The attorney-general should use his power to halt the prosecutions of two men facing trial over their roles in providing information to the media about government wrongdoing, say crossbenchers and press freedom advocates, with independent MP Andrew Wilkie calling Mark Dreyfus’s justification for not intervening “bullshit”.
Wilkie told Crikey that he had discussed the impending trials against Australian Taxation Office (ATO) ex-employee Richard Boyle and army lawyer David McBride with Dreyfus. Wilkie said Dreyfus had told him he was not inclined to intervene because he did not want to override independent prosecutors.
In Dreyfus’ mind, Wilkie said, the fact that those cases were brought by independent prosecutors rather than under the authority of a former attorney-general made them different from the case of Bernard Collaery, who had charges against him dropped after Dreyfus intervened.
“He does have the legal power, but he feels he doesn’t have the license to intervene in the legal affairs within a government department,” Wilkie said.
“I think that’s bullshit. That’s spelled b-u-l-l-s-h-i-t. There is a compelling case, and these are extraordinary circumstances — it is not in the public interest to continue the prosecution; it would be in the public interest to stop it.”
Human Rights Law Centre senior lawyer Kieran Pender said Dreyfus could end the prosecutions with the “swish of a pen”.
“There are two people in Australia with the power to end these injustices: the Commonwealth director of public prosecutions can at any time revisit the public interest in a prosecution and end it. And the attorney-general, who has ultimate responsibility for our prosecutorial system and the ultimate responsibility to the Parliament and the Australian people, has power under the Judiciary Act to drop this case,” Pender told Crikey.
Wilkie told reporters at Parliament House today that it was “bizarre” McBride would face a court: “The first person to front a court over war crimes in Afghanistan is the whistleblower who told us about the war crimes.”
Boyle failed to convince a judge in March that he should be protected under the Public Interest Disclosure Act, and is facing 24 charges related to his decision to speak out about what he felt were heavy-handed tactics by the ATO to chase taxpayers over debts. McBride’s charges relate to his alleged leaking of a tranche of confidential Afghanistan war documents to the ABC. Both risk years in prison if found guilty.
Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom executive director Peter Greste told reporters the prosecutions were a matter of press freedom: “If this prosecution goes ahead, it’s very difficult to see how journalists can guarantee the protection of sources and pursue stories that are clearly a matter of public interest.”
Dreyfus was contacted for comment but did not respond before deadline.
Should Mark Dreyfus intervene? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
Wilkie is right. There’s some merit in Dreyfus’s argument about not interfering with independent prosecutors’ decisions; in general it would be better if all ministers were less likely, not more, to overrule bodies set up to provide independent decisions free of party or partisan politics. But the AG is a unique sort of minister because the role includes oversight of the whole judicial system, and in these whistleblower cases Dreyfus’s refusal to use his authority to intervene in the public interest is pure cowardice and dereliction of duty.
So why is Dreyfus so blasé about continuing these persecutions? [sic] Let there be no doubt: all our governments, of any stripe, hate and fear whistleblowers, and nothing sends a clearer message to any humble citizen with a conscience, who is thinking of revealing corruption or malfeasance, than to see how even the most decent and honourable among us will be slowly and surely crucified if they speak out, no matter how justified and public-spirited their cause. The governments similar lack of interest in passing any effective whistleblower protection laws reinforces the message.
Only corrupt governments hate whistleblowers, Both the LNP and ALP are corrupt, imho. Both lack integrity. The sad thing is that the lack of integrity modeled by politicians is picked up by Australian society. The ALP and LNP are not beacons of morality/ethics.
Integrity? Although governments like ours are usually described as ‘representative democracies’ that phrase was effectively obsolete once almost all the representatives became party members subject to party discipline. When the ruling parties had mass membership of fairly ordinary people they were still answerable to the public, up to a point. But in the last few decades such parties have evolved into something very different as membership has dwindled. The parties are, in effect, businesses hiring out their elected members to vote for anything their paying clients require. They seek power because they get more clients and can charge more for their services when in government. Is this just modern politics or is it corruption? Take your pick.
In countries like ours there is a duopoly dominating this business, and any impression they are in competition with each other is misleading. They are more like professional wrestlers; they put on a show of knocking each other about to impress and entertain the public (Parliamentary Question Time is Exhibit A), but they both know their first job is to keep all that business for themselves. The Saturday Paper just published a superb and depressing article reporting on the proposed measures, devised by Labor and the Coalition working together, to make it far harder for any independent or small party candidates to put up any effective challenge. It should surprise nobody that this is a bipartisan enterprise. There is nothing more likely to unite the major parties than this. It will put a big hurdle in the way of Clive Palmer throwing many millions of dollars into campaigns to sabotage anybody he does not like, which is not so very objectionable, but it will also make it almost impossible for candidates like the Teals or other independents to fund election campaigns. Incumbency will be everything.
A most depressing stand off by the AG. His reasons for not intervening to clear these men from wrong doing, when they clearly felt the confidence of correcting a wrong and made it public for all to learn by. Where are the lessons of wrong and right as a motto to live by if you are penalised. A dereliction by Dreyfus. How much do we lose as a society in penalising the do gooders while viewed by the marginalised.
If Dreyfus had any nous he would be telling the Director of Public Prosecutions he is losing confidence in him.
These two whistleblowers are being used as sacrificial lambs to no great benefit to anyone. In the process they will probably go broke if they have not already done so and will suffer adverse mental health.
This case joins the growing list of this Government doing none of the things it said it would do from opposition. It is time for a clean out of those dragging their feet starting at the top.
Yea indeed.why haven’t the accc begun investigating certain members of the previous government?
Anton Nilsson’s article merely serves to remind us of why the ALP has for many years been known as the “Alternative Liberal Party“. Thank god for Andrew Wilkie, one of the few politicians in our Federal Parliament who has any decency.
Don’t call him a politician, when that term has been so thoroughly covered in slime – he’s a representative; an actual public servant.
We need a groundswell of Wilkies and Pococks and similar, to put the incumbents to maximum shame and provide the mug punters with a proper alternative at the ballot box; then, if the electorate stick with our current pair of gangs, we truly will deserve everything we get.
Well said, though I’m not sure that quoting Peter Greste adds to the case. He washes his hands of Julian Assange.
I will never forgive Greste for that, and how the heck did he become executive director of a journalistic freedom organisation?
To the best of my knowledge he has never apologised for throwing Assange under a bus, or or struck a blow to help get him free.
And Greste is now well-funded courtesy of unsuspecting Crikey ‘go fund me ‘ contributors who were ambushed.
He does not. Watch this week’s National Press Club.
Yeah, I saw this charge against Greste and dug up some articles; he seems to be one of the few who acknowledges both sides of Assange.