During budget estimates on Tuesday, Greens Senator David Shoebridge described the federal government having spent over $1.8 million on the prosecution of former ADF lawyer David McBride, as “a lavish use of public money to gaol a whistleblower”.
However, National Security and Criminal Justice Group deputy secretary Sarah Chidgey said she wasn’t sure if she’d agree with that characterisation.
So, Shoebridge provided two other descriptors that might suffice: “eyewatering” and “criminally large”. But Chidgey, who works within the Attorney General’s Department, was still not satisfied, stating that she’d prefer to describe the amount as “significant”.
But the buck didn’t stop there. The senator ascertained that over $233,000 has thus far been spent on prosecuting ATO whistleblower Richard Boyle, as well as more than $5.5 million having been spent on the now finalised cases against Witness K and lawyer Bernard Collaery.
“So, we now have collective Commonwealth costs for monstering whistleblowers at $7.6 million,” Shoebridge made clear.
Chidgey further implied that the reason the cost in prosecuting McBride is so steep is partially due to “protection of information”, meaning the application of national security measures to suppress certain details of the case that saw the whistleblower expose Australian war crimes in Afghanistan.
Indeed, when McBride fronted court last October to argue his public interest defence under laws AG Mark Dreyfus has admitted...
Foley partner Lisa Noller, Chair of the Firm’s Litigation Department, will be speaking at the American Bar Association’s Qui Tam & Civil False Claims and Healthcare Fraud Institute in Washingt...