It has been a momentous week for integrity in Australia.
On Monday, Iraq war whistleblower Andrew Wilkie used parliamentary privilege to reveal allegations of fraudulent coal testing by Australian companies, tabling documents provided to his office by an industry whistleblower. Wilkie claimed coal exporters had been “lying for years about the quality of our coal,” with major implications for emissions reduction and Australia’s contribution to the climate crisis.
On Tuesday, the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, introduced amendments to the government’s national anti-corruption commission bill that will better protect journalists and whistleblowers. The draft law is expected to pass next week, in what will be a seismic step towards improving public integrity in Australia.
These developments underscore the importance of those who speak up in the public interest. In the public and private sectors, whistleblowers are a central part in bringing wrongdoing to light.
All Australians rely on those who witness wrongdoing to blow the whistle – whether it be alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, misconduct inside the big banks, espionage against Timor-Leste or a misogynist culture at Parliament House. Without transparency, there can be no accountability. Without whistleblowers, there can be no justice.
But this week’s developments must be the beginning, not the end, of a changed approach to whistleblowing under the new Labor government. Australia’s patchwork quilt of whistleblower...
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