“We say to any prospective whistleblowers, do not be a whistleblower under the Albanese government until it starts protecting whistleblowers, instead of prosecuting them.”
“We say to any prospective whistleblowers, do not be a whistleblower under the Albanese government until it starts protecting whistleblowers, instead of prosecuting them.”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
It comes a week before former Afghan war crimes whistleblower David McBride begins his criminal trial in Canberra, which, if found guilty, could result in him serving a life sentence.
Mr McBride was a lawyer in the army who leaked classified information to the ABC that revealed allegations of war crimes by special forces in Afghanistan.
The open letter — composed by individuals including Commonwealth Bank whistleblower Jeff Morris, who helped trigger a royal commission into the powerful financial services sector, and Peter Fox, who helped trigger a royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse — said the Albanese government’s record on protecting whistleblowers was dismal and since it came to power it had done “little except make further promises and offer empty platitudes”.
In the past few months, there has been a groundswell of public support for better protections for whistleblowers, with campaigns, panels, open letters, online petitions and speeches in parliament by crossbenchers and Greens senator David Shoebridge.
On Sunday, a convoy of whistleblowers, former politicians and the public will also head to Canberra to hold a rally in support of Mr McBride as he walks into the courtroom.
“I’m driving down on Sunday in my old Range Rover with Troy [Stoltz, who blew the whistle on ClubsNSW, leaking a report that up to 95 per cent of clubs were failing to comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing rules],” Mr Morris said.
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