Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move the following motion:

That the House:

(1) notes that:

(a) Mr David McBride, a former military lawyer, is facing five charges relating to the disclosure of information that is undeniably in the public interest, including credible evidence of war crimes committed by Australian Defence Force personnel in Afghanistan;

(b) Mr McBride faces court on 13 November 2023, and will be the first person on trial in relation to alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan and he faces the very real prospect of spending years in prison, simply for telling the truth, because of this Australian Government prosecution; and

(c) Mr Richard Boyle, a former Australian Tax Office official, is also facing the prospect of life in prison within the year, for revealing information about serious improper conduct within the Australian Taxation Office, which was also undoubtedly in the public interest; and

(2) calls on the Government to immediately intervene pursuant to the Judiciary Act 1903 and discontinue the politically-motivated prosecutions of Mr McBride and Mr Boyle.

Leave not granted.

I move, then:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Clark from moving the following motion:

That the House:

(1) notes that:

(a) Mr David McBride, a former military lawyer, is facing five charges relating to the disclosure of information that is undeniably in the public interest, including credible evidence of war crimes committed by Australian Defence Force personnel in Afghanistan;

(b) Mr McBride faces court on 13 November 2023, and will be the first person on trial in relation to alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan and he faces the very real prospect of spending years in prison, simply for telling the truth, because of this Australian Government prosecution; and

(c) Mr Richard Boyle, a former Australian Tax Office official, is also facing the prospect of life in prison within the year, for revealing information about serious improper conduct within the Australian Taxation Office, which was also undoubtedly in the public interest; and

(2) calls on the Government to immediately intervene pursuant to the Judiciary Act 1903 and discontinue the politically-motivated prosecutions of Mr McBride and Mr Boyle.

The merit of this motion, I suggest, is self-evident. The last person who should be fronting court regarding alleged war crimes in Afghanistan is obviously the whistleblower David McBride. The last person who should be fronting court for the egregious behaviour in the Australian tax office is the whistleblower Richard Boyle. I'm reminded of a quote from then opposition leader Anthony Albanese, early last year, when referring to Witness K and Bernard Collaery. He made this point—and I'll quote the now Prime Minister: 'The idea that there should be a prosecution of a whistleblower for what's a shameful part of Australian history is simply wrong.' I read that and think about Mr McBride, the whistleblower who shone a light on the alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. That he should be facing prosecution is simply wrong. That Mr Boyle is facing prosecution is simply wrong.

Equally, the urgency of dealing with this motion today, I suggest, is also self-evident, because every minute's delay in having these charges against the brave whistleblowers dropped is one more minute that those heroes stand accused of criminality. That is unjust, as far as they go.

Also, every minute's delay in dealing with this matter of having charges against whistleblowers dropped is sending a signal to every single Australian that if you are witness to misconduct in this country then the government will not support you but will come after you, will shut you down and will prosecute you. This is much bigger than just Mr McBride and Mr Boyle. This matter is relevant to every Australian and every Australian who is witness to misconduct. That's why we should suspend standing orders and deal with this matter immediately.

I'm pleased the Attorney-General is in the chamber, and I will start by saying I have immense respect for the Attorney-General. But I do feel that the government and the Attorney-General are failing us when it comes to not dropping the charges against David McBride and Richard Boyle. The Attorney-General cannot hide behind the fact that these prosecutions were launched by the Department of Defence and the Australian Taxation Office, and so they're matters for the tax office and the defence department to deal with. That is simply not the case because it is the Department of Defence and the ATO which created this injustice, and they can't be trusted to resolve it. That's why there is a pressing argument for why the Attorney-General should exercise his authority under the Judiciary Act to intervene and to see the charges dropped.

The Attorney-General might also argue that he can only intervene in exceptional circumstances. What on earth are these matters other than exceptional circumstances? The brave whistleblower who revealed evidence of allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan is the first person to front court regarding allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan. This is an exceptional situation. The fact is that the ATO whistleblower has been proven to be correct. I make the point again: Richard Boyle's allegations have been proven to be accurate. Is anyone else in the ATO fronting a court? No. The whistleblower is fronting a court, so these are exceptional circumstances. Because the government is failing to act, I think, sadly, it does discredit the good work the government is doing with regard to whistleblowers. It discredits it very, very seriously, and it does make me wonder, as a member of the community, as a member of parliament and as a former whistleblower, whether the government has its heart in supporting whistleblowers and improving the protections for whistleblowers.

In fact, when we look at where the rubber has hit the road already, we see that the amendments to the Public Interest Disclosure Act within the term of this government have been very minor. They're what an IT company might call a patch, and there is still no substantial re-engineering of the Public Interest Disclosure Act. There is still no talk of amending the whistleblower protections in the Corporations Act, and I think the attitude of the government is revealed very well in the Boyle case. Mr Boyle clearly has protections under the Public Interest Disclosure Act, but the government is arguing that the Public Interest Disclosure Act in Mr Boyle's case only applies to the act of blowing the whistle in speaking up and does not apply to the collection of evidence by Mr Boyle, which he had to do before he could blow the whistle. This is a remarkable turn of events, and I think it goes to the heart of the matter, and that is that whistleblowers are not respected and not celebrated and not protected in this country—not one bit. They're still regarded as troublemakers that must be shut down, and they're still regarded as people who must be punished as a deterrent to other people from speaking up.

We should laud these people, and we should support these people. We should debate this motion and deal with it today so the government can get on and drop the charges against David McBride and Richard Boyle. Where would we be without these brave whistleblowers? Where would we be if Toni Hoffman, a nurse, hadn't blown the whistle on Dr Patel at Bundaberg Hospital? Where would we be if Allan Kessing hadn't blown the whistle on gaps in security at Sydney Airport? Where would we be if Witness K and Bernard Collaery hadn't blown the whistle on the illegal spying on the East Timor parliament building? Where would we be without Alysha, who blew the whistle on the shocking criminality within the Tasmanian youth justice system?

Where would we be if Julian Assange hadn't blown the whistle on US war crimes, including revealing that grainy image of US Attack helicopters gunning down Iraqi civilians and Reuters journalists in Iraq in the early days of the Iraq war?

My point is we should be doing everything we can to celebrate and to support whistleblowers, otherwise we won't have whistleblowers—and they're an absolutely essential component of our democratic system. In fact until we have effective whistleblower protections, the National Anti-Corruption Commission will be much diminished because it will be the whistleblowers who will raise the allegations, the most serious allegations often, that the NACC will then be able to deal with. So it's not enough to say, 'We've established a National Anti-Corruption Commission,' because the job is not done until we fix the Public Interest Disclosure Act, fix the Corporations Act and establish a whistleblower commissioner. Then the job will be done. Then the community can have confidence that when people are witness to misconduct they can speak up and we won't get these repeats of this nonsense with David McBride and Richard Boyle.

I make the point again: David McBride is the whistleblower who revealed evidence of allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan and he will be the first person to front a court with regard to those war crimes, facing the prospect of years in jail. I make the point again: Richard Boyle raised allegations of terrible misconduct within the Australian Taxation Office. Those allegations have been found to be absolutely true and yet he is the only ATO officer who is now fronting a court and facing the prospect of a lifetime in jail. This is a nonsense. It has to be dealt with absolutely immediately. So I call again for a suspension of the standing orders so that we can have a proper debate about this. We can vote on it, and we can lay the foundation for the government to drop the charges against these two brave Australian whistleblowers.

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