David McBride has emerged from prison after paying an extraordinary personal price for exposing information about alleged war crimes. His case should leave Australia with more than gratitude – it should leave lasting whistleblower reform.

Ask a lawyer what courage looks like and you will often get an abstraction.

Here is a concrete one involving David McBride, a former military lawyer who leaked information to the ABC that revealed alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. In November 2023, in a courtroom in Canberra, McBride watched the argument he had spent five years preparing fail. The court would not allow him a public interest defence – in essence that he had a duty to act in the public interest to ensure serious allegations saw the light of day, including where that was in conflict with a lawful order. He would not be permitted to tell a jury why he acted.

He pleaded guilty. He went to prison and served two years and three months of an almost six-year sentence. This week he walked out. He is 62 years old.

I want to write about the man rather than the law. The law has had quite enough attention in this case. It needs reform because........

© Pearls and Irritations