Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I agree with a lot of what Senator Gallagher said there. It is quite intriguing why the government won't support this motion based on what they have said here tonight. I won't go over old ground, but I want to pay my respects to Senator Patrick for bringing this forward and to Senator McKim for the work he has done on this over many years. I just want to highlight the particular point that Witness K, the ex-ASIS officer who through internal avenues blew the whistle on what he obviously thought was immoral or potentially criminal behaviour, did that when former minister Alexander Downer joined Woodside Petroleum. That's a really important point to make. That is what triggered this intelligence officer to come forward with these concerns. It triggered the whole process that we are discussing here today.

It hasn't skipped my attention either that Senator Brandis, who many of us who have been here for a while were very familiar with from his time in this chamber, refused to sign off on the prosecution of Bernard Collaery and Witness K. As soon as he was gone, Mr Christian Porter, in the other place, signed off on it. Also, he was previously legal counsel for Woodside Petroleum. Is there a pattern to this? Should we be joining the dots? Why the cover-up? Why the silence? Why the lack of transparency? Why the abuse of power—because that's what this is?

This is using the resources of government from one of the highest offices of the land to cover up an event that occurred over a decade ago that clearly implicates illegal behaviour, potential criminality, certainly immoral and unethical behaviour in the eyes of many people—and probably a whole lot more.

I would like to particularly say that abuses of power need scrutiny. This is an opportunity, through the legal and cons committee, to scrutinise this. Asking Mr Christian Porter to make a statement we all know is not about to fly. This is just a salve by the Labor Party. Two weeks ago, Senator Patrick put this reference on the table that we're debating tonight, and I know there are some good people in the Labor Party who support this. It's just so disappointing that clearly they're not supporting this because they are too close to the intelligence community. They're clearly either too close or too afraid. They're lacking courage to have scrutiny of the institution of parliament to which we've been democratically elected to represent the Australian people. It's very disappointing.

It's clear that the relentless hounding of Bernard Collaery, a man of upstanding achievement and history and experience and who's held in significant gravitas by this country, has been designed to send a message. The relentless hounding of these two men, who, as Senator McKim so rightly said, should have been given a medal for exposing what they have exposed, is designed to send a message: Don't blow the whistle. Don't embarrass powerful people, or we will come after you with everything we have got. We're also seeing it in the case of David McBride for blowing the whistle on the allegations that ultimately led to the Afghan war inquiry, which is playing out partly through the courts at the moment. And we've most certainly seen it in relation to Chelsea Manning overseas, and the brave man Julian Assange and organisation WikiLeaks, who published these disclosures that so embarrassed powerful people in the US and here in Australia.

At 10.30 am London time tomorrow, on 11 August, the UK High Court will hear the appeal of the Biden administration into the extradition trial of Australian publisher—and hero to many people, including myself—Julian Assange. It is an absolute travesty that Assange is still in jail. He's never been charged with any crime. It's purely to send a message: don't disclose our dirty secrets, our dirty laundry, or we will come after you with everything we have got. The parliamentary friends of Assange group have sought to have a media pass so we can watch the proceedings of that High Court case in the UK live, and I think that's a great thing. Those members of the group will have the ability to watch that live on the internet, and I'm very encouraged at the number of senators that have come forward from the Labor Party to join the parliamentary friends of Assange group. As Julian Assange often says, courage is contagious, and it's good to see more people joining that group and getting involved. I understand there's even a Liberal Party MP that's finally joined the group. The local member, from where I live in Launceston, Bridget Archer is a member of the parliamentary friends of Assange group, but I know there are other members and senators who would like to be a part of that group. Nevertheless, that is tomorrow. I hope that the High Court doesn't uphold the appeal when it ultimately gets to the substantive case in a few months time and that this Australian, who's essentially been in hard lockdown now for nearly 11 years, gets to walk free and that we get a very powerful message that press freedom is important and whistleblowing is important.