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My Wikileaks Party Inquiry

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My WikiLeaks Party Inquiry by Gary Lord (@Jaraparilla) A full independent review of what really happened to The Wikileaks Party. “I am not a politician.” - Julian Assange. Table of Contents Mandate................................................................................................................................................2 Terms of Reference...............................................................................................................................2 Objectives.............................................................................................................................................2 Scope....................................................................................................................................................2 Methodology.........................................................................................................................................3 Assumptions.........................................................................................................................................3 Review & Approval..............................................................................................................................3 About the Author..................................................................................................................................4 Historical Background..........................................................................................................................5 Party Foundations............................................................................................................................5 The Schism......................................................................................................................................5 The Preferences Debacle.................................................................................................................6 The Walkout...................................................................................................................................10 The Fallout.....................................................................................................................................12 Election Results.............................................................................................................................12 Post-election Activity.....................................................................................................................12 Blogging....................................................................................................................................12 Syria Trip...................................................................................................................................12 Pro-Russian Propaganda...........................................................................................................14 The WLP Review/Inquiry.........................................................................................................14 Abuse Of WikiLeaks Supporters...............................................................................................15 WA Revote................................................................................................................................16 Findings..............................................................................................................................................16 The NSW “Administrative Error”.................................................................................................16 WA Preferences..............................................................................................................................17 Blaming The Greens......................................................................................................................17 Blaming Julian...............................................................................................................................17 Mitigating Factors.....................................................................................................................18 Summary Of Findings...............................................................................................................18 Recommendations..............................................................................................................................19 Sources...............................................................................................................................................20 Mandate This inquiry is mandated by the need to be transparent and accountable to all disaffected WikiLeaks supporters around the globe, including current and former WikiLeaks Party members, who have a right to know what really happened to the WikiLeaks Party at the Australian 2013 federal election. This inquiry is mandated by the WikiLeaks Party's own failure to deliver a meaningful promised inquiry into their calamitous “errors” in the September 2013 election, their continued damage of the WikiLeaks “brand”, and their failure to uphold their own stated values of transparency, accountability and justice. This inquiry is mandated by the dire state of our planet and the urgent need for genuine change to our political, business and social structures. Anyone associated with WikiLeaks should be setting an example, not playing cynical power games. Terms of Reference Unlike the six embarrassing pages of garbage (including mis-titled cover page and irrelevant email addendum) spewed up by WLP after five months, this inquiry is not limited by deliberately arbitrary Terms of Reference limitations. Instead it provides a comprehensive, independent, public review of the WikiLeaks Party (“WLP”), including: • the creation of the party and the lead-up to the 2013 Federal Election, where the allocation of preferences proved a critical point of failure, • post-election responses and further activity of WikiLeaks Party members, • the current state of the party, • outlook for the future of the Wikileaks Party. Objectives • To hold the WikiLeaks Party to its own professed standards of transparency and accountability, as stated in its Constitution. • To examine communications between WLP decision-makers leading up to and following the 2013 Australian federal election. • To expose the truth behind unpopular WLP preferencing decisions in NSW and WA, including the unsubstantiated claim of an “administrative error” in NSW. • To examine how WLP staff have behaved before, during and since the election, and how this has affected the reputations of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. • To recommend future changes. Scope This inquiry adopts as broad a scope as is required to get to the truth about the WikiLeaks Party. There are no timeframe constraints or other limitations. The scope of this inquiry is only limited by WLP's continued failure to explain its own actions, and the author’s inability to get straight answers from anyone still associated with WLP, including several who seem to have left the party but remain silent on their involvement. The author has made repeated unsuccessful approaches for information to WikiLeaks Party directly, and the following people in particular: • John Shipton • Cassie Findlay • Greg Barns • Kellie Tranter • Gail Malone • Omar Todd Methodology This review is presented in the format of a formal audit for no particular reason other than to make a mockery of the WikiLeaks Party's own decision to adopt such pseudo-professional voodoo to whitewash their actions. The author has examined all available public data, including: • Written statements of resignation from ex National Council members Leslie Cannold, Dr Dan Matthews, Luke Pearson, Sam Castro and Kaz Cochrane, plus volunteers like David Haidon and Sean Bedlam, • Analysis from interested activists such as @MarthaGroup (now @Hazelpress), • Website content, media interviews and WLP press releases, • Twitter and Facebook commentary. • SMS responses from Sam Castro to questions others refused to answer. Where the author has relied on verbal information or personal experience, this is clearly stated. See the About The Author section below for background. See the Sources section below for links to original documents. Assumptions Given the reticence of WLP staff to publicly justify their actions, answer simple questions, or respond to valid criticism, the author has been forced to make assumptions about their reasons for maintaining silence. Of course people have a right to remain silent, but when they scape-goat others without explaining their own actions, and where circumstantial evidence is compelling, assumptions unfortunately become inevitable. Readers are of course welcome to draw their own conclusions. Review & Approval This independent inquiry will be reviewed and approved (or not) by the general public. Corrections to factual errors will happily be made if any mistakes are identified and proven. This inquiry is intended as a positive contribution to further public discussion and decision-making. Anyone disagreeing with any of the facts presented in this review is welcome to leave a public comment below (preferably) or contact the author: • Gary Lord • [email protected] • @Jaraparilla About the Author • The Australian author of this review is a long-time vocal WikiLeaks supporter who since 2010 has helped organise many local and national demonstrations in support of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange's right to freedom. His tweets
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