Why Whistleblowing Matters: Secrecy and Transparency in Australia
Whistleblowers make Australia a better place. Many of the major scandals of the past decade in Australian public life have been revealed thanks to courageous whistleblowers speaking up about wrongdoing. But too many whistleblowers are punished, not protected. Right now two Australian whistleblowers are on trial, for telling the truth. Our whistleblower protections framework is broken; efforts at reform have been slow and piecemeal. Secrecy has pervaded our institutions - secret trials are taking place, the freedom of information regime is ineffective and secrecy offences have been expanded. This creep from transparency to secrecy must be halted. Comprehensive law reform across a range of areas is essential, together with institutional change and the establishment of a whistleblower protection authority. Most fundamentally, we need cultural change - a shift in public mindset to recognise the value of fearless truth-telling. Whistleblowers are agents of democratic accountability; this talk will lay out how they can be protected and empowered.