He was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to three charges including theft and sharing with members of the press documents classified as secret.
The previous coalition government started this persecution, but Albo's Labor government drove it home.
So it seems like governments love prosecuting whistleblowers would be the correct take on this situation.
Edit: Just to be extra clear, Australia's current government is Labor (center left party), but the previous government was a coalition of the Liberals (mainstream, yet still far right party) and the Nationals (deep fried crazy far right party).
So the unjust prosecution of David McBride started under the previous rightwing coalition government, but the current left leaning Labor government continued the prosecution and got the conviction.
And still whistleblowers are being sentenced, jailed, prosecuted by Gvements ( and sometimes killed)
I get the security thing, but war crimes and industrial crimes should be measured on another different scale altogether.
Most of those guys should get a medal, imo. WTF?!
David McBride, 60, was sentenced in a court in the capital, Canberra, to five years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to three charges including theft and sharing with members of the press documents classified as secret.
Rights advocates argue that McBride’s conviction and sentencing before any alleged war criminal he helped expose reflected a lack of whistleblower protections in Australia.
Police raided the ABC’s Sydney headquarters in 2019 in search of evidence of a leak, but decided against charging the two reporters responsible for the investigation.
McBride’s argument that his suspicions that the higher echelons of the Australian Defense Force were engaged in criminal activity obliged him to disclose classified papers “didn’t reflect reality,” Mossop said.
Also last year, a civil court found Australia’s most decorated living war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith had likely unlawfully killed four Afghans.
Wilkie quit his intelligence job in Australia’s Office of National Assessments days before Australian troops joined U.S. and British forces in the 2003 Iraq invasion.
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