Australian war crimes whistleblower, David McBride, pleaded guilty to three charges of stealing and unlawfully sharing military information. Kieran Pender, senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre and legal counsel to McBride, made a statement outside the courtroom following McBride’s plea.
“There is no public interest in prosecuting whistleblowers, and certainly no public interest in sending them to jail. If McBride is sentenced to a term of imprisonment, the Attorney-General should immediately pardon him to recognize the dangerous impact this case is having on Australian democracy,” he asserted.
Pender added that the guilty plea sounded an alarm indicating that reforms to the federal whistleblowing laws were pressing and much delayed. McBride is a former military lawyer who was accused of leaking documents that purportedly contain evidence of potential war crimes by Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan. These charges are related to unauthorized disclosure of classified documents.
The case has triggered intense debate about the function of whistleblowers in exposing malfeasance and the equilibrium to be found between national security interests and public transparency. Wide-ranging views exist about McBride’s actions, with some applauding him as a daring advocate for responsibility, while others criticize the alleged leaks as disloyal and ethically reprehensible.
Advocacy groups expressed their dismay at the latest development, with former Senator Rex Patrick, founder of the Whistleblower Justice Fund, declaring, “In one single moment whistleblowing in Australia has been shut down”. The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) also expressed disappointment in their statement, calling repeatedly on the attorney general to use his exceptional powers to intervene and terminate the prosecution.
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, KC, previously expressed his strong view that integrity and the rule of law lay at the heart of Australia’s criminal justice system, and that the government was committed to delivering potent, effective, and accessible protections for whistleblowers. Court proceeding for McBride’s sentencing is expected in early 2024.
In a related development last year, the case of lawyer Bernard Collaery triggered a national controversy over secrecy. McBride, along with Richard Boyle, who revealed unethical debt collection practices in the Australian Tax Office, is facing charges.
JURIST previously interviewed Pender about McBride’s case and its implications for whistleblowers in Australia. The full interview can be found here.