 In Australia, a former defence lawyer faces jail time over the leak of controversial files on the war in Afghanistan. David McBride released classified material in 2017 alleging Australian troops committed war crimes in Afghanistan. The government were hoping that I'd plead guilty to it, get some sort of a light sentence. I wanted a major trial because that was the only way I could put the government on trial. Incredible evidence that Australian elite soldiers unlawfully killed 39 people during the Afghan war. They kept on saying everything was okay in Afghanistan. It's collapsed in a heap as everybody on the inside knew it would. And now people are beginning to say, well, what else was a lie? Politicians would do anything to save their own skin. Put innocent people in jail, give medals to guilty people, lie about whether the war was going anywhere. It also showed the bigger problem that we just did not care about the truth. I caught and planted suicide on cliffs like this. I think what stopped me jumping off was the ghosts of the Anzacs. Something made me feel if I kept on fighting I would eventually win. Each day I would come home exhausted by the Department of Defence. I knew they were trying to cover something up in the defence board, but I couldn't see what. Australian elite soldiers unlawfully killed 39 people during the Afghan war. All the soldiers did the right thing and sometimes the government tried to make scapegoats of them. And it's just as much my duty to stand up for soldiers who are being scapegoated as it is to stand up on behalf of the people who were murdered to make sure they get justice. Hi, I'm David McBride and I'm proud to introduce this film you're about to see, Declassified. In September I will be facing court charged with leaking government secrets as a whistleblower. If convicted I face a lifetime imprisonment. This film was produced independently by Trees and Flowers in an attempt to tell my side of the story and to show you my journey for the past couple of years. I hope you enjoy it and I hope it inspires other people to stand up against injustice. I met David through my brother, Noah Materike, who's also one of the producers. And Noah is a social media marketing genius. He handles all of David McBride's social media accounts. So David I think he had in mind of doing a video series, like a video story. But his reference was the Kardashians. And he wanted to do something like that and I think I said I think we could do better David. So we had a couple phone calls and I literally met him the day before we started shooting and immediately there was a connection. It's a weird one because he really did change my perception of what I thought an ex-military person is. He is funny, he is intelligent, he is also in touch with his emotions. I had that typical thing, that stereotypical view of what an ex-soldier is. They are rough, they fight, they just, but then he wasn't any of that. So he really challenged my perception of what an ex-military person is. So we decided that the documentary that we're going to film, we're going to do it in a day and we should follow a day in the life because we really didn't have much of a script per se but we just said like what do you do in your day? And they just followed that. So as an army man, he wakes up at 5am so we started at 5am and then we just kind of followed him throughout his whole day and then that was the format. So yeah, that's the story. Oh congratulations, it's a fabulous film and it deserves to be seen by more people. So what are the plans regarding distribution? I think there has been talks between myself, David and Noel that maybe we should do like a national tool to go to other cities so we start with Sydney and the response has been positive. Thank you all for showing up. And maybe we can go to Melbourne or L.A. or so. But I've always thought in my mind, we know there's a bigger story if the trial is happening there could be a potential to make a bigger feature. So this documentary, I kind of see it as a preliminary work so hopefully we can approach some organizations like look at what we have. I think there's a bigger story that's followed up to make into a bigger story. I'll probably take a couple years just to follow the process of the trial. I'm sure it is going to be a big story. It's a big story now and it's going to get bigger. So it's lovely to meet you. David tells me you're a tremendous supporter. And I wondered if you would tell me what it's meant to you and the Afghan community. What day has it meant to you and the Afghan community? Thank you so much for having me tonight. I feel like I'm more nervous than David for some reason. So what it meant to us? When I first watched the Afghan files and read the bariton report, I think it was a consensus that most Afghans or every single Afghan, the Afghan diaspora in Sydney was hurt and shocked. And it was one of those stories that we've always heard. We know about it, that there are incidents in Afghanistan that's not merely casualties or fall. But there were incidents like this. So what David did for us, he gave us closure. He accepted and acknowledged what was happening over our ground. And it's been two years now. I started this petition on Change.Walk. Save our Aussie whistleblower. And this petition has received worldwide attention. We've obtained now 70,000 signatures. So for those of you who have not signed yet, it's change.org forward slash save our Aussie whistleblower. I've got members of our Afghan community here present tonight. Quite scattered actually. But I've just come here to thank you. And they'll extend their heartfelt gratitude to David because he fought a battle that was not his only. He fought for us for the Afghan justice. This is very courageous. It's very heartwarming and overwhelming to know that someone cares for us. He's also redeemed the reputation of the military and the Australian nation. And like David said in his video, if I have to go to prison to do the right thing, I will. You did the right thing, David. You did the right thing. You stood by us and we are very grateful to you. Zoe, we learned today that the Australian government has missed the deadline to make a decision about paying compensation to the 39 individuals who were killed allegedly unlawfully. And the British Inquiry recommended that compensation was paid promptly to people where there was credible evidence. And he believed there was credible evidence. And they've missed the deadline. What's your reaction to that? Because Afghanistan today is experiencing great hardship, hunger, poverty, largely because the United States have usurped Afghanistan's money and Australia hasn't paid compensation when they could have to people who are in dire need back there. What's your reaction to that? If I have to be honest, it makes me angry. This is because, like you said, when they had the opportunity to help, they did not. And now we've got the Taliban regime back in Afghanistan putting us back 20 or 40 or 50 or 60 years back. And we've got all these limitations of not being able to save funds and, as far as I'm concerned, it's all excuses. Thank you, Zoe. Thank you for your support. Now, Mark, you're coming to this with a very interesting background. Many of you here will know. So you bring together, through journalism and the law, you're interested in accountability and commitment to justice. And I want to ask you first about press freedom because the government's constantly banging on about press freedom in other countries. They haven't prosecuted journalists in Australia, though they're very happy for Julian Assange to die at prison. But they are pursuing whistleblowers relentlessly. What sort of press freedom can we have without whistleblowers? Well, of course, you know, none. And it's what drew me, as a journalist, I'm kind of interested because I was working with whistleblowers. So it's what drew me to this area of the law. But I have a more bleak view on that, merely I think journalism has gone down the tube anyway. So maybe it's only the whistleblowers that can save us, right? It is only people who make public declarations on important issues and so show some courage. I can tell you there's multiple stories that cannot be publicised in Australia. So I'm going to hate to say I'm sort of a little bit miserable and sort of giving up on the media and I'm rather appreciating whistleblowers. The comment that was made earlier was a brilliant comment that David is redeeming Australia's reputation. David is redeeming the reputation of the Australian military. I mean, what a profound thing to say and it's utterly true. The very man they want to throw in jail is the one man that might redeem some scary good integrity for us. It's very similar to Bernard Calary, who with a whistleblower about the oil deals from East Timor, I can promise you, Bernard Calary is a hero in East Timor. And as they discover, as the generations discover what Australia did to them, the only thing you would think, you would think they would put Bernard Calary on a golden chair and carry him to East Timor and everybody would be repaired. No, they'd want him in jail. They'd want McBride in jail. It is staggering to me. When David and I first met, he was a very lonely man. I don't know if I'm personal, he had some friends, but he was isolated. He had nowhere to turn. No one was petting me on the back because remember this, the Britain report had him happen when they were put on the ground. David in chains. The B. Robert Smith trial, or the Defamation Procedure, which would be the closest we would get to a war crime proceeding, was great irony that it's his own Defamation Procedure. None of that happened. So David was really staring into the eyes of the beast and we loved him for that, actually. Can I, I'm only going to get one shot if Mary can't get one shot. Stop here. Go. So even though David is, they're portraying him as a criminal, they want to put him in jail and they want society to see him that way. What I can say is people's attitude to David has utterly transformed and it's one of the things that I'm proud as to have been part of what happened to the corporates. Normally when you're accused of something, the society is divided about what they think of you. I don't think there's any division about David McBride. The Australian people are behind David McBride. The prosecution of David McBride was something very narrow. Yeah. Particularly narrow and self-serving group who merely, merely, so no attention, no light has shined upon them. So, and he does have support and to give a bit of a bright light to tonight. I mean, an incredible thing has happened to David which we haven't really publicly announced. But he applied for his, to be admitted again as a lawyer in New South Wales. It went to the New South Wales Law Society and it's been approved. And that's quite a poetic action. I'm going to take my hat to the law society along with the process. It's not easy to be facing a life imprisonment and get the law to get back what he did and there it is in black criminal law. Criminal law. And he's regarded as a man of fit and proper standing that would well represent a lawyer. So that's a really great thing. And he's also now working, he started working just sort of quietly for Sydney City Crime. I've got some association with it. David's now back in the courts. No one knows but he's out there and well, that's great. So Mark, give us an update on where we are with David's case. What's likely to happen. The trial starts in September. I will because if there's some supporters here it's important to know. His trial is cutting to, in September it's a very unique proceeding. It's the public interest disclosure defence. This is essentially Australia's whistle-blowing legislation. We have it. It's never been used in seven years which probably gives some indication of the difficulty in getting into it. But David's will be the first at the Supreme Court and we're running that defence. It's a difficult one. If he wins the PIN, he goes home. If he loses the PIN, he then the whole criminal proceedings starts. So he's into the long yards. If he loses the PIN this year he'll have a criminal trial in the middle of next year. It's why I'm so glad he's going to get back into being a lawyer and getting on with his life. Not just being a criminal by this. Because this is what they do. They cripple you for two, three years. So it's a long road to hanging in. Mark, just one final question. One of the things that's a great concern is that we are starting to have secret trials in this country. In Bernard Calieri's case there was one hearing where he was not only was he not allowed to be present. His lawyer wasn't allowed to be present. So they appointed a lawyer who couldn't tell him what happened during the day. It's extraordinary. Is this likely to happen? No, it has happened. We just haven't made too much of it frankly. For a couple of reasons. Bernard is the first carriage on the train. So he's confronting this. We're in the goodness behind him. So as he wins all this, it's his struggles. We're sort of following him. So there's no point in us making the same objections. We also don't have the funds. Bernard's got a great law firm, a good law firm who are backing him. So he's fighting every stage. Not as good as us. Not as good as us, but there's certainly a good chance. There's certainly a good chance. But also there's not much you can do about it. You can fight and fight and fight on these things and you're losing. We have to deal with it. You won't hear much about David McBride's trial. I mean it's shocking, isn't it? I mean it's truly shocking. I understand that if I see some of this material I just need to be careful in what I refer to. But it's understandable. A sliver of it is understandable. Something that might really yield an Australian technique or Australian contacts or something that would expose somebody. And the lawyers are used to that. Everyone agrees that we would have no objection. But they've thrown a blanket over 80% of David's proceedings. It's impossible to run for anything in public way. Can I point out one other thing though? What you're referring to is not just about national intelligence. It's happening across the whole civil space for people that are whistleblowing on powerful organisations. Do you want to find various in Troy? Stand up Troy. Troy Spells is a client of ours. Troy was a whistleblower. He worked for clubs in St. Wales. And I cannot say much more than that. Sit down Troy. But you can Google him. You can Google him. Before they started putting the gag down his throat and mine, you can't Google him. Troy Spells. So it's not national security. It's just taking on powerful organisations and you'll never hear of Troy Spells in the coming months until then so we can try and undo that. So it's really becoming very grim the whole secret procedure. David, your life has been living hell for years now. What I'd like to know is has anyone been held accountable for the war crimes that you've revealed? Held accountable, prosecuted, investigated with respect to the Afghan files? Has that happened? Do I understand? No. It's a good question and it leads into what Mark said. While you don't need to know all the ins and outs, I mean you can see from the movie I'm a pretty straight up now when I'm a little straight up there but I am a person from an establishment background who tried to do the right thing and wanted to do the right thing and I was a lawyer a long time ago and I'm a lawyer now I'm not a handy establishment activist but I can tell you things are very bad in this country. Burn it clear in this case while you won't necessarily understand it what it means is if the government, the Liberal Party have a major donor and you might even be working for a company who's a minor donor but the major donor gives more money to the company than your company and the major donors directors say to the government we want you to kill a bloke who works for the minor company and ASIO or ASIS would do it and you know the only person that would go to jail is the person that spoke about it that's not an exaggeration that is what's happening we know about Cleary's case we know about my case there may be a hundred cases every case I looked into and the defence force was wrong this country we are getting towards a sort of hunger games type thing as Mary said and the reason I have to do our pause but no one has been prosecuted for murder most of you will have seen the clear execution of an Afghan sitting in a field minding his own business for his prayer beads by an SA soldier that is a murder that man has not even been charged I am facing a lifetime imprisonment the government is so arrogant they don't even think they need to explain why we are we don't have to worry about the ins and outs Mark me, the rest of the team we will fight for you we will fight until we are dead but it's pretty serious out there it is really very very serious and the government don't even have to explain themselves and that's right it could be the only person not just here but in America in Britain the only people who end up in jail over the absolute disgrace to the western world and everything we are meant to believe and doing this aren't myself and a handful of other people who try to do the right thing now if they get away with that the western world as we know it at the end and that is why I am so happy to see you tonight the only way we are going to hear this is to acknowledge our problems we have to acknowledge what we did wrong to the Afghan community I know from AA the way you fix problems is you clean your side of the screen first and there's a real ignorance in the western world where we don't want to live false as Mary said we haven't even paid compensation to the 39 people who are clearly murdered there's no doubt about it and even if there's any doubt you reckon you might throw them a bit of money we spent 6 trillion dollars or something bombing it out of existence you think it might be a bit of good PR that we might have just paid up no these are not good people I mean I come from this situation as a soldier I have a lot of I have to admit I have a lot of violent imagery in my head about it when I grew up in the second world war imagery and in some ways you're lucky to have a really despicable enemy as a great gift as a soldier and these guys are bad don't be fooled nothing that they say is true and then look at the burrito inquiry they put it on and my insight was suspected it was not going to fire from the beginning not that they were on the burrito but there were clear findings on murders terrible things and yet despite that despite that and all the fuss that was made no one's been charged it looks like no one will be charged there's been a defamation action and all the information about my case has been put in the public domain they're still trying to say it's secret even though it's in the public domain and no one's been paid compensation everything that the government does is window dressing and it's no substance and if this is just the beginning for me it's not just about avoiding jail it's not about that it's about changing the way governments do things so we no longer think lying is good enough lying about what we're doing in the global south lying to our own people putting on fronts becoming a very worst kind of car salesman and that's why I'm so happy that the Afghans are here I need them to know that there are people in the west who know that's wrong and who don't accept that and who will not rest until we get justice for the Afghans and not just that we really change the way the governments of the west carry out their business in their patronising sinister despicable impure of us now just a final question just a final question I mean we're all here tonight because we want to believe in democracy and accountability and decency and justice we have an election campaign on you're here in September what can we do now thank you so I come from a soldier background and I wouldn't waste your time on just complaining you know we can win this and I'm very glad to see Jeff Morris is here as well and also Peter Fox Jeff Morris was instrumental in getting the banking role commission going and Peter Fox is instrumental in getting the role commission into institutional child abuse now they were victories we can actually score victories it was a day when being an activist was about having a long face and wearing a placard those days have gone we are here to actually get results and those two guys it's always good for me to see them because they've got results but we need there's only one important thing that's going to come out of the solution and that is a federal iCAC we need to vote to get a federal vote it's not about the prosecutions an iCAC produces an iCAC is having a sniper on the hill you might have to shoot one person but everyone else is a little bit scared and that's the idea don't worry about the one person that gets caught thinking about the thousand they're a little bit scared about taking that bribe a little bit worried about what they've said on the phone it will work it's not going to be it's not going to change everything but it's a step in the right direction we can work on getting started we can work slowly I do believe this is a battle we can win and so I think if you can vote for a good independent vote for a good independent or a green independent there's going to be a later we need to keep them wise and in the independence and the greens will do that then we can make sure that we do an iCAC and then we start applying the pressure don't worry about the details but I do have some thank yous I need to thank everybody for coming in it's a really big deal this is one of the important nights of my life it's not where we stay but it's important it is important this is the beginning of something it's not the end this is the lighting of a fuse which will get bigger and bigger if you've seen the Elton John Biopic what's it called? audience participation anyway rock and man now the best moment of rock and man is not when he's playing but when he plays that very small of a cool place in Los Angeles and he plays crocodile rock and he starts playing because he's had so much problems but that's when it's a small thing we will go on from here and while I am grateful for everybody being here my family, Sarah get me along, my law firm Mark is right I was quite close to the age I was very friendly with Mark and the team and they said we'll take you case and I was like and I didn't have any money and I was like I was ready to go to jail there are many many likey co-incidences I could have easily been dead I've been very, very liking with people I never met Zoe so we heard about my case and decided to start a petition that's pretty good I'm a good person but that is a really good person that does that here's the part and I'd like to thank the mayor and people that don't know anything but have come out and offered me assistance and at a time you know the different groups of the coin I could easily be dead I could easily have already been in jail and Mark hadn't stood in with his team I could have already been in jail being around we're going to win this it's a time to be happy it's a time to celebrate it's rare as you see if you have a despicable enemy you get to beat them you get to celebrate being them it's a perfect storm in that way nothing like winning and beating someone it deserves it could be that's what we're all calling I want to see this again there's no reason why we can't have a good time I want to change the world I want to see you all, that's our motto I want to see you all next year at the party, celebration party down in Long Island which I'm sure will be able to counsel or greet you what kind of Afghan cuisine? Afghan cuisine, Afghan dancing do you know what I'm saying? we are going to be Afghan dressed I always knew I've always had a spiritual connection I knew when I went to the Kailah Pass for the first time back in 2000 that Afghanistan was going to be part of my life and Sarah said everything in my life has brought me to this moment I do believe that I do believe my life is always going to be in time with Afghanistan and Afghanistan and this cause and from this cause we are going to set an example of what good people in the west can do and we are going to take that example and do great things this is the beginning, it's something fantastic I'm so grateful for you being here I can't thank everyone who has helped me so much thank you congratulations thank you