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To: Australian Attorney General
Expand and backdate whistleblower protection
The Honourable Attorney-General for Australia,
There are current prosecutions and investigations of whistleblowers, who have exposed wrongdoings by government. While there has been legislation to protect publishers of information declared secret, there is insufficient protection for the whistleblowers themselves, and the protection needs to be retrospective to protect, for example, witness K. Could you please introduce appropriate legislation.
Why is this important?
In 2004 the Australian Security and Intelligence Service bugged the offices of the Timor-Leste president. There were negotiations taking place for access to the Timor Sea gas reserves, and Australia's negotiators used the bugs to gain an advantage and promote the interests of the company Woodside. Witness K saw this and tried to rectify this wrong, and eventually his efforts saw this becoming public knowledge.
I think Witness K is a courageous, solid defender of a decent Australia. A hero of democracy, who the government has chosen to harass and prosecute.
And now we have more of the same, with police raids on ABC and News Corp to catch whistleblowers in June 2019.
We don't want to be like China!