During the 1960s and 70s it used to be a matter of pride among the radical young – before they moved on to make a killing in the stockmarket and buy the beach house at Newport – to be on record with our homegrown secret service, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). It didn’t take much to come under surveillance – a few attendances at the highly-disorganised meetings of the Student Underground, waving a placard in a vigorous manner at a couple of anti-war rallies or joining some outlandish fringe group such as Jesus People For Compassionate Embroidery. Pretty much anyone with political leanings left of Genghis Khan was fair game and, as always, our spooks had to justify their budget by looking like they were keeping an eye on dangerous elements plotting to bring down our democratic television-watching way of life.

Now it appears our freedom-loving federal Labor government has the Australian Federal Police spying on environmental groups. Documents obtained by the Sydney Morning Herald show that that radical Labor firebrand, resources and energy minister Martin Ferguson, has spooks shadowing anti-coal protesters and various environmental groups. Marty raised concerns with the attorney-general in 2009 over ‘issues-motivated activism, and the possibility of disruptions to critical energy infrastructure sites’. Heaven forbid that anyone should be motivated by issues. What Fergie is really saying is that we don’t want anyone to interfere with the royal progress of commerce, our shifting of large amounts of coal to China so we have the funds to deal with the ‘greatest moral challenge of our times’ – voting for the right contestant on Australia’s Got Talent.

It’s all a bit pathetic, really. Your cops on the street can easily deal with the more radical protesters intent on a bit of ‘infrastructure damage’. What really needs surveillance is the bloated and inept ambitions of our security agencies and the spineless kow-towing of government to commercial imperatives.