House debates Questions without Notice

Whistleblower Protection

Tuesday, 14 May 2024 House of Representatives

Elizabeth Watson-Brown

Elizabeth Watson-Brown Ryan, Australian Greens

3:35 pm

My question is to the Prime Minister. Today, David McBride was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison for the crime of telling the truth about war crimes. Why won't your government admit that our whistleblower laws are broken and commit to urgent reform to keep whistleblowers like Mr McBride out of jail?

Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister

3:36 pm

This matter, as the member has indicated, was finalised in the courts today. In the report, it also indicated that there would be an appeal to that before the courts. I'm not going to say anything here that interferes with a matter that is quite clearly going to continue to be before the courts, because we know what the consequences of that are.