This report recommends that the Australian government introduce new dedicated legislation to facilitate the making of public interest disclosures and strengthen legal protection for whistleblowers in the Commonwealth public sector. The Commonwealth is the only Australian jurisdiction that does not have legislation to encourage public interest disclosures. While some limited protections are available to whistleblowers...

Introduction A creeping authoritarianism and a pronounced lack of diversity are making their impact felt on Australia’s already fragile media landscape. Despite Australia’s traditions of freedom and its status as a long-time liberal democracy, its ranking in terms of press freedom has fallen below that of many newer democracies. In an international survey by Freedom...

Expanding on the issue of protection of journalists' sources, Helen Ester looks at a range of factors affecting the Press Gallery's role in public accountability. These include not only government pursuit of whistleblowers but also a weak freedom of information regime making journalists overly dependent on leaks, and a hollowing out of the press gallery...