He was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to three charges including theft and sharing with members of the press documents classified as secret.
The previous coalition government started this persecution, but Albo’s Labor government drove it home.
So it seems like governments love prosecuting whistleblowers would be the correct take on this situation.
Edit: Just to be extra clear, Australia’s current government is Labor (center left party), but the previous government was a coalition of the Liberals (mainstream, yet still far right party) and the Nationals (deep fried crazy far right party).
So the unjust prosecution of David McBride started under the previous rightwing coalition government, but the current left leaning Labor government continued the prosecution and got the conviction.
They are center left, which yes, does include some neoliberal tendencies. However, they still support Australia’s welfare state and have very strong ties to, and support from, the relatively strong unions that still exist in Australia.
The welfare state was invented by Bismarck to crush leftism, it’s not leftism itself.
And unions and unionism are fucking atrocious in this country.
Look at the SDA it’s an entirely industry bought and ran right wing union, which has actually fought for worse deals for its members.
Furthermore we only allow government approved unions, meaning tough luck if you want a real union that will fight for you. It’s the entire reason the IWW is not operating in Australia despite its presence across the world.
The closest thing we have to a left wing party outside of the fringe socialist groups is the Greens who run on a proper union supporting platform.
That’s a fine metric for your own internal political compass, but it’s a poor one to use when trying to discuss or describe world events, especially on a forum like this.
Not because it’s an indefensible position, but because no one else is going to know your definition of rightwing is literally anything that isn’t already a communist utopia.
But I’m to go out on a limb and assume, no offense, that you just weren’t aware that Australian Labor regained power after nearly a decade of being the opposition…which is understandable, most people don’t follow Australian politics, outside of Australia.
The previous coalition government started this persecution, but Albo’s Labor government drove it home.
So it seems like governments love prosecuting whistleblowers would be the correct take on this situation.
Edit: Just to be extra clear, Australia’s current government is Labor (center left party), but the previous government was a coalition of the Liberals (mainstream, yet still far right party) and the Nationals (deep fried crazy far right party).
So the unjust prosecution of David McBride started under the previous rightwing coalition government, but the current left leaning Labor government continued the prosecution and got the conviction.
Labor are centre-right and have been for 50 years now since they embraced neoliberalism.
Labor are left of Liberal, but that doesnt make them a left wing party.
They are center left, which yes, does include some neoliberal tendencies. However, they still support Australia’s welfare state and have very strong ties to, and support from, the relatively strong unions that still exist in Australia.
The welfare state was invented by Bismarck to crush leftism, it’s not leftism itself.
And unions and unionism are fucking atrocious in this country.
Look at the SDA it’s an entirely industry bought and ran right wing union, which has actually fought for worse deals for its members.
Furthermore we only allow government approved unions, meaning tough luck if you want a real union that will fight for you. It’s the entire reason the IWW is not operating in Australia despite its presence across the world.
The closest thing we have to a left wing party outside of the fringe socialist groups is the Greens who run on a proper union supporting platform.
Regardless what name they go by, if they uphold capitalism in any form they are right wing
That’s a fine metric for your own internal political compass, but it’s a poor one to use when trying to discuss or describe world events, especially on a forum like this.
Not because it’s an indefensible position, but because no one else is going to know your definition of rightwing is literally anything that isn’t already a communist utopia.
But I’m to go out on a limb and assume, no offense, that you just weren’t aware that Australian Labor regained power after nearly a decade of being the opposition…which is understandable, most people don’t follow Australian politics, outside of Australia.