Whistleblower behind PM's daughter scholarship leak must wait for fate

Freya Newman, the Sydney student who pled guilty to illegally using login credentials to leak documents about a scholarship awarded to the daughter of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, won't learn her fate until November 25th.

Magistrate Theresa O'Sullivan was due to sentence Newman at a packed Sydney court house at noon today, where supporters of the leaker held banners proclaiming '#FreeFreya' and 'protect whistle blowers' on the street.

O'Sullivan said she needed more time to consider submissions.

The court heard Newman made no attempt to conceal her illegal access to restricted data held on a Whitehouse Institute of Design email system.

The act was captured on CCTV, which clearly shows Newman logging in to the system while she worked at the library at the same time log files show the emails in question were accessed.

Prosecutors said Newman had no lawful reason to access the accounts and alleged she spent a little under two hours in the database where she allegedly accessed records on all students at the school.

Newman appeared to have leaked documents to New Matilda which published information appearing to reveal Francis Abbott had been awarded the scholarship under exceptional circumstances.

The contention was that the Prime Minister did not declare the scholarship on the federal parliament's pecuniary interest register as required under law.

New Matilda alleged Ms Abbott, then 22, received AU$7546 of the $68,182 degree fee and was offered a Managing Director's scholarship after a single meeting in February 2011 with Institute boss Leanne Whitehouse, forgoing what would usually be a comprehensive application process.

That Ms Abbott was awarded the scholarship before she commenced the course - on the back of a personal recommendation by school chairman Les Taylor - appeared to grate with a statement on the Whitehouse Institute website that the organisation did "not currently offer scholarships to gain a place into the Bachelor of Design" and that scholarships may be offered to students "who have formally commenced their studies".

Prominent Australian barrister and human rights advocate Julian Burnside, writing for The Guardian last month, said it was concerning that whistle blower legislation was inadequate to protect Newman's disclosure.

"If Newman had been working in a government organisation and had made an equivalent revelation from public service records, she would likely have been able to claim whistle blower protection," Burnside wrote. "But not for revelations about the workings of a private school."

That Tony Abbott should have disclosed the scholarship was Burnside said "not unreasonable" given that he would have had to do so should he have received the $60,000 in cash, nor was it simple to dismiss the notion that a student of equal talent but without political connections might have received the scholarship.

A 'Free Freya Newman' Facebook page attracted more than 4700 followers. ®