Australia considers national security whistleblowing
The Australian Law Reform Commission recommended that national security whistleblowers should face criminal sanctions only when their disclosures, "damage national security, interfere with an investigation and endanger someone's life or safety." The Commission also recommended that a new law create an offense of unauthorized disclosure only in these circumstances.
Today Australia's Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, tabled the recommendation in Parliament so that the government could review it. The recommendation follows a 2005 disclosure by retired customs officer Allan Kessing about security breaches at Sydney Airport. Kessing was charged with disclosing information without due authorization. He made his disclosure to an opposition member of Parliament and it was published in a periodical two years later. The Herald Sun reports on the action in today's edition.
Dennis Brutus, died December 26th in Cape Town, South Africa, at the age 85. Dennis was one of the National Whistleblowers Center's founding board members. He is a world-renowned poet and was always a voice of the downtrodden and dispossessed. Dennis Brutus was born in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, of South African parents, who returned to South Africa after Dennis was born. He was exiled from South Africa in 1966. Brutus was a pivotal figure in the anti-Apartheid movement. He was a critical thinker who forged a strategy on how to bring the horror of Apartheid to world attention.
