Group of whistleblowers to form integrity-focused party

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A group of high-profile whistleblowers have decided that going into politics is the only way they're going to get protections and they're in the process of forming the whistleblower integrity party. Jeff Morris who lifted the lid on the Commonwealth Bank's conduct is one of the people behind it.

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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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