Home Affairs boss Mike Pezzullo says whistleblowers should face jail
The head of the powerful Home Affairs department referenced the fictional Jason Bourne spy series while defending the Australian Federal Police raids on the media in June
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Whistleblowers should face jail if they leak secret government documents, Home Affairs boss Mike Pezzullo has declared while using a Jason Bourne reference to defend controversial AFP raids on journalists.
The head of the powerful Home Affairs department made the remarks while appearing before a press freedom inquiry in Canberra today sparked by Australian Federal Police raids on media in June.
Mr Pezzullo denied there was a press freedom crisis in Australia as he reiterated calls for journalists to check with government departments first before they published leaked classified information.
He referenced the Jason Bourne spy series and its fictional ‘Black Briar’ operation while claiming there was no reason for any government official to leak top secret information in Australia.
An “off-the-books, clandestine program” that was “unethical, immoral, illegal, not sanctioned, or based on any law” was the only reason that he would ever “morally support” leaking information to the press, Mr Pezzullo told the committee.
“We don’t run such programs,” he said.
“We don’t run a Black Briar-type program — and that’s the circumstance in which I think the media is potentially both the first and last line of defence.”
Mr Pezzullo said he supported the public’s right to know but believed that whistleblowers who leaked classified information should face “the full force of the law”.
“It remains my view that those who engage in an unauthorised disclosure or leak, as it is commonly labelled, without good reason, without having availed themselves of public interest projections, with no lawful authority should indeed feel the full force of the law,” he said.
“If that regrettably, and I say regrettably because there are humans at the bottom of all this, involves a term of imprisonment, so be it.”
In situations where journalists did seek to publish leaked information because they deemed it in the public interest, Mr Pezzullo called for more “careful, confidential, secure” negotiation with government to ensure there was no damage to ongoing operations or that lives were put at risk.
e denied it was a form of censorship.
Mr Pezzullo added that there were about two dozen journalists reporting on defence and national security matters who would contact the department regarding sensitive information to minimise the risks of harm. “I know who I can trust implicitly in the fourth estate,” the Home Affairs boss said.
Asked if he had ever discussed classified information with those journalists, Mr Pezzullo said he had not: “I know exactly where the lines are.”
Earlier, senior AFP officers fronting the inquiry said journalists that the AFP raided in June — News Corp reporter Annika Smethurst and ABC reporters Dan Oakes and Sam Clark — could still face criminal charges.
“That matter is ongoing and realistically, as the Acting Commissioner has just alluded to, until such time as the court allows us … to have access to the material that’s currently before it in relation to search warrants we conducted in relation to this matter, we’re not in a relation to rule anything in or out,” AFP Deputy Commissioner Operations Neil Gaughan said.
Documents tabled by the AFP reveal there have been about 100 referrals since 2013 to the police regarding alleged leaks by Commonwealth officers.
Investigating 67 of the alleged leaks has cost the AFP $3.7 million.
Defence officials and media bosses from the Australia’s Right to Know coalition will front the inquiry at Parliament House this afternoon.
Originally published as Home Affairs boss Mike Pezzullo says whistleblowers should face jail