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There are protections, but as always legality can be questioned. In this case, I think he got fucked:

Eventually, the Department of Defence claimed public interest immunity over key information. This allows the government to withhold evidence (such as classified material) from the court on public interest grounds.

It means neither party can rely on the information.

This strategic decision meant McBride faced difficulties establishing key aspects of his whistleblower case. This included whether the information revealed relevant wrongdoing, his attempts to tell the department or police about his concerns, or whether the extent of the disclosure was necessary to establish wrongdoing.

https://theconversation.com/david-mcbride-is-facing-jailtime-for-helping-reveal-alleged-war-crimes-will-it-end-whistleblowing-in-australia-218108

The Australian Liberal party (note, they’re the Conservative Party) has taken an anti-climate change to the Australian electorate for a decade. Over time they lost power, they lost seats to independents who are aligned to Liberal party except on climate change, and now they’ve been reduced to a puddle due in part to their anti-climate agenda. There’s practically zero chance that the Liberal Party will ever campaign on an anti-Climate Change platform (despite what their corporate overlords want). Which means we may finally have clean air for a debate on policy and politics that’s not being hijacked by bullshit fossil fuel arguments.

This is progress, for sure.