‘So… un-Labor’: Albanese lily-livered as whistleblowers head for extradition or jail

He’s an Australian who blew the whistle on war crimes committed in the Middle East, a man before a judicial system with little chance of freedom in the years ahead. 

I’m not talking about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, although I could be. I’m talking about David McBride, who blew the whistle on war crimes committed by a small cohort of Australian troops in Afghanistan by leaking classified military documents to the ABC.

On March 12, McBride will walk into the ACT Supreme Court where he faces sentencing for telling the truth. He likely won’t walk away from the court — instead, he’ll be driven to a new home: jail. The prosecutor, on behalf of the security establishment he blew the whistle on, is seeking for McBride a lengthy custodial sentence.

After reading the above introduction, it’s reasonable to have presumed I was discussing Julian Assange. He’s currently petitioning the High Court in the United Kingdom to prevent his extradition to the United States, where he’s set to face time in a supermax prison and a lengthy trial for being a journalist.

Last week the House of Representatives passed a motion, moved by independent MP Andrew Wilkie, that called on the House to note that the situation as it stands “underlines the importance of the UK and USA bringing the matter to a close so that Mr Assange can return home to his family in Australia”.

The Albanese government voted for the motion; falling popularity among Labor’s support base demanded it did so. But it’s not as though the motion involved substantive action. While Wilkie did well to press for the motion — and it does assist as a point of pressure in the public’s fight for Assange’s release — Labor’s vote can only be seen as just another part of the disingenuousness that has covered its non-advocacy for Assange.

The prime minister doesn’t have direct control over the release of Assange. But he does have the ability to press strongly with US President Joe Biden for his release. America regularly releases people from its custody for reasons of national interest. Most recently it released a number of Iranian prisoners in exchange for five Americans imprisoned in Iran and for US$6 billion that had been frozen in South Korean banks.

Albanese just doesn’t have the moral courage to insist on Assange’s release. Last week he went into Parliament and gave it all he seemed capable of: sitting down on the “Yes” side of the chamber for the motion before then leaving to go about doing nothing substantive to actually support Assange. That’s not being harsh — freedom of information documents show he has not written to Biden about Assange, and that Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus have not written to their US counterparts either.

That leads us back to David McBride. Albanese, through his attorney-general, has direct control over dropping the charges against this whistleblower in our own country. No action has occurred.

The prime minister is happy to make big promises on integrity and secrecy, and to announce changes to the law that would purportedly provide better protections for whistleblowers and journalists. But also he’s happy to idle while McBride, a hero in the eyes of most Australians, goes to jail. He’s happy to send the message that should the public blow the whistle on illegal and immoral conduct, you will feel the full force of government upon you — at the bar table in a court!

It’s the end of oversight of the government from within.

Albanese sat quietly in Parliament last week supporting a motion in favour of Assange, knowing it would serve as a coward’s shield in his government’s non-campaign to stop Assange’s suffering. He’s also sitting comfortably in his failure to support whistleblowers here in Australia. 

He is just so… un-Labor.