It’s a few months old, but I only just stumbled across the story. The Australian Government won an award from Privacy International in April 2003 – funnily enough the Government decided not to publicise the award. The competition was to find the world’s most stupid security measure. The Australian Government won:

“Most Egregiously Stupid Award

Winner – The Australian Government for a litany of pointless, irritating and self-serving security measures”

It’s for the ‘Be Alert, Not Alarmed’ media campaign, with the ubiquitous fridge magnet mailed to every household in the nation, which all Australians will remember with fond hilarity.