wholly illegitimate process. The resulting bodies and persons do not represent the student body or its values. At best, they organise drunken festivals and serve as a training ground for the corrupt and incompetent cadre currently in charge of the western world.

Re:"Ratfucking"

[guttentag]

Was just thinking the same thing and looking up the quotes:

BERNSTEIN
At USC, you had a word the this--
screwing up the opposition you all
did it at college and called it
ratfucking.
(SEGRETTI half-smiles, nods)
Ever wonder if Nixon might turn out
to be the biggest ratfucker of them
all?


...

DEEP THROAT
My turn to keep you waiting.
(approaches)
What's the topic for tonight?

WOODWARD
Ratfucking.

DEEP THROAT
In my day, it was simply called the
double cross. I believe the CIA refers
to it as Mindfuck. In our context,
it simply means infiltration of the
Democrats.

WOODWARD
I know what it means--Segretti
wouldn't go on the record, but if he
would, we know he'd implicate Chapin.
And that would put us inside the
White House.

DEEP THROAT
(nods)
Yes, the little ratfuckers are now
running our government.

I own the movie on DVD, but ironically, I had to go to a Russian site for the transcript.

Re:Aus Labor Party is anything but democratic

[Trepidity]

Yeah, but the only alternative is the "Liberal Party", which has nothing liberal about it.

Re:Weaver is a Labor Official?

[Trepidity]

It's confusingly written, but the blurb (and story) are just using him as the hook. The rest of the story is about Australian politics.

The premise seems to be something like this:

1. Heard about this guy Matthew Weaver, who's been in the news after he was convicted of rigging student elections in California?

2. Well, on that subject, did you know that a bunch of current Australian politicians also have a background rigging student elections back in their college days?

Both major parties are bad

[tdelaney]

The two major parties are very similar in most respects. Both parties have been trying to out-do each other in reprehensible policies.

For me the election has come down to just a few issues:

1. The (incumbent) Labor party has a future-proofing, infrastructure-based Fibre-to-the-Premises broadband policy that is in build at the moment. The (opposition) Liberal/National coalition has a patchwork Fibre-to-the Node policy that they've been dragged kicking and screaming to because the FTTP policy has been so popular. The FTTN policy will cost almost as much to implement, cost more to maintain, and need replacing with FTTP before the FTTN build is complete.

2. The Labor party is still slightly less nasty on social issues (but they're doing their best to convince me otherwise right now).

3. The leader of the Liberal/National coalition - Tony Abbot - is a truly nasty piece of work. He is an intolerant bigot. He makes my skin crawl every time I hear him talk. I don't like the leader of the Labor party (Kevin Rudd) and was ambivalent on the recently-deposed leader (Julia Gillard) but there are some things they say that don't make my guts turn.

Disclosure: I'm personally scheduled to have the FTTP NBN start building in my town in about 1.5 years. For purely selfish reasons I need to vote for a party in the Senate (upper house) that will work to ensure that the NBN stays on track (I'm in a safe Liberal seat, so my vote in the House of Representatives means nothing). However I happen to think that the FTTP NBN is the most important infrastructure project we're likely to see in the next 50+ years, so my vote is not just for selfish reasons.

Re:Both major parties are bad

[thegarbz]

3. The leader of the Liberal/National coalition - Tony Abbot - is a truly nasty piece of work. He is an intolerant bigot. He makes my skin crawl every time I hear him talk.

You forgot religious. I mean there's been plenty of religious prime ministers but nothing to this extent. He was educated at St Patrick's Seminary and was well on his way to becoming a member of the clergy when he dropped out after getting a brief taste in politics and then became a politician shortly after. The man has quoted scripture in some of his interviews and he has deeply religious beliefs which he forces upon his party (won't let the party take a conscience vote on gay marriage). This alone goes against the principles of democracy, since I can only vote for my local member and he may not be able put our views forward in some cases.

I immigrated to Australia many years ago and became a citizen about ... 5 years ago. I was forced to sit the exam and one of the entrance exam questions was on the founding principles of the Australian government. One of the correct answers was "Secularism of State" so voting for Abbott is not only a blow to democracy but also a blot to the founding principles of the Australian government.

Re:Both major parties are bad

[bloodhawk]

I agree with point 1. Labor have the better broadband policy, even with they have so far proved to be utterly incompetent at getting it done. But after that? labor are the most corrupt and incompetent government Australia has seen in a long long time. You would have to compare Rudd to 3rd world dictators to find another leader that is a bigger megomaniac or a more self absorbed prick. The one part that baffles me is how Rudd being Leader again has increased their popularity, as much as I despised Gillard she was are far more competent leader than Rudd could ever hope to be.

Re:Both major parties are bad

[Aaron B Lingwood]

I would like to apologize for previously calling you a paid shill. I now realize my error. Nobody would pay you for this shit.

Labor only promoted FTTP because Telstra refused to negotiate on FTTN.

Telstra was more than willing to negotiate as is evidenced by their submissions to the RFP 2007/09. Telstra was embroiled in a pre-existing matter of open-access with the ACCC. Telstra's submission was excluded as it was purely based on Telstra winning the battle against the ACCC which Labor could see just wasn't going to happen. On top of this, the Howard Government (Liberal) attacked Labor's FttN plan claiming it wasn't viable due to the ageing copper. The whole process involving public funding, private funding, regulators and politics of the worst kind made Labor realize that, if they are going to pull this off, they need to go all out and do the thing themselves. Telstra did have a lot to do with this but are far from the 'only' reason why Labor updated their plan. We already had access to Telstra's last mile needed by the FttN and they couldn't do dick to stop it. We are no longer dependent on Telstra.

Labor only promised 1Gbps speed because just prior to the last election Google announced Google Fibre.

Fibre has been around long before Google - as has gigabit fibre. Labor highly underestimated the demand for bandwidth, originally looking for a way to get Australians off the typical (upto) 8/1 Mbps ADSL and on to something that resembles current LANs. During public consultation (something LNP have yet to do), Australian techies (your typical Slashdot, Delimiter or Whirlpool reader) kept asking about Gigabit services, pointing out that it would use the exact same infrastructure. It took some time but Labor found a way to be able to offer it and keep the existing pricing. Most people don't (yet) care, but for Australia's forward-thinking technologists, this is a big win

Less than 5% are predicted to connect at 1Gbps in 2028

Predicted by who? You? NBNCo's own corprate plan shows in Exhibit 2.12 that downstream trends from 1985 - 2012 extrapolated to 2025 that demand for and reliance on gigabit services and beyond are more than likely. It is available and it cost us nothing ectra to have it made available.

50% are predicted by Labor's NBN Corporate Plan to connect on fibre at 12Mbps

You, sir, have obviously never written a business plan. Conservatism is the name of the game. You plan for worst case. What we are seeing is that, as of Feb 2013, 41% have opted for the fastest available 100/40 plans and 11% have opted for the entry level 12/1

Huge amounts of money are being wasted by NBNCo (Building a Fibre NBN on a Copper budget)

Our NBN is a project that has been planned, approved and started. We could spend another year, 5 years, 10 years, 50 years fine-tuning the project. Sure, it isn't perfect, but let us just finish it. Simon Hackett is a great man. I use his former ISP Internode whenever possible. He understands technology, he understands networks, he understands users. He does not, however, understand politics. A project as big as this isn't as simple as 'sign this piece of paper and we'll break ground tomorrow'. There is a lot of wheelin' 'n dealin' back-room politics. The unions want something, the greenies want something, the Indigenous want something, the media want something. On top of all this, Hackett is part of the G9, the very same consortium who don't want this NBN because it kills their entire business plan. The very same consortium that wanted to build out a privately-owned NBN and lock out competition.

Under Labor's plan wholesale Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) needs to rise from the current figure of just above $20 to over $100. Retail prices will need to rise even further when you add ISP costs and profits.

Again, where do you get your number from - 2GB? Telstr

Re:Both major parties are bad

[mathew42]

I would like to apologize for previously calling you a paid shill. I now realize my error. Nobody would pay you for this shit.

Labor only promoted FTTP because Telstra refused to negotiate on FTTN.

Telstra was more than willing to negotiate as is evidenced by their submissions to the RFP 2007/09.

I guess you've forgotten that Telstra's bid was non-compliant? For a company of Telstra's size that was a deliberate action.

We are no longer dependent on Telstra.

Instead Labor is creating NBNCo which has an even tighter monopoly grip on infrastructure.

Labor only promised 1Gbps speed because just prior to the last election Google announced Google Fibre.

It took some time but Labor found a way to be able to offer it and keep the existing pricing. Most people don't (yet) care, but for Australia's forward-thinking technologists, this is a big win

Let me quote Quiqley for you: The reason we announced one gigabit was simply because when the government said you've got to provide at least 100Mbps, Google at the time made an announcement that they were providing 1 gigabit in the US. And suddenly we went from a situation facing [those] in the media saying 'what on earth does anyone need 100 megs for?' to saying 'this is already redundant, it is already out of date, you can't do one gig'," he told a Parliamentary inquiry into the benefits of the NBN in Sydney this morning.

I'm not sure that many people would call $150/month wholesale for 1Gbps, plus data charges a win, especially when so few peope will have access to those speeds.

Less than 5% are predicted to connect at 1Gbps in 2028

Predicted by who? You? NBNCo's own corprate plan shows in Exhibit 2.12 that downstream trends from 1985 - 2012 extrapolated to 2025 that demand for and reliance on gigabit services and beyond are more than likely. It is available and it cost us nothing ectra to have it made available.

I'm surprised that you've read the NBNCo Corporate Plan and missed Exhibit 8-4 Overall Fibre Subscriber Split by AVC Speed Tiers. You will find it that my numbers come from there. Have a read. Yes the hardware being installed will support 1Gbps, but not many will be able to afford the plans.

50% are predicted by Labor's NBN Corporate Plan to connect on fibre at 12Mbps

You, sir, have obviously never written a business plan. Conservatism is the name of the game. You plan for worst case. What we are seeing is that, as of Feb 2013, 41% have opted for the fastest available 100/40 plans and 11% have opted for the entry level 12/1

When preparing the 2012 revision of the Corporate Plan, NBNCo revised upwards the percentage of 100Mbps connections, but did not alter the percentage of 12Mbps connections. This suggests that NBNCo unsurprisingly expect that many of those yet to connect will choose the cheapest plan. NBNCo's latest prediction reinforces my opinion that speed tiers on the NBN will create digital divide.

I assume that you are referring to the same conservative corporate plan that is falling further behind every day in meeting the consistently revised down rollout targets? ;-) The Stage 2 maps published prior the last Federal election show my house covered, which means I should have been able to order a connection at the latest by the end of 2011. The current NBNCo Rollout suggests I may be able to order a service in 2018.

Huge amounts of money are being wasted by NBNCo (Building a Fibre NBN on a Copper budget)

Our NBN is a project that has been planned, approved and star

Re:Aus Labor Party is anything but democratic

[blind monkey 3]

Mate, the ballot paper looks like an Asian grocery shelf and you complain about the lack of choice?

More like a restaurant with a huge menu of delicious dishes to choose from. You can order what ever you want but you always get either sweet and sour pork or beef in black bean sauce served to you - both come with special fried rice.

Re:Aus Labor Party is anything but democratic

[c0lo]

:D :D :D

Well, you can still order
* mango and bean sprouts salad (but don't mix seafood into, it may become explosive!) with or without a side of feta
* shipwreck stew or...
* even Ecuadorian sitting duck

Besides, the last election showed a change in the added spices and... yes, not to be missed... we've seen some Queenslander's eggs being powdered in the process (and now being reconstituted), so nobody can deny it was interesting.
As the patrons pay only if they do not order, the change in the served dishes will happen if enough patrons ask for a it.

Re:Aus Labor Party is anything but democratic

[mfearby]

The argument that three greens are a viable alternative simply because they aren't one of the major parties is a very poor argument indeed. Their policies would ruin this country utterly! The Liberals appoint their leadership through a ballot in the parliamentary party room. You don't like it, vote for somebody else. It has worked fine for a long time and just because Labor is tearing itself to bits, doesn't mean the Libs have to change to suit people who wouldn't vote for them anyway.