Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion to urgently suspend the standing orders. We must urgently debate this motion. This is critical. Former Senator Nick Xenophon, my former boss, gave me one piece of advice. He said, 'You must treat whistleblowers with great care,' and that's because in this nation we just don't. We have a culture in this nation in which we believe that whistleblowers should be persecuted, and that is fundamentally wrong. We do not have a legislative framework that protects whistleblowers.

David McBride had been warning defence about command failings and a deliberate blindness to the conduct of war in internal reports since 2014. He was a major in the Australian Army, a lawyer, in Afghanistan and awarded a combat services medal. When he became aware of systemic issues and when he became aware of incidents of unlawful killings of civilians, he took those concerns to his superiors, all the way up to Major General Hurley, and he was ignored. He did the right thing. McBride also reported them to the Australian Federal Police. He was ignored by their senior officers. McBride ultimately gave the material to the ABC, and that became the basis of the Four Corners story 'The Afghan Files'.

I'm sure that David McBride lost countless hours of sleep. I'm sure he still does, although he shouldn't any longer. He was arrested in 2017, with charges of numerous Commonwealth offences. He now faces the possibility of spending up to 60 years in prison all because he told the truth. We tell our children, 'Tell the truth.' Now the Australian Defence Force is taking action, but the damage has been done for McBride. Not only has he lost his career and not only has he endured so much stress and heartache; he now faces potentially spending the rest of his life in jail. The government could stop that, and they could stop that today. That's why we urgently need to debate this motion.

He's not alone. There is Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery. It's hard to believe that the lawyer and witness with respect to Timor and Australia's wrongdoings—what we admit we did wrong in Timor—are both facing long sentences in jail. And there is ATO whistleblower Richard Boyle. Some of the charges against him were dropped, but he still faces a long, long list of charges. This is all because they were telling the truth.

Those whistleblowers and their courage redeem the reputation of our nation when they refuse to be intimidated into silence. By suspending the standing orders today we are recognising that time is of the essence, we are recognising that David McBride should not be facing a lifetime in jail. He should actually be thanked for his bravery. He should receive a medal; he shouldn't receive a jail cell. I again call on the government, I beseech the government: please drop the charges against this man. He has only told the truth. He has done nothing more. There's a saying, a very well-known saying that many of us would have read, 'The truth will set us free.' Well, not in Australia.

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