Andrew Wilkie, an independent MP, has a unique and outstanding path to politics.
He was first elected in 2010 to represent Tasmania’s Denison (now Clarke) seat, keeping the government in balance during Julia Gillard’s minority government.
His status as an independent MP dates back to a time before the word “teal” had any other meaning than that of a bluey-green color.
He has 12 years of experience on the crossbench advocating for transparent and responsible administration, therefore he is knowledgeable about honesty.
But his fight for transparency went far further back than 2010.
In 2003, Wilkie burst into the scene when he exposed Australia’s faulty arguments for entering the Iraq War.
He publicly voiced his misgivings and resigned from Australia’s top intelligence assessment organization, the Office of National Assessments, in protest of the impending war.
The idea that Iraq had WMDs and collaborated with terrorists was “a fiction,” he claimed, one week prior to the assault.
It was this life-changing decision to shine light on one of the country’s deepest, darkest secrets that set him on a rocky road to parliament, and he has only increased his margin at each election since 2010.
He has long campaigned for a federal anti-corruption commission and voted to establish the government’s version of one.
Complementary to that, however, are new reforms to better-protect whistleblowers.
Over the course of the following 12 months, the government says these will be provided in two parts. Some might argue that the government should communicate with whistleblowers before passing legislation to protect them.
Wilkie’s fellow parliamentarians might want to join him for a conversation in that vein, just like Nine News has done.
