back to article Whistleblower behind PM's daughter scholarship leak must wait for fate

Freya Newman, the Sydney student who pled guilty to illegally using login credentials to leak documents about a scholarship awarded to the daughter of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, won't learn her fate until November 25th. Magistrate Theresa O'Sullivan was due to sentence Newman at a packed Sydney court house at noon …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hero not Villian

    Despite the unauthorised access, I think she has exposed a very important insight into how the other-half get on in life.

    1. RealFred

      Re: Hero not Villian

      Did the Journalist try to find out if the information wasn't obtained legally, and in fact the person who was providing the information didn't do anything illegal to gain access to the data. The journalist in this case was at least as culpable as the whistleblower

    2. Diogenes

      Re: Hero not Villian

      The irony - it burns.

      Posting under AC !

      I would not deign to give anybody who writes for New Matilda the title of journalist.

      Where are Hugh Grant & hacked off ?

  2. Khaptain Silver badge

    Clercial Error

    Soon there will be a press release stating that Tony Abbot does not actually enter the details into the pecuniary interest register himself and that the person who does obviously made a small clerical error. Amendments have been made and the regster has been updated.

    Meanwhile new laws will quickly be passed in order to ensure that illegal database entry is punishable by 40 years in a hard labour camp. No relation to the Freya Newman case should be inferred.

  3. david 12 Silver badge

    Speling Error

    Soon there will be a press release stating that Frances Abbott is not a child, does not have a pecuniary interest register, and is not a member of parliament.

  4. boozy

    doubtful hero

    i wouldn't have had a problem if she'd used her own login. instead she was quite happy to drop someone else in the sticky stuff by stealing their credentials. for this alone she deserve all she gets.

    1. RealFred

      Re: doubtful hero

      This is the issue people are happy to overlook. What about the journalist and their part in the whole thing.

  5. Mark Exclamation

    Ok, I'll bite, and see how many down-votes I get. She is an adult (22 at the time). She was awarded a scholarship (the details surrounding it do appear fishy and I presume if she hadn't been the PM's daughter no scholarship would have been forthcoming, but that's not the subject of my comments). Tony Abbot did not, personally, benefit from the scholarship either financially or any other way, so why on earth should he have to declare it? His adult daughter benefited.

    If my kids had received a scholarship at age 22, I would not have benefited. As it is, my son has a debt of $90,000 for his degree, but it is not MY debt.

    At the end of the day, it simply depends on which political party you support which determines who is right and who is wrong. It seems most people can't look past the point-scoring, or desire to stick the knife in to those politicians they dislike. "Prominent Australian barrister and human rights advocate Julian Burnside", like most of his ilk, would be far-left wing, so his comments are really no surprise, and are just an opportunity to criticise someone he despises.

    1. LaeMing
      Unhappy

      Re: desire to stick the knife in to those politicians they dislike

      You mean 'all of them'?

      ...Gotta buy more knives!

    2. Hans 1
      Childcatcher

      >As it is, my son has a debt of $90,000 for his degree, but it is not MY debt.

      Excellent start in life, well done, daddy! I guess it depends, just because you leave your offspring in the cold does not mean everybody else does. Who knows what the pm did, not sure what the age is at which you are no longer allowed to declare you support a child.

      Besides, you probably know that 90k is the price of a house in some places, don't you ?

      I know it is customary in my home country (UK) to let your kids work it out by themselves as soon as they reach the magical age of 18. I will support my offspring until they have finished their studies. No, they will not attend unis that cost 10 000 quid a year and that fail to produce knowledgeable "English Professors" when it comes to English grammar. I know, I had one at my uni, could not answer a pretty simple grammar question I had ... and simply replied: "I do not know ... you know, we no longer teach English grammar in the UK."

      French unis cost a 50th of that (I think registration fees amount to 200euro/y), and ye kids learn a new language in the process ...

      1. Owain 1

        re no longer teach grammar

        We leave it to our cartoon writers: ‘Are English split infinitives a form of irregular verb or past pronoun?’

        No suitable 'pig' icon was found.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like