Student who exposed ‘free-ride Frances’ scholarship to face sentence

THE woman who exposed that the Prime Minister’s daughter had been given a lucrative scholarship to an illustrious private fashion college under questionable circumstances will be sentenced in court this afternoon.

University student Freya Newman, 21, has pleaded guilty to leaking restricted data that revealed Frances Abbott had been awarded a $60,000 scholarship to study at the exclusive Whitehouse Institute of Design.

Ms Newman forwarded the information to journalists, which sparked a national scandal in May surrounding accusations that Frances had been given undue favourable treatment due to her prominent status as Mr Abbott’s daughter.

After pleading guilty to accessing the student records illegally, she faces a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

Groups voicing solidarity for Newman have sprung up on Facebook, including one group that has more than 400 followers encouraging people to attend court today to support Ms Newman for “exposing Abbott’s lies”.

There has been a chorus of support from many corners for Ms Newman’s whistleblower role, including from human rights lawyer Julian Burnside and former Neighbours star Caitlin Stasey.

Ms Abbott won the secret scholarship in 2011 when her father was the opposition leader, which meant she paid only $7,546 for her $68,182 degree. The elite institute’s chairman, Les Taylor, is a longtime friend of Mr Abbott and a Liberal Party donor.

When news of the scholarship broke in May, one of Ms Abbott’s fellow students told news.com.au that she was “disgusted” about Frances’ apparent “free ride”.

A DECISION has been deferred over the fate of the woman who exposed that the Prime Minister’s daughter had been given a lucrative scholarship to an illustrious private fashion college under questionable circumstances.

victorisnotamused wrote:
Aussies...riot....

Yah gotta be kidding right

they are either sun baked out of their heads or pissed or stoned out of their heads,,,,

they couldnt organise a riot in a brewery (not that one would want to anyway, but.........)

Original Quill wrote:
Did Free-Ride Frances really get a full scholarship?

veya_victaous wrote:@quill
It's more like a present
To the Abbott family

Freya Newman, the whistleblower who exposed the secret scholarship given to Frances "Daughter of Tony" Abbott by friends of the family at the Whitehouse Institute, has been sentenced to a two year good behaviour bond.

Newman plead guilty to leaking restricted data. Magistrate Teresa O’Sullivan told the court that the data accessed by Newman not highly classified, but also said "I accept she was motivated by sense of injustice and not desire for notoriety… While this may explain what led to her offending it does not excuse her conduct." In fact it should, but in Australia there are no protections for whistleblowers in the private sector.

Frances Abbott previously commented on the leaks, saying "To be honest, it’s just like as a small child you learn it’s not right to read someone’s diary. It’s not right to hack into anything." You might argue it's also not right to take advantage of your father's influence on the private sector to obtain a secret, exclusive scholarship exclusively determined by your dad's mate, but then, you're not Frances Abbott.

The story was originally broken by New Matilda. For now, it's come to a relatively just, if not wholly satisfying, close.