Those of you who managed to trawl through yesterday’s diary on the details of the federal police raid on a staffer of Laurie Brereton to find leaked documents on East Timor may be interested in these comments from Peter Costello.

Remember that Howard saw nothing wrong with the cops raiding pollies homes to find leaked documents of embarrassment to him.

Well, back in 1994, Costello ran the campaign against Labor Minister Ros Kelly over the sports rorts affair. He, too, got some embarrassing documents.

Costello wrote a comment piece for the Herald Sun expressing outrage that he had received a mere phone call from the police asking for a mere interview on the matter.

“Now the police are only follow ing orders. It was the government that approved the police inquiry. The Government wants the police to find out how a member of the Opposition came to reveal the truth…The government doesn’t want that kind of thing happening too often! The government is pretty powerful and if those running it decide to unleash their resources on an individual then the individual is pretty defenceless… This all makes people a little scared of the Government, which, I suspect, is just the way the Government wants it. And don’t ever tell the truth about what the Government’s been up to. The Federal Police might start ringing.”’

Liberals just hate big, bad government, but this government isn’t Liberal, is it? Its operation is control freaked to the point of routine censorship via John Howard at central office.

If public servants and whistleblowers were scared under Labor, they’re terrified under this lot. Truth? Spare me, Peter.

Neil Andrew, as expected, yesterday refused to order a Parliamentary investigation into the harassment of the federal police officer who told the truth on the seizure of confidential Labor Party policy documents from the home of a staffer of Laurie Brereton.

The executive wins again. Beware, parliamentary committee witnesses. Beware, whistleblowers. Big Government triumphs over the people, again.

LINDSAY YEATES suggests that the next Your Vote be “Would you invest in, or otherwise do business with, a company that employed Michael Knight?”, and that the Yes option includes the phrase “drive over the bastards”?

I’m off to the Young Writers Festival in Newcastle tomorrow. The web diary will return Monday.