Civil society groups have raised concerns about the democratic impact of the prosecution of David McBride, after the Afghan Files whistleblower pleaded guilty to three charges on Friday afternoon.
McBride will be sentenced at a later date. McBride’s plea came after pre-trial rulings this week blocked the use of a defence that the former Army lawyer’s actions were in the public interest. Last year, McBride was forced to abandon a defence under federal whistleblowing law following a last-minute national security intervention by the government.
The Labor Government had earlier resisted calls from lawyers and civil society groups to intervene and stop the prosecution.
Rex Patrick, Former Senator and Founder of the Whistleblower Justice Fund said:
“This is a dark day for democracy in Australia. The Attorney-General could have stopped this, but refused to, and now we have a whistleblower facing years in jail.”
“With no legal protections as a whistleblower, this outcome was almost inevitable for David McBride. That’s why we had pleaded with the Attorney-General to intervene in the public interest.
“In just one single moment, whistleblowing in Australia has been shut down. How is that a good thing?”
Kieran Pender, Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre said:
“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...
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