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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-10-30 Daily Xml
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Whistleblower Protection

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:35): Today I ask members to put aside political differences and support the plight of public servant and whistleblower Richard Boyle. Richard, a South Australian, worked not far from here at the Adelaide branch of the Australian Taxation Office, a key centre for debt collection. He had worked there since 2005.

Things took a turn for the worse in 2017 when his area in the ATO was instructed to use more heavy-handed debt collection tactics on taxpayers. What Richard experienced deeply disturbed him, and unconscionable behaviour and ruthless pursuit of debts applied by an agency that has little regulatory oversight compelled him to report his concerns. It was at this time that he became a whistleblower.

That decision proved to be devastating for him. He was sacked and, days before speaking publicly, his home in Edwardstown was raided, with his laptop and phone seized. Then earlier this year, this man, in his 30s and a recent newlywed, was charged with 66 offences. If he is found guilty he faces a total of 161 years in gaol, equivalent to more than six life sentences. This ranks him with murderers such as sadistic serial killer Ivan Milat—who died at the weekend—in terms of punitive judicial action.

Not surprisingly, the stress on Richard has taken its toll. He has had a breakdown, suffered insomnia, and has had a series of stress-related heart issues. The stress on his family has been immense. This is not the way we should treat people who are trying to do the right thing. What has happened to Richard should concern us all.

It is what can happen when whistleblower protections are deficient. However, what happened here is much bigger than Richard. His treatment has had a chilling effect on other whistleblowers coming forward. When they look at him they see a man who has been persecuted for doing what he believed was right.

Stopping others from coming forward is not in the best interests of a democratic society. Whistleblowers ensure honesty and integrity within our institutions, and that is why we need to fix the problem as soon as possible. That means changes to our legislation. At the very least, we need protections for public officials who, on reasonable grounds, disclose information of suspected wrongdoing in government.

We also need to have one piece of legislation, not the current two, covering both private and public sector whistleblowers. We need to look at setting up a fully resourced whistleblower protection authority to assess whistleblower complaints to avoid any conflict of interests with organisations investigating themselves. The current system is too varied, depending on the strengths and weaknesses of each institution.

Such an organisation could assess whistleblower concerns, give potential whistleblowers advice and help them navigate their rights. Consideration could be given to a reward scheme for public interest whistleblowers, like other democracies such as the United States. In the United States whistleblowers can claim a percentage of the financial benefits that their disclosures may bring to regulators or the public. This will address the very real issue that whistleblowers who go public destroy their careers.

We need to make available a general public interest defence for any citizen charged with offences of unauthorised disclosure or receipt of official information. These are things that have been discussed before, and it is now time for action. Richard spoke up to help others. Since he came forward there have been a raft of inquiries into the ATO and some reforms of ATO processes, all of which have been in the public interest. That is the point here.

When Richard became a whistleblower, his actions and motivation was to expose the ATO. Nothing he did was for commercial benefit. In fact, the ATO tried to settle with him shortly before he went public, offering him a confidential payout and a statement of service to leave his job. He knocked this back.

So where does it leave us? We need to do what we can to protect people like Richard who have chosen to make the ultimate sacrifice as a public servant. The Attorney-General, Christian Porter, has the power to intervene in the legal action, but he made it clear that those powers of intervention are only used in unusual and exceptional circumstances, and that they have never been used before. If this case is not unusual and exceptional, I honestly do not know what is.

Weak whistleblower protections contributed to our slipping as a nation two places to 21 in the World Press Freedom Index. Since 2012, Australia has slipped in other indices, including the global Corruption Perceptions Index compiled by Transparency International. If we are not careful, we will slip further.

Richard is in the gallery at the moment. I would like to thank Richard for what he has done, for letting the public know of the ruthless behaviour of the ATO. I am very sorry for the treatment he has received and been subjected to.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Hon. D.G.E. Hood): Order! The member's time has expired. I call on the Hon. Ms Lee.

There being a disturbance in the gallery:

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Hon. D.G.E. Hood): Order in the gallery!

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