Richard Boyle exposed unethical debt-collecting practices at the Australian Taxation Office. Photo: File
The inadequacy of Australia’s whistleblower protection laws was highlighted once more with the sentencing of former Australian Taxation Office employee Richard Boyle.
Mr Boyle received a 12-month good behaviour bond on Thursday (28 August), with no conviction recorded, after more than seven years of legal battles following his public exposure of some of the ATO’s unethical debt recovery practices.
As a tax debt collection officer, he and his colleagues were instructed to use heavy-handed techniques against taxpayers who owed money.
He first raised his concerns internally at the ATO in 2017, but when no action was taken, he went public on the ABC’s Four Corners program.
In a deal with the prosecution, he finally pleaded guilty in May to disclosing protected information to another entity, making a record of protected information, using a listening device to record a private conversation and recording other people’s tax file numbers. All other charges were dropped.
Last year, South Australia’s court of appeals ruled Mr Boyle was not protected by federal whistleblowing laws for those charges relating to his recording of conversations and photographing documents.
The High Court subsequently refused an application for special leave to appeal for immunity, and he was due to stand trial later this year.
Although Mr Boyle walked free on Thursday, advocates for protecting whistleblowers called the end of his ordeal a “dark day for democracy” in Australia.
The Human Rights Law Centre, which operates Australia’s first dedicated legal service for whistleblowers, participated in the Court of Appeal as a friend of the court.
The centre’s associate legal director, Kieran Pender, said the case has exposed how little the law protects whistleblowers.
He called on the Federal Government to urgently act on whistleblowing reform.
“Today concludes a sorry saga that has been devastating for Richard Boyle and undermined Australian democracy,” he said.
“While the no-conviction sentence is a small ray of light, this never should have happened.
“Richard Boyle made the brave decision to speak up when he witnessed wrongdoing. For years, he has faced prosecution and punishment.
“The Albanese Government must not stand idly by as whistleblowers are punished; they must act with urgent law reform and the establishment of a whistleblower protection authority to ensure prosecutions like this never happen again.”
Boyle reached a plea deal earlier this year to avoid prison time, but it came after he had lost a whistleblowing defence in the Court of Appeal.
The Human Rights Law Centre said the appeals court adopted a narrow approach to the immunity available under whistleblowing laws.
Peter Greste, Executive Director of the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom, said: “His prosecution and sentencing have had a serious chilling effect on public interest journalism and the sources they rely on.
“It might be too late to help Richard, but the government can still fix the broken system with a whistleblower protection authority.”
Founder of the Whistleblower Justice Fund and former senator Rex Patrick agreed.
“Richard Boyle is a hero. He called out egregious, harmful practices by the Tax Office and, in doing so, ended them,” he said.
“As he prepared his public interest disclosure, he took a photograph, hit a record button and sent an encrypted email to his lawyer, assuming he would be protected as a whistleblower.
“But it turns out he was wrong. There was no malice involved and, on balance, only good has come from it, except to Richard and his family.
“Richard Boyle has walked from the Court after eight years of hell with no convictions. It is a small win in an otherwise unjust prosecution.”
Several independent inquiries had partially vindicated Mr Boyle’s whistleblowing, yet he still had to endure years of criminal prosecution and the threat of jail.
The sentencing judge acknowledged the offences took place under “extenuating circumstances”.
Independent federal Helen Haines has called on the government to prioritise whistleblower reforms.
“It’s not enough to see Richard Boyle walk free today,” she said during a Parliament House media conference.
“Time and time again, we stand up in this place speaking to you about the solutions to this problem, and the solutions are the complete rehauling of the Public Interest Disclosures Act.
“We know that there are whistleblowers out there right now who are too afraid to come forward, and they rightly should be afraid because there are insufficient protections.”
Outside the Adelaide court on Thursday, Mr Boyle was greeted by cheering supporters.
“I just wanted to say thank you to all the supporters,” he said to them.
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
