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Australian Politician Caught Viewing Porn 150

Posted by samzenpus from the stiff-opposition-party dept.
destinyland writes "An Australian Parliament member has resigned after admitting he'd used government computers to access porn and gambling sites. McLeay 'gave an uncomfortable press conference outside Parliament House,' notes one technology site, 'during which he admitted he had acted in a standard not expected of cabinet ministers.' Paul McLeay was also the Minister for Mineral and Forest Resources as well as the Minister for Ports and Waterways. In resigning, he apologized to his constituents and parliamentary colleagues, as well as to his wife and family."
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Australian Politician Caught Viewing Porn More

Australian Politician Caught Viewing Porn

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  • What I care about (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Sonny Yatsen ( 603655 ) * on Monday September 13, 2010 @01:01PM (#33563466) Journal

    I don't care if a politician was caught watching internet porn. A lot of people (if not most) do it and politicians are no exception.

    I do care if a politician was caught paying for internet porn. That tells me a lot about whether he's able to spend money wisely.

    • Re:What I care about (Score:4, Insightful)

      by DaMattster ( 977781 ) on Monday September 13, 2010 @01:04PM (#33563500)
      Well, we know the CEOs, CIOs, and CFOs have admitted to it. Yes, it is a misuse of taxpayer funded systems but I don't think it is really that bad. It would be worse if said politican were railing against pornography all the while engaging in it. Nothing pisses me off more than a hypocritical politican so I guess I hate most, if not all politicans.

      • Here's the tactic I woulda used:

        "I did not view porn."

        "It was just naked men and women"

        Maybe Australia should hook-up their new filtered internet to the government offices first? Hmmmm. I wonder why such a low-populated country keeps appearing in the news so often?

      • Re:What I care about (Score:4, Insightful)

        by sycodon ( 149926 ) on Monday September 13, 2010 @02:45PM (#33564852)

        Because if you can't find free porn on the internet, you're an idiot and have no business running the government.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Xacid ( 560407 )

      Could have been worse. Could have pulled a Mark Sanford.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by xtracto ( 837672 )

      I do not care if a politican is caught watching porn, or if he buys porn.

      I DO care if a politician watches porn DURING HIS WORK TIME or using his workplace resources. Mainly because he is wasting our hard earned tax money of which they get a helluva lot.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Kilrah_il ( 1692978 )

        If he was caught updating his personal Facebook account during work, would you be upset? And if he checked his personal mail? Or maybe just browsed a shopping site for half an hour, looking for a new oven (because his wife was pestering about her wanting a new one)?
        Actually, for people who are not paid by the hour, this is less of an issue. If I pay you X$ (AU$) an hour to do a job, I want you to be working during that hour. If I pay you Y$ a month/year to do a job, I don't care how long you are in the offi

        • If it's not part of his job description, and his job has policies in place that expressly forbid visiting a site (or category of sites) from work equipment, and I was paying his salary, then yes, I would be upset with him for doing so. Since we can tick off the "YES" column to all of these, I think it's reasonable that he's resigning. Same applies to personal mail, shopping, gambling, or anything else - if those conditions are true, then don't do it.

          If he wants to check Facebook on his phone, or a persona

          • Of course, if there are specific rules against doing what he did, then there is no questions about him not doing this. I was talking more about the "moral" question, assuming there are no guidelines/rules.

        • Oddly enough I am at work at 08:49 AM legitimately reading /. but checking my home email from here is a sackable offense because IT believe that keeping windows viruses out of the network is a top priority.

          • Actually it is a top priority, but they are going at it the wrong way. I always just love it when the IT do everything they can to keep you from using the Internet, for fear of viruses, but then they make you use IE 6 and they don't allow you to install other browsers. Stupid people!

    • Re:What I care about (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DrgnDancer ( 137700 ) on Monday September 13, 2010 @01:32PM (#33563854) Homepage

      What I can't figure is: what's so hard about "don't watch porn on work computers"? No is saying "don't watch porn", just don't use company/government resources to do it. It's not a hard concept. It's not a foreign concept. Hell most of us carry around portable, largely untraceable Internet devices in our pockets these days. If you GOTTA have a fix, get some head phones and use that.

      Personally I've never seen the draw of porn at a time when I can't really conveniently... eh.. use it. So to speak.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ProppaT ( 557551 )

        I know, really? I thought that's why we all had smart phones now.

      • It's quite possible that he can't watch it at home so he has to use the governments computer to get his "porn fixes."

      • Actually the workplace is a neutral environment where men and women with varying moral attitudes have to work together and so you shouldn't browse porn at work even on your own devices. Public places have a different standard of behavior because they have to be used by all of us. So by all means browse whatever you like at home but don't do it at work, in the local library, at Starbucks, etc...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by demigod ( 20497 )

        Hell most of us carry around portable, largely untraceable Internet devices in our pockets these days.

        I don't know what your carrying around in you pocket, but I've never heard of a "largely untraceable Internet devices" before. Please tell me more.

        • The device is of course traceable, but from a practical perspective getting a hold of the information required to prove it was being used to look at porn in the work place is beyond the means of anyone other than law enforcement or a news reporter willing to break some laws. Sure AT&T knows what I do with my phone, but short of a warrant, they're not likely to tell anyone. Certainly they'd pretty much laugh if someone called and said "This is DrgnDancer's boss, can you please give me a detailed report

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by linzeal ( 197905 )
        Who cares, unless it affects his work duties?

    • Re:What I care about (Score:4, Insightful)

      by c++0xFF ( 1758032 ) on Monday September 13, 2010 @01:42PM (#33563976)

      I care if he watches porn if he then votes for internet pornography filters [wikipedia.org]. I can't stand hypocrites.

      Note that I don't know if this is the case, but it wouldn't surprise me at all.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by godel_56 ( 1287256 )

        I care if he watches porn if he then votes for internet pornography filters [wikipedia.org]. I can't stand hypocrites.

        Note that I don't know if this is the case, but it wouldn't surprise me at all.

        This guy is in the NSW state government, the Internet filter is a federal matter.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ljgshkg ( 1223086 )
      Agreed. I don't care if he's watching internet porn or not during any time. I only care if he's doing his job well. A politician spending all of his time working for his own benefit (or for his next election? hence doing "his job", or so it seems) might well be doing a worse and less useful job than a politician watching a bit of porn using tax payer funded systems.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by teh kurisu ( 701097 )

      I do care if a politician was caught paying for internet porn. That tells me a lot about whether he's able to spend money wisely.

      What if he (or she) is caught trying to claim it on parliamentary expenses [bbc.co.uk]?

      • Yeah, or using their parliamentary credit card to purchase it [nzherald.co.nz]. At least he didn't apologise for the porn, just for the misspending. One of the local body politicians got caught peeing on a bush, and since he didn't apologise for it, I'm considering voting for him purely on that basis :).

        What I hate is when they turn on the waterworks etc.., it just highlights that they are manipulative worms, but of course we already knew that.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      glass houses.

      Actually the Howard Government had ABC axe the Glass House in 2006.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by deniable ( 76198 )
      And why isn't anyone here taking a shot at Fred Nile's [wikipedia.org] role in all of this. Labor minister isn't as funny as anti-smut campaigner clergyman.
  • Oh no!!! A human being doing things that human beings do! I demand that government officials be MORE robot like, not less!

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Farmer Tim ( 530755 )

      That would be a good point, except this guy is a member of the state branch of the same party that proposed the internet filter. Besides, using a work computer for looking at porn and gambling on company time would get you fired from any other job, so it's a matter of being held to the same standards as everyone else, and as a New South Wales resident and taxpayer I don't see why I should be subsidising his personal habits.

      There's another example of the same kind of hypocrisy from the same state parliament,

      • He's a gubment official, paid with your taxes. At that level, you also don't have actual working hours - you continue until the job's done. What time of day, and in what physical location he watches porn, changes nothing about the fact that your tax money is paying for it, nor can he 'steal time from his employer', as long as he does his job adequately.

        The fact that he's a member of the party proposing the filter is, of course, a rather juicy bit. In my local politics, though, "member of the party that sugg

  • Not for the reason you'd think... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Drakkenmensch ( 1255800 ) on Monday September 13, 2010 @01:05PM (#33563518)
    The reason why they're making such a fuss over his porn and gambling is that he had to bypass the Great Firewall of Australia to access them. When it comes to accessing sex and gambling on the internet, that's where Australia draws the line!!!

    • Re:Not for the reason you'd think... (Score:5, Funny)

      by MaskedSlacker ( 911878 ) on Monday September 13, 2010 @01:41PM (#33563956)

      It's the Great Firewall of China and the Great Barrier Router of Australia.

      Get your jokes right.

    • Oh no! He watched porn!

      Over here (germany) she would have said: Oh no! He ist just like my son!

    • The reason why they're making such a fuss over his porn and gambling is that he had to bypass the Great Firewall of Australia to access them.

      Why has everyone modded this as insightful rather than funny? The Internet filter was never rolled out in Australia, and after the results of the last election it is dead in the water.

      • The filter wasn't rolled out (i.e. preemptive enforcement). The laws regarding hosting and access, however, remain in place, and have been there for some time. Put naked pictures on a website, and they still can arrest you and label you a sex offender, whether the filtering firewall exists or not.

        Welcome to Australistan.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mjwx ( 966435 )

          The filter wasn't rolled out (i.e. preemptive enforcement). The laws regarding hosting and access, however, remain in place, and have been there for some time. Put naked pictures on a website, and they still can arrest you and label you a sex offender, whether the filtering firewall exists or not.

          Ummm... No they cant.

          Pornography is not illegal in Australia. Production of pornography is not illegal in Australia.

          Selling/giving pornography to minors is illegal (as it is in the US). Using a naked perso

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      The reason why they're making such a fuss over his porn and gambling is that he had to bypass the Great Firewall of Australia to access them.

      You mean the one in angry /.er's imaginations.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by deniable ( 76198 )
        Hey, not just them. Conroy still thinks it's a vote getter. I can't believe they're putting Turnbull up against him. That's like kicking a cripple.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mjwx ( 966435 )

          Hey, not just them. Conroy still thinks it's a vote getter. I can't believe they're putting Turnbull up against him. That's like kicking a cripple.

          Conroy is just giving lip service his masters, he knows a filter will never get past the Greens.

          The NBN was a big part of the election, it's obvious a lot of people want it. I think the Libs are setting Turnbull up to fail as he could be a serious threat to Abbott and the faction leaders who put Abbott in power.

  • What Percentage Of Internet Users View Porn? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 13, 2010 @01:07PM (#33563528)

    It's basically the same as masturbation, guys. Yes, we all do it, but that doesn't mean that you can do it at work. Especially if you work at McDonalds. Please.

    • And for gawd's sake please, please no "special sauce" jokes!

      • Fine. The 'special sauce' is just thousand island dressing away. But such an incident would give me severe doubts about the mayo.

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      If you can get/watch porn on a McDonald's cash register *while* performing your duties as a checker, you deserve a medal and a job programming at google.

    • ...A man goes to see his Dr. and the Dr. says, "sir you're going to have to stop masturbating". The man says, "Why" and the doctor says, "Because I'm trying to examine you"
    • Yeah, we'll all listen to you, and in a month you'll be whining that the special Big Mac sauce used to taste much better.

  • Apparently some of it involved sheep. When questioned as to whether they were rams or ewes, he replied, "Ewes, yer flamin' drongo! What do you think I am, a bloomin' pervert?".

    • "And why are ye all laughin'?"

      "All those ewes to choose from, and ye picked the ugliest one in the flock!"
  • What did you think was going to happen...

  • Trust /. to miss the point entirely (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    It's not about the fact that he was looking at porn; it's that he was doing it using government funds and on government time. If he'd been doing it on his own time with his own computer and internet connection... well, he'd probably still be in the shit with family values groups, but he wouldn't have had to resign for it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Myopic ( 18616 )

      Well, it was both of those things wasn't it?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) *

      t's that he was doing it using government funds and on government time

      No, it's the porn. People do personal stuff at work all the time - call their doctors' office, make a photocopy, answer personal e-mail. In fact, I'm sure other Australian government workers do those things all the time, and nobody really cares.

  • The guy is from New South Wales, and was trawling the Internet, looking for NSW-related information. Somehow, an 'F' slipped into his search string.
  • When asked about what he used the internet for recently, the mayor of Reykjavik (Iceland) Jon Gnarr said he mostly used it for porn. Two feminazis got mad but no one noticed. http://whatson.is/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16567&ew_0_a_id=367354 [whatson.is] Different standards.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by edremy ( 36408 )
      I had to look this guy up, and found out that his platform involves "Free towels in all Swimming Pools, A polar Bear for the Reykjavík Zoo, All Kinds (of things) for Weaklings, Disneyland in the Vatnsmýri area, A drug-free parliament by 2020, Sustainable Transparency, Tollbooths on the border with Seltjarnarnes, to do away with all debt, Free Access to Hljómskálagarðurinn"

      Best. Mayor. Ever, even if I don't understand half the words

  • Not his fault! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Paul McLeay was also the Minister for Mineral and Forest Resources as well as the Minister for Ports and Waterways.

    He's minister of all those things... the guy's surely got a professional reason for googling the following phrases:
    "rock hard"
    "water sports"
    and
    "sporting wood"

    Come on people, he probably clicked the links because he thought they were studies related to his ministership!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SeaFox ( 739806 )

      Paul McLeay was also the Minister for Mineral and Forest Resources as well as the Minister for Ports and Waterways.

      I, sadly, read that line of the summary as "Master of Porn and Waterways".

  • Being fired for porn is not news, even for nerds. Being fired for reading Slashdot at work -- now *that* would be news! (And it would set the community quaking in its boots...)

    • And it would set the community quaking in its boots...

      Only the knuckleheads who can't figure out how to install elinks.

  • I can *FAP* *FAP* *FAP* anywhere, anytime*FAP* *FAP* *FAP* even while driving*FAP* *FAP* *FAP*

    Skyfire lets me *FAP* *FAP* *FAP* flash video sites like redtube *FAP* *FAP* *FAP* (I love the asian section)

    It's this politicians own damn *FAP* *FAP* *FAP* fault for not having the *FAP* *FAP* *FAP* forsight to get *FAP* *FAP* *FAP* a data phone *FAP* *FAP* *FAP* and *FAP* *FAP* *FAP* plan *FAP* *FAP* *FAP**FAP* *FAP* *FAP**FAP* *FAP* *FAP**FAP* *FAP* *FAP**FAP* *FAP* *FAP**FAP* *FAP* *FAP**FAP* *FAP* *FAP**FAP*

  • He apologized to his wife for looking at porn? Whoa. That is an obviously dysfunctional marital sexual relationship. For his sake, I hope it was the whole situation he was apologizing for, not the porn specifically.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hoggoth ( 414195 )

      It's more likely he apologized to his wife for losing (or should I say 'loosing' - it is Slashdot after all) his cushy high paid job, getting paparazzi following him and his family, becoming infamous as the 'porn politico'... basically ruining their perfect country club lives because he couldn't wait until he got home to look at boobs.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by AvitarX ( 172628 )

      If I was goofing around looking at porn at work, to the point I got caught and lost my job. You bet I would owe my wife an apology.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Myopic ( 18616 )

        Right exactly! That's what I mean about "the whole situation", not the porn specifically. Golly I hope that's the case.

  • What a horrible, horrible man! (Score:4, Funny)

    by multipartmixed ( 163409 ) on Monday September 13, 2010 @01:48PM (#33564038) Homepage

    Man, that's disgusting.

    He's so gross, he probably sticks his penis in his wife's vagina!

  • Fourth Bruce: Rule Four, now this term, I don't want to catch anybody not drinking. Rule Five ...

    Fourth Bruce: Rule Four, now this term, I don't want to catch anybody not masturbating. Rule Five ...

    Fixed that there for you, Bruce . . .

  • I could care less about who watches what where at what moment with whom. This is just gossip. Doesn't it say, 'news for nerds - stuff that matters' in the headline? I can pick up a tabloid anywhere, thank you very much.
  • So he was also the Minister Of Wood? Makes sense that he might need to look at pr0n while "on the job"...ijs (forgive me if this was already thrown out there)
  • Heh, eheh, heh or was it butthead :-?

  • Why do Aussie government "officials" have to subscribe to some kind of puritanical standard not applicable to ordinary citizens to get on the Internet?

    Oh, wait. Australia. Never mind...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Why do Aussie government "officials" have to subscribe to some kind of puritanical standard not applicable to ordinary citizens to get on the Internet?

      I dont know why you think this is puritanical, I work in the private sector in Australia and I'm fairly certain if I look up porn at work I'll get sacked.

      Because this guy is Public Sector, he just has to apologise and all will be forgiven.

  • I can't wait until Senator Conroy gets caught for watching porn.

  • while it would appear the minister may have had some guilty consience,
    and there wa irony that Christian MP Fred Nile was "involved"
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Nile [wikipedia.org]

    * the audit was unauthorised
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/woman-behind-nsw-parliamentary-porn-inquiry-quits-20100906-14y1i.html [smh.com.au]
    * the audit did not properly identify "porn sites"
    "instances of inappropriate access were registered by the audit if parliamentary staff accessed sites that contained links or advertisements to pornographic or gambling

  • He obviously was just testing those great Internet filters that got voted down in the EU recently. No wonder they didn't implement it, if even a politician could find a gaping hole in it then the filter was apparently not quite ready for the masses. Now if the AU national Internet filter was installed and actually worked like it was advertised then he would have never been successful, in his test of it, thus never caught and accused of surfing for porn. Somebody has to make sure it works, right? </sarc

  • A few things:

    - This guy was a state, not a federal, politician. This is important for two reasons: i) it is the federal govt that is looking to introduce the filter, not the state govt, and ii) The federal govt is 1 by-election away from a change in majority, so that would be much more tricky. iii) The state govt is so dysfunctional that noone really cares any more - they're going to lose the next election and this guy might well be happy to go now before the rush.

    - This stor

  • That guy is my local member .... er, maybe that is not the best word to use on this topic.

    Someone at the state parliament did an [i]unauthorised[/i] investigation into what the politicians were doing on the parliamentary network, etc. Personally, I am more concerned about this kind of spying than about what the member of parliament was looking at. Great way to manipulate the political process. Could someone snoop and then blackmail parliamentarians? At the very least, a disgruntled employee could leak infor

  • No really, so what? It's not like politicians do any real work anyway. Frankly at least this guy is doing something with his time, unlike Peter Slipper [theage.com.au] who fell asleep during question time in parliament.

    What about that guy recently who was buying things on ebay during a session, forgot his name, but it's the same guy who racked up $600000 in taxpayer funded expenses on interstate and overseas "work" trips.

    I have been to federal parliament during a reading of what was to become legislation, the room
    • Frankly at least this guy is doing something with his time Yes, but as a tax payer, I would resent having to pay for the treatment for his Repetitive Stress Injuries!

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