Warren Entsch is the elected member for the federal seat of Leichhardt in the Australian House of Representatives and member of the Liberal National Party.
"Revenge Porn" Investigation into Tom the Whistleblower
In early 2021, an anonymous whistleblower referred to as Tom the Whisteblower leaked materials of male Liberal National Party staffers and MPs engaging in sexual acts within Parliament House. One incident depicted in these materials involved a Liberal National party staffer pointing to and then masturbating upon a female staffer's desk. This particular staffer was subsequently identified as one Nathan Winn, who had previously worked under Warren Entsch as a political adviser.
Following Tom's claims being aired in Australian Media, Mr. Entsch, called for Tom to be investigated by police, stating that "distribution of explicit images of a former Liberal staffer is a clear case of revenge porn and should be investigated by police." It was reported that Entsch also claimed that it was "'highly offensive' that political staffers were being suspected of improper conduct due to their sexuality."
The Australian Federal Police later conducted search warrants at two properties in Canberra and Queensland in December of 2021, wherein all of Tom's electronic devices and digital correspondence were seized. These materials included exchanges with Peter van Onselen who first reported on the allegations and another senior journalist at The Age, Chip LeGrand, who also covered the story.
Mark Davis for Sydney Criminal Lawyers represented Tom in relation to the investigation and stated in relation to the matter:
“If he committed an offence under that legislation, the case is already apparent. The evidence is already there. The police already had the evidence that he circulated those images. So, why do they need to raid his house to secure them? The short answer is, they don’t. How you get the AFP to engage itself in something of this nature is frankly disturbing.The only logical inference is they were raiding his house not for the images that he circulated but to have a look at what else he may have. And I would suggest there are a lot of very nervous people – staff or otherwise – in Parliament House.”
Special Envoy to the Great Barrier Reef
In May of 2019 Mr. Entsch was appointed as Special Envoy to The Great Barrier Reef by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who stated:
"Warren has a passion across a whole range of issues in relation to the reef ... and he has a particular passion about oceans policy and the impact of plastics on our oceans."
As part of his appointment, Mr. Entsch announced a commitment to both develop policy and action towards removing plastic from Australia's beaches:
“I’m committed in my last term in government to develop a national policy on plastics, micro and nano plastics, to remove them from our beaches. The policy should cover use, recovery and conversion of plastics and include consideration of a ban on single-use plastics. I want to see single-use [plastics] out, but it’s much broader than that, and I’ll defer to experts on how we do it.”
Despite this commitment, Mr. Entsch disagreed with the phrasing of 'saving' the Great Barrier Reef:
“We don’t need to save the reef – it’s still going – we need to manage it and manage it well and we’re the best reef managers in the world."
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