Deported Activist Wins Access to Spook's Assessment

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The U.S.-based activist Scott Parkin has won a legal victory that requires the Australian government to provide his lawyers with access to the adverse security assessment used in September 2005 as the basis for revoking his visitors visa and deporting him. Justice Ross Sundberg granted Parkin and two Iraqi asylum seekers access to their adverse security assessments. Shortly after Parkin was detained, the Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock told ABC Radio that Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) "is responsible for protecting the Australian community from all forms of politically motivated violence, including violent protest activity, and they've made an assessment [of Parkin] in relation to those matters." The Director-General of ASIO, Michael O'Sullivan, later admitted that Parkin had not been involved in violent protest activity in Australia.