Transparency should trump secrecy to improve Australia’s national security

Australia’s national secrecy laws should be recalibrated to encourage transparency and accountability in the public interest, the Human Rights Law Centre said today.

The Independent National Security Legislation Monitor (INSLM) is currently undertaking a review of secrecy offences in Part 5.6 of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth).

Current secrecy laws criminalise whistleblowers and journalists and undermine transparency and accountability in our democracy, ultimately harming national security.

The Human Rights Law Centre in its submission provided 13 recommendations, including:

  • Repealing lower-level secrecy offences, with administrative sanctions used instead for minor breaches

  • Penalties to be reduced to levels which are necessary and proportionate

  • Narrowing and in some cases repealing entirely secrecy offences that apply to third-party, non-Commonwealth officers

  • Establishing pathways for the national intelligence whistleblowers to disclose information in the public interest

The Human Rights Law Centre is scheduled to appear before INSLM at a public hearing in Canberra later this month. 

Kieran Pender, Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said:

“Australia’s democracy is stronger when people can speak out against human rights abuses, wrongdoing and corruption. Yet too often, Australia’s national security laws have been used as a tool to shut down transparency.

“There are compelling circumstances in which secrecy is used to protect Australia’s national security, but current laws are silencing whistleblowers, journalists, public servants and civil society advocates in an unnecessary and disproportionate manner.

“There is no public interest in punishing and criminalising whistleblowers. If adopted, our recommendations will shift the needle towards transparency, accountability and good governance in our laws, and ultimately improve national security.”

Read the Human Rights Law Centre’s submission to the INSLM review of secrecy offences here.

Media Contact: 
Thomas Feng
Human Rights Law Centre
0431 285 275
thomas.feng@hrlc.org.au 

Thomas FengDemocratic Freedoms