Attorney General Waxes Lyrical About His Whistleblower Protections that Fail All
“Improved whistleblower protection has long been an interest of mine,” federal attorney general Mark Dreyfus told The Sydney Institute, during a 5 September speech he gave to the privately-funded policy forum, which was titled, Transparency and Accountability in Politics and...
Australian Government Talks Big About Protecting Whistleblowers, While Criminally Prosecuting Them
The South Australian District Court last year found that Richard Boyle was correct in blowing the whistle on the Australian Taxation Office over its breaching of a garnishee policy to dip into small business accounts to extract debts with the...
Christian Extremists Continue Attempts to Infiltrate Australian Politics
When Senator Fatima Payman quit Labor on 4 July, as it refused to condemn the Israeli perpetrated genocide in Gaza and also sanctioned her for speaking out against it, the old school white political establishment and media automatically went in...
Australian Government Should Be Ashamed of Imprisoning McBride
Picture troops stranded in a foreign land, beyond watch or care of government back home, which is only concerned in looking effective. Consider these soldiers don’t know their aim in a foreign conflict, as neither do their leaders. And think...
“Don’t Blow the Whistle”, Australia Warns, as It Imprisons Lawyer for Exposing War Crimes
Australians are raised on ideas of freedom, justice and equality: principles that the nation is said to embody, and its defence forces uphold. And it’s implicitly understood that serving military officers take no pleasure in committing acts that are usually...
The Right To Silence Across Australian Jurisdictions
The right to silence is not protected by the Australian Constitution, unlike in the United States where is is guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment to that nation’s constitution and reflected in what are commonly known as ‘Miranda rights’, also known...
The Criminal Offence of Contempt of an Australian Senate Inquiry
Despite having a multi-million dollar payout in his back pocket and a substantial free flights package with Qantas, the Australian Government apparently did not consider former Alan Joyce to be a ‘flight risk’ while organising a Senate Inquiry into Qatar...
What is the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission?
The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) was created on 1 July 2016 under the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002 (Cth)(‘the ACC Act’). It consolidated three former federal intelligence agencies: the Australian Crime Commission (ACC), the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC)...
Attorney General Enacts “Bare Minimum” Protections for Public Sector Whistleblowers
One of the opening paragraphs of the explanatory memorandum pertaining to the amendments federal attorney general Mark Dreyfus has just made to the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 (Cth) (the PID Act) is kind of humorous. The newly passed changes to...
Witness J: The Transcript of Australia’s Most Kafkaesque Trial Has Finally Been Released
ACT Chief Justice Lucy McCallum last week ordered the redacted publication of the previously withheld transcript relating to the 2018 secret trialling of Witness J, a former Australian military intelligence official, who was referred to as Alan Johns during court proceedings,...
