According to the legal body, current secrecy laws criminalise whistleblowers and journalists and undermine transparency and accountability in Australian democracy, ultimately harming national security.

In a recent submission to INSLM, the HRLC provided 13 recommendations, emphasising that “without robust whistleblowers protections and public interest journalism, too often human rights violations go unchecked”.

These recommendations include repealing lower-level secrecy offences, with administrative sanctions used instead for minor breaches; reducing penalties to levels that are “necessary and proportionate”; narrowing and repealing entirely secrecy offences that apply to third-party, non-Commonwealth officers; and establishing pathways for national intelligence whistleblowers to disclose information in the public interest.

HRLC senior lawyer Kieran Pender said that, if adopted, these recommendations would “shift the needle towards transparency, accountability and good governance in our laws, and ultimately improve national security”.

“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,” he said.

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“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.”

The HRLC is scheduled to appear before INSLM at a public hearing in Canberra later this month.