00:00 The motivation is they're really feeling very disenchanted with the two major parties, just
00:07 in terms of how integrity and whistleblowing protections are being looked after.
00:13 Not a lot's happening.
00:15 And so they've decided to do it themselves, to form a political party called the Whistleblower
00:20 Integrity Party.
00:22 Geoff Morris, the CBA whistleblower, is part of it, as is Peter Fox, who was behind the
00:29 Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse with the Catholic Church, and Troy Stoltz, who
00:35 was a whistleblower for Clubs New South Wales, which he blew the whistle on money laundering
00:42 and compliance issues.
00:44 Now, so David McBride mentioned there, he's a high-profile whistleblower.
00:48 He will actually be sentenced next week.
00:50 Can you remind us what he has pleaded guilty to?
00:53 Yes, so he will be sentenced next week.
00:55 He's pled guilty to leaking sensitive military documents to the ABC.
01:04 And he had no choice but to plead guilty because of the failure of whistleblower protections.
01:10 And so on Tuesday of next week, he'll be sentenced.
01:14 He could face life imprisonment or, you know, it's really up to the judge, you know, whether
01:20 it be a community service, right up to the most extreme.
01:24 The Attorney-General had the option to drop the case and didn't.
01:28 Have we had the reasoning as to why it's going ahead?
01:31 Yes, so Mark Dreyfuss, as the Attorney-General, has the powers under the Judiciary Act to
01:38 intervene any prosecution if he thinks it isn't in the public interest.
01:43 And he decided in the case of David McBride and also Richard Boyle, who's the ATO whistleblower,
01:49 that they weren't exceptional circumstances.
01:52 So he was going to let the court play out.
01:55 And the fact that it is playing out, what has it revealed or could it reveal about whistleblower
01:59 protections in this country?
02:02 And could it see a push for change there?
02:04 Yes, well, that's what the hope is, that there are flaws in the whistleblower protections.
02:10 And indeed, the week of the trial of David McBride, the Attorney-General came out and
02:15 announced that they would be calling for submissions to look at how to improve whistleblower legislation.
02:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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