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Whistleblower protections failed 'superhero' Richard Boyle, calls grow for urgent reforms

Whistleblower protections failed 'superhero' Richard Boyle, calls grow for urgent reforms

Richard Boyle has faced the heavy price of being a whistleblower in Australia.
The law suggests that if you blow the whistle on wrongdoing, you will be protected.
But, in Boyle's case, it didn't protect him.
Nor did the federal government, which could have, at any stage, requested the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) drop all the charges against Boyle.
More than eight years after the former ATO debt collector internally spoke out about the ATO's heavy-handed debt recovery practices, Boyle has stopped fighting for justice.
His decision to reveal unethical practices at the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) — while helping the lives of many taxpayers — ultimately destroyed his, and his wife Louise Beaston's lives.
"I personally am broken, physically, mentally, and financially", Boyle said, in a recent public address at the 2024 Walkley Awards.
He talked of how he and Louise should have "been starting a family, buying a house, settling into the routines of life together", but instead were, "completely and utterly broken".
On Tuesday, Boyle pleaded guilty to four charges of disclosing protected information, making a record of protected information, using a listening device to record private conversations and recording another person's tax file number.
The 49-year-old struck a plea deal under which Senator Rex Patrick — who has long been fighting on behalf of Boyle for the charges against him to be dropped — said Boyle would avoid jail.
While many of the original 66 charges against Boyle were withdrawn by the CDPP before the case went to trial, it highlights that being a whistleblower in Australia isn't appreciated.
Boyle may have avoided 161 prison years, which was the potential penalty he could theoretically have faced under the initial very long list of charges, but the question still begs, why even prosecute a whistleblower?
Legal experts and human rights groups say the re-elected Albanese government must now urgently reform both public and private sector whistleblower laws and establish an independent Whistleblower Protection Authority to give support to, and better protect, those who blow the whistle.
It's worth noting that this is not the first time that people blowing the whistle on the ATO have claimed they have faced a lack of protections.
In 2012, when there were virtually no whistleblower protections in place for public servants, Ron Shamir uncovered how the ATO was wrongly tagging some claims as fraudulent. He lost his job.
The former senior ATO insider, who was sacked by the ATO in mid-2015 for non-performance (he took his case to the Fair Work Commission, winning initially but losing on appeal) told a federal inquiry that the body that promised to protect him failed.
In 2012, the agency was also accused by others of abusing its power and wasting taxpayers' money on court cases designed simply to chase revenue rather than enforce the law.
Boyle's case was the first test case of the Public Interest Disclosure (PID) Act introduced a year later.
This act is supposed to promote "the integrity and accountability of the Commonwealth public sector by creating a framework for facilitating the reporting of suspected wrongdoing and ensuring timely and effective investigation of reports".
Boyle first made a public interest disclosure within the ATO, internally, revealing the agency's heavy-handed tactics.
In mid-2017, while working as a debt recovery officer at the ATO's Adelaide office, he shared how agency staff across the country were instructed to take money out of people's bank accounts — regardless of whether the debts raised against them by the ATO were justified or not — thereby unjustly targeting many small to medium size businesses.
Boyle then made a complaint to the Tax Ombudsman before going public with his revelations in a joint Four Corners-Fairfax Media (now Nine) investigation.
Follow-up reviews confirmed that Boyle's revelations of aggressive debt-recovery practices at the ATO at the time were valid, with the small business ombudsman at the time saying the agency's then treatment of small businesses was "crippling".
And a parliamentary report later also found that the ATO's investigation into Boyle's public interest disclosure was 'superficial'.
Boyle's home was raided after he spoke out publicly, and he's spent almost a decade trying to claim protection under public interest disclosure laws.
The Albanese government is currently reviewing both public and private sector whistleblower laws, and many hope that changes will close existing loopholes that have failed to protect Boyle and other whistleblowers.
Senator Rex Patrick says it was accepted that Boyle's disclosure was not dealt with properly by the ATO and that the agency "botched the investigation into his claims" and did nothing until their inappropriate activity was aired as part of the joint Fairfax-Four Corners investigation.
He says the ATO charged Boyle, not for blowing the whistle, but for what he did in preparing his disclosure — namely using his mobile phone to take photographs of taxpayer information, covertly recording conversations with ATO colleagues; and uploading photographs of taxpayer information to his lawyer's encrypted email account.
Patrick says the Court of Appeal found that those preparatory acts were not covered by protections in the Public Interest Disclosure Act and as such, he was not immune from prosecution.
"Section 6 of the Public Interest Disclosure Act lists four objectives that seek to protect and encourage whistleblowers," Patrick said.
Kieran Pender, associate legal director at the Human Rights Law Centre says, "while it is welcome that Boyle will avoid jail, he should never have been prosecuted".
He says the fact that the Court of Appeal in Richard Boyle's case found that whistleblower protections don't apply to conduct before the blowing of the whistle, was a "very narrow approach".
"It means in cases like this when people record conversations and so on for blowing the whistle, there's no protection for that," Pender said.
AJ Brown, a professor of public policy and law at Griffith University and a board member of Transparency International Australia, says the prosecution against Boyle was a waste of taxpayers' time and money.
The former Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan in 2019 used parliamentary privilege to hit back at what he labelled "sensational" media reporting and said the ATO took "whistleblowing very seriously".
Brown said the ATO did not adequately respond to Boyle's disclosure about maladministration.
Brown says reasonable actions by whistleblowers to secure information to protect themselves against reprisal should attract the protections and immunity but in Boyle's case hasn't because of a "loophole that the ATO exploited".
"In this case, there were technical breaches of secrecy laws to secure the information used to then blow the whistle, but they have been legally able to treat it as separate to his whistleblowing," he said.
One of the other ways to ensure that whistleblowers aren't prosecuted is for the Albanese government to set up an independent national body that is tasked with hearing their complaints and protecting them.
Earlier this year the Whistleblower Protection Authority Bill was proposed and introduced by Andrew Wilkie, Helen Haines, Senator David Pocock and Senator Jacqui Lambie.
It seeks to do what lawyers and human rights groups have long been calling for — establish a federal body with the power to oversee and enforce whistleblower protections, facilitate whistleblower disclosures, and safeguard whistleblowers from inside government or business who expose corruption and wrongdoing.
Pender says such an authority — which many other countries have set up — would ensure that people like Boyle, who speak up for others, are properly protected and supported.
"It's been 31 years since a parliamentary inquiry recommended a whistleblower protection authority in Australia and we're still waiting for one," he said.
Senator Rex Patrick notes that while the prosecution has not sought a custodial sentence, a penalty has not yet been imposed.
Submissions will be made in August, when the case returns to court, with a sentencing outcome expected soon thereafter.
Patrick thinks it is unlikely the court will seek a jail term in circumstances where the prosecutor doesn't also seek that outcome.
But he says Boyle does still run the risk of having a conviction recorded against his name, which will be a "chain around his neck every time he seeks to apply for a job".
"We need more people like Richard in Australia."

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Why Trump and Musk were stronger together
Why Trump and Musk were stronger together

ABC News

time2 hours ago

  • ABC News

Why Trump and Musk were stronger together

Sam Hawley: Breaking up can be hard and fascinating to watch from afar. So where is the disintegration of the relationship between Donald Trump and Elon Musk up to now? Today, Geoff Kabaservice from the centre-right think tank, the Niskanen Center, on the real-world consequences of the split and whether there's any chance of reconciliation between the President and the billionaire. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Donald Trump, US President: I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot. People leave my administration, some of them embrace it and some of them actually become hostile. I don't know what it is, it's sort of Trump derangement syndrome, I guess they call it. News report: Within hours of his Oval Office comments, their once-close relationship had disintegrated. The world's richest man firing back in a barrage of hostile posts on X. News report: Mr Musk, until recently a major ally of the President, continues to publicly criticise a government spending bill, even agreeing that Mr Trump should be impeached and replaced by Vice President J.D Vance. News report: Donald Trump also fired off on his truth social platform. He posted, I asked him to leave, I took away his EV mandate and he just went crazy. News report: Elon Musk then claimed that Trump is in the files about child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein tweeting, that is the real reason they have not been made public. Sam Hawley: Geoff, talk about a clash of the titans, if we could put it that way. How would you describe the last few days? Geoff Kabaservice: Well it's good to be with you Sam and of course this feud between Donald Trump and Elon Musk is causing plenty of amusement for anyone who pays attention to US politics. The memes practically write themselves. Is this alien versus predator? Is this the gayest thing to have happened during the whole of Pride Month so far? You know, it's amusing but it's also quite consequential in the sense that Elon Musk is not just the richest man in the world but somebody whose businesses directly impacts US national security and the fate of global affairs. And of course Donald Trump is the most powerful man possibly in the world. So it's entertaining but it's also disturbing. Sam Hawley: So there is deeper implications to all of this. One of them of course for Donald Trump is that the richest man in the world could switch his allegiances to the other side of politics. If he really wants to annoy Donald Trump he could back the Democrats, right? Geoff Kabaservice: You know, Elon Musk is unlike anyone who Trump has ever had in his circle because he's not a creature of Trump. He is independent. He has his own base in the world of business and of course his vast fortunes and the companies that he controls. So it's entirely possible that Musk could say I am flipping over to the Democrats or as he has already tweeted during the course of his epic meltdown that he is going to support a third party. Anything's possible. But of course there are also some people wondering if maybe this is a big put on of some kind, if maybe this was staged, if there's going to be an immediate kiss and make up session - to be determined. Sam Hawley: Well during an interview on NBC, Donald Trump did warn Elon Musk against that move. He said there'd be serious consequences although he didn't mention what those consequences would be. And even though he kept saying that he doesn't spend any time thinking about Elon Musk, he was happy to keep answering questions about Elon Musk. Reporter: What's your view on Elon Musk as of today? I mean, have you heard from him at all? Donald Trump, US President: I've been so busy working on China, working on Russia, working on Iran, working on so many, I'm not thinking about Elon. Geoff Kabaservice: This is a breakdown that I've been predicting for a while. I can at least say that I was correct in foreseeing that egos this Titanic could not comfortably coexist for long on the same team. But you know, Elon Musk has considerable cards, shall we say, because he is, as we've said, the world's richest man. He actually has a number of businesses that are critical to how government and the world works. Just as an example, SpaceX has under its umbrella Starlink, which does I think 80% of satellite communications launches in this country. It had a material impact on the outcome of the Ukraine war and the conduct of that war. And, you know, Elon Musk also controls a very important social media platform. It is as though he were the head of, let's say, the Washington Post 50 years ago. This is a person with a lot of formidable weapons, should he choose to go to all out war with Donald Trump, as opposed to just flinging insults at each other and calling each other paedophiles. Sam Hawley: Yes, because of course, Elon, without evidence, accused the US president of being named in the Epstein sex trafficking files, a post which he later deleted. So let's just delve a bit further, though, into what Elon Musk could actually do to harm President Trump. As we said, he also has, of course, this very large social media platform with millions of followers. Could he use that against the president, do you think? Will he want to? Geoff Kabaservice: Well, Elon Musk has a lot of say over what messages get broadcast on his platform, X, which is his new name for Twitter, of course. And it's entirely possible that he could actually go up against some of Trump's biggest supporters on that platform and simply suppress their messages, as well as putting out his own using one of the world's biggest microphones. But that's an entirely foreseeable outcome. Sam Hawley: And of course, as we mentioned, he could also set up a new political party, support the Democrats. Geoff Kabaservice: Well, you know, Elon Musk doesn't really have a lot of followers among Democrats. And in fact, a lot of people on the left have fled his platform for Blue Sky and others. But Elon Musk does have considerable amount of influence over the so-called tech right. Elon Musk is one of the biggest beasts in Silicon Valley, and a lot of people do look up to him and have followed his lead in being willing to support Donald Trump, even despite the fact that Silicon Valley's institutional political perspective, if that makes sense, is really quite different from Trump's populism. So there's a lot of points of stress in politics that if Elon Musk chooses to exacerbate them could widen the divides within the Trumpian coalition such as it is. And that might or might not benefit the Democrats. It's hard to say, but at least would weaken Trump. Sam Hawley: Mm hmm. All right. Well, there's also, of course, a number of ways that Trump could also make life very difficult for Elon Musk. You mentioned SpaceX. Donald Trump, he's threatened to tear up all of the contracts that Musk companies have with the federal government. And that includes, of course, SpaceX. Can Trump actually do that, do you think? Geoff Kabaservice: Well, Trump has certainly threatened other institutions with the withdrawal of federal funds, most notably Harvard University, which stands to lose close to $3 billion if Trump's actions are upheld by the courts. So it's certainly not an idle threat to take action against Elon Musk's companies. Certainly, SpaceX would be the most vulnerable to that kind of Trumpian threat because they get something on the order of $20 billion a month from the federal government. And in many ways, Trump's threat, it would really matter, would not just be to withhold funds from SpaceX, but actually to nationalise it. And Steve Bannon, who is in so many ways Elon Musk's antagonist, has actually called for Trump to do just that. And there's a real argument that somebody who does so much of the United States rocketry business, who has such an incredible sway over its Starlink and satellite apparatus, who in many ways is almost a sovereign entity at this point, you could make a real argument that nationalisation of SpaceX should happen. And I'm sure you would actually find a lot of Democrats supporting that motion as well. Sam Hawley: Trump could also suspend his security clearances, right? Which would make life somewhat difficult. Geoff Kabaservice: You know, Trump in extremis could even deport Elon Musk, who after all is from another place, shall we say. Sam Hawley: Yeah. And Steve Bannon, a former advisor to Trump, he's actually raised that, hasn't he? Geoff Kabaservice: He has indeed. Sam Hawley: That Donald Trump should investigate the immigration status of Elon Musk, even though, of course, he is an American citizen. Geoff Kabaservice: Right. Sam Hawley: Well, of course, the stoush also did send Tesla stocks plummeting, Geoff. So that's another way, I suppose. This could harm Elon's business operations. And also Trump could tighten regulations, couldn't he, to make it harder for Elon to do business? Geoff Kabaservice: Sure. You know, it's been interesting to see the way the narrative has shifted over the last several months since Elon Musk came aboard. When Elon invested something on the order of $250 million in the 2024 political campaigns, which included not just Trump's election, but also a number of other Republican candidacies in Congress and elsewhere, this seemed like actually a remarkably astute payoff because Elon Musk's personal net worth soared in the first few months. But, you know, there's been incredible pushback, even from some Republicans, against the Doge project of cutting the government that Elon Musk has engaged in. And Elon never quite seemed sure as to what his purpose was in helming that Doge effort. Was it to just help Trump extract political payback against woke enemies and the so-called deep state? Or was it actually to try to genuinely cut the deficit or make government work more efficiently? You know, the blow up between Musk and Trump got its start when Elon started criticising the Republican budget bill, which truly is a fiscally incontinent budget buster, which will add something on the order of over $3 trillion to debt. News report: Tech billionaire Elon Musk has issued a blistering criticism of US President Donald Trump's spending bill. News report: He has said that I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it. Geoff Kabaservice: So, you know, there's a lot of things that are going wrong in the Trump-Musk relationship in the ways that they're not seeing each other eye to eye. And Elon is not very political. So in that sense, Trump could actually have the upper hand on him and could make his life difficult in many ways. And, you know, since you mentioned Tesla, you know, Tesla's stock has really cratered in recent months. People on the left really don't want to be associated with Elon Musk, but the right has never gone in for electric vehicles in the first place. And even Donald Trump's shilling for Teslas on the White House lawn hasn't really done much to encourage people on the right to buy Teslas. And one would imagine that they will be even less willing to do that now. Sam Hawley: Yeah. And Donald Trump, of course, says he's going to sell his Tesla. I wonder if this might be better for Tesla, then Elon might have somewhat of a recovery when it comes to Tesla if he's not so closely associated with Donald Trump. Geoff Kabaservice: It's kind of amusing. Like I said, this is this sandbox, quarrel of these two extremely powerful men flinging poo at each other. But, you know, let's not forget that the United States is no longer the world's unquestioned superpower. It no longer, in some sense, has the luxury to actually engage in this kind of infantile are facing a serious technological threat from China, which undoubtedly will translate into global mastery of some kind. And frankly, Elon Musk's Tesla is also losing shares not just because of politics, but because it's actually lost the technological edge to some of these other Chinese companies. And the same is true of a number of critical technology areas where the United States is almost visibly falling behind China. And certainly our manufacturing capability, we've now been dwarfed by China, which is why Tesla does so much of its manufacturing in China. So one hopes that cooler heads are going to prevail. And I strongly suspect that both Trump and Musk are looking for ways to back down from this feud. But that doesn't mean that the political alliance that existed between them can be resurrected. Sam Hawley: Yeah. I was going to say, is there a way back from the brink? And if there isn't, who do you think will be the ultimate winner of this stoush, the billionaire or the president? Geoff Kabaservice: Oh, that's awfully hard to say because it's not clear what winning would look like here. I mean, at the end of the day, Elon will still have more money than any human being has had in history, as well as however many children he wants to have, however many consorts he wants to have. One suspects Elon will be fine. And at the end of the day, Donald Trump will still be president as well. And it's unlikely that the Republican Party is going to get out from under his brand of populism anytime soon, whether or not he chooses to run for a third term in 2028, despite the constitutional prohibition on that happening. So it's hard to say who is actually going to come out winners, you know, but I think there's a fair case to be made that they were stronger together than they will be apart, and that they will never quite wield the same power and influence or even be able to affect the cultural vibes in quite the same way. Sam Hawley: Geoff Kabaservice is from the Niskanen Center, a centre right think tank based in Washington episode was produced by Sydney Pead. Audio production by Adair Sheppard. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I'm Sam Hawley, thanks for listening.

‘Doesn't want to play for them': Bombshell racism report rocks AFL club
‘Doesn't want to play for them': Bombshell racism report rocks AFL club

Daily Telegraph

time4 hours ago

  • Daily Telegraph

‘Doesn't want to play for them': Bombshell racism report rocks AFL club

Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News. Adelaide veteran Taylor Walker's racism incident several years ago is playing a role in star trade target Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera refusing to consider joining the Crows, according to veteran journalist Caroline Wilson. However the Saints gun's manager has firmly denied he has ruled out joining the club. In 2021, Walker was handed a six-week suspension and $20,000 fine for racially abusing an Indigenous SANFL player while addressing the Crows reserves players in a non-playing capacity. FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every match of every round in the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE in 4K, with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer. The incident rocked both Walker, who was 'an emotional wreck' in the aftermath, and the team with coach Matthew Nicks emotionally calling it 'completely unacceptable and something that we won't stand for as a football club'. Wanganeen-Milera was drafted by St Kilda later that year and the South Australian, who has emerged as a young superstar halfback, is now weighing up whether to return to his home state or remain at the Saints with lucrative offers looming either way. Will Faulkner has reported Port Adelaide feels well-placed in the race for Wanganeen-Milera due to his close ties with Power players Jason Horne-Francis and Jase Burgoyne, while he also has family links to the club due to his uncle Gavin Wanganeen. Wilson reported on Monday night the 22-year-old will not consider the Crows partially due to the Walker incident, and particularly the way it was discussed on Channel Nine earlier this year. 'I'm making no comment about the club's handling of that incident, because my memory is that Matthew Nicks, the coach, was shattered by that incident, and the club did everything they could to get around Robbie Young (the player abused),' she said on Seven. Tex Walker and Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera. 'But Wanganeen-Milera has clarified that Matthew Nicks was the coach at the time and has indicated that he doesn't want to go to the Adelaide Football Club. 'One thing that happened over Gather Round, and I'm not talking so much about Wanganeen-Milera here, but a lot of his friends and the South Australian Indigenous community, was the Gather Round special that was aired on the Nine Network, hosted by Eddie McGuire.' A clip from the TV show was then aired in which McGuire described the incident as 'tough times' for Walker and framed him as dealing with adversity. Walker hit back at that framing somewhat, saying he 'made a mistake, one that I've got to live with for the rest of my life. But I suppose when you make mistakes, you get a choice, whether you can dwell on it, or you can learn about it.' While Wilson did not want to minimise any work Walker has done to make amends for the incident, and did not blame him for the framing of the interview, she explained there was 'a view from Indigenous leaders across footy that it portrayed Taylor Walker as more of a victim than Robbie Young. 'And it's just a small thing, but it wasn't a small thing to others who were still badly injured by what happened back in 2021. 'And so for a variety of reasons, but specifically Wanganeen-Milera's issues with Taylor Walker and what happened back then, the view from Port Adelaide and others in the footy community is if he does leave, he'll be going to Port Adelaide.' Wanganeen-Milera's manager Ben Williams denied a decision had been reached. In a statement to Nine Adelaide, he said: 'Reports made in the media suggesting that Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera has ruled out joining the Adelaide Crows due to comments made by Taylor Walker in 2021 are false. 'Nasiah is currently considering his future and at this stage, no decisions have been made, and any speculation suggesting otherwise is inaccurate.' Wanganeen-Milera is expected to receive long-term offers nearing $10 million but must be traded if he wants to leave, as he is several years away from reaching free agency. Originally published as 'Doesn't want to play for them': Bombshell racism report rocks AFL club

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