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

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Centre Alliance is firmly of the opinion that the time has come for our nation to bring in a constitutional backstop to protect our free press and the right of all Australians to speak freely.

When the news broke last month that the Australian Federal Police had raided the home of a News Corp journalist and then ABC, it's fair to say it was like a blast of arctic air for Australia's fourth estate.

It was also a wake-up call for every Australian. In an era when public trust in politicians is at an all-time low, this very public act of enforcement was a direct assault on public interest journalism.

It sent a clear message to the media and their sources that they are at serious risk if they publish information the government doesn't want them to publish, even if that information is in the public interest.

At the time of the raids our home affairs minister said:

Nobody is above the law and the police have a job to do under the law.

But in the light of the government's complete lack of interest in having the AFP track down the source of the leaked ASIO briefing on the medevac laws earlier this year, it would appear some who choose to leak classified information are above the law, and that is deeply concerning.

This is why, more than ever, we need to revisit the legal protections Australia has for freedom of expression, including freedom of the press.

Our Federation forefathers didn't enshrine freedom of speech and a free press in our Constitution, because they believed common sense would prevail.

Our highest court has found that an implied freedom of communication exists under the Constitution in relation to political and government matters but the extent of that freedom is limited and our laws protecting sources are much weaker than they are in other comparable democracies.

Our world has changed and, as our government continues to bring in metadata and anti-terrorism laws in the name of national security, we need to ensure that we rely on more than a government's common sense to protect the civil liberties that make us a modern democracy.

On behalf of Centre Alliance I introduce the Constitution Alteration (Freedom of Expression and Freedom of the Press) 2019into this House today.

My Centre Alliance colleagues have already introduced mirror legislation in the other place.

This bill will enshrine the right of freedom of expression, including freedom of the press and other media, within the Constitution.

The proposed amendment will insert a new chapter and section in the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900.

The new section will provide that the Commonwealth, state or territory must not limit freedom of expression, including freedom of the press and other media. However, a law of the Commonwealth, state or territory may limit the freedom if that limitation is reasonable and justifiable in an open, free and democratic society.

The proposed alteration would put a constitutional brake on efforts to supress freedom of expression to the detriment of our democratic and open society and it will set, we believe, a clear benchmark against which current laws of the Commonwealth, states and territories can be judged.

Under international law, freedom of expression is a fundamental human right.

Freedom of the press is included in freedom of expression and therefore it is important that the protection will also extend to the media, delivered in any form, so that the media may continue to contribute to a free and democratic society.

Last week our Parliamentary Library hosted a lecture by Australian journalist and academic Dr Julie Posetti who described herself as the canary in the coalmine when it came to sounding the warning bell about the erosion of press freedom.

Dr Posetti is the author of the 2017 UNESCO study Protecting journalism sources in the digital age which examined confidential communication by journalists with sources and whistleblowers in 121 countries, including Australia.

Dr Posetti provided an oversight of the study, which came up with an 11-point assessment tool for measuring the effectiveness of legal source protection frameworks internationally.

In her expert opinion of Australia's current laws, we failed on 10 of the 11 principles.

When asked for a solution, Dr Posetti said the right to freedom of expression, which includes freedom of the press, should be embedded in Australia's Constitution.

Failing that, Dr Posetti said Australia should be incredibly vigilant when passing any legislation regarding the unforeseen erosions of civil liberties including freedom of expression, freedom of the press and personal privacy.

In an era when the call to heed national security above all else trumps any dissenting voice in the parliament about laws affecting metadata and surveillance in public sphere, Centre Alliance calls for freedom of expression and freedom of the press to be embedded in Australia's Constitution.

I would like to provide my remaining time to the member for Clark.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

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

I second the motion. I am very grateful to the member for Mayo for allowing me to speak for her remaining time and to emphasise that a free press is obviously an essential building block of a healthy democracy. We must do everything that we can to ensure that the media can do their job to report to the community what is going on in this country and, very importantly, to inform the community when there is wrongdoing or allegations of wrongdoing. Remember: the press is important, but their sources are equally important, and we must do what we can to allow their sources to have their say and to speak up and shine a light, particularly when there is misconduct.

This country is a better country for its whistleblowers. This country is a better country because of people like Toni Hoffman, who it was revealed in 2005 had for two years been reporting misconduct by Dr Patel at Bundaberg Hospital. As a direct result of Toni Hoffman, that doctor was banned from practising in Australia. This country is a better country because in 2005 a report written by Customs officer Allan Kessing in 2003 about shortfalls in security at Sydney Airport was revealed in the media. As a direct result of Allan Kessing's heroic whistleblowing, Sydney Airport was upgraded by $220 million and we are all safer for it. This country is a better country because in 2013 it was reported in the media that Witness K had been party to the illegal bugging of the East Timorese parliament. This country is a better country because of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange publicising, in particular, that in 2007 US Apache helicopter aircrew had committed a war crime by murdering journalists in Baghdad. This country is a better country because of a 2017 media report on the 'Afghan files'—in particular the allegations by David McBride—about misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan. This country is a better country because of Richard Boyle blowing the whistle last year on misconduct at the ATO. This country is a better country because of the work by Annika Smethurst last year in warning us that there was active consideration at the Australian Signals Directorate of being allowed to spy domestically. This country is a better country because, this year, 2GB journalist Ben Fordham reported on his program that there were a number of boats holding asylum seekers en route from Sri Lanka to Australia.

All of these cases have relied on brave whistleblowers telling the media what they know and brave journalists doing their job, and we must do everything we can to allow that because, if we don't allow brave whistleblowers to go to the media and if we don't allow journalists to do their jobs, who knows what will go unreported? Who knows what governments might have that they don't want revealed? Remember that every one of those whistleblowers has taken grave risks. Behind every one of those stories, there are heroic whistleblowers who took grave risks—people who lost their jobs, who risked jail, who lost their marriages and friends, whose personal safety was put at risk and who were burdened by financial enormous costs. It is unsurprising that in this country the suicide rate for whistleblowers is markedly higher than the baseline rate in the community.

Why am I talk so much about whistleblowers? It is because they are central to this story. At the end of the day, the media must have freedom to report what their sources tell them. So we must do what we can to ensure the freedom of the media, but we must also do everything we can to strengthen the safeguards for their sources. It is very unfortunate that our current public interest disclosure legislation for both the public and private sectors remains inadequate. So good on the member for Mayo for progressing this. It certainly has my full support. I am very proud to second the motion by the member for Mayo.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.