The Human Rights Law Centre has been granted leave to
participate as amicus curiae (friend of the court) in a landmark
appeal as part of the ongoing unjust prosecution of whistleblower
Richard Boyle.
Boyle, who is being prosecuted after blowing the
whistle on unethical debt recovery practices at the Australian
Taxation Office, had sought immunity under the federal public
sector whistleblowing law, the Public Interest Disclosure
Act.
In March, Judge Kudelka of the District Court of South
Australia ruled that Boyle was not immune from prosecution.
The judgment was the first consideration of the scope
of the protections for Australian whistleblowers. Boyle has been
charged in relation to allegedly unlawfully gathering documents and
recording conversations as part of his whistleblowing which took
place first internally, then to the tax ombudsman and then, as a
last resort, to the ABC, Sydney Morning Herald and The
Age.
Judge Kudelka ruled that the key protection in the
PID Act only applies to the act of blowing the whistle,
not related preparatory steps.
Ahead of his trial in October, Boyle appealed to the
Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of South Australia. At a
callover last Friday, Justice Doyle granted leave to the Human
Rights Law Centre to make submissions and set the appeal down for 9
August.
Kieran Pender, Senior Lawyer at the Human
Rights Law Centre, said:
Richard Boyles appeal
will determine the strength of protections for all Australian
whistleblowers, given similar provisions exist in almost all
Australian whistleblower protection laws. It is a vitally important
test case with significant implications for truth and transparency
in this country.
Boyle faces the spectre of jail for blowing the whistle
on government wrongdoing whistleblowing that has been vindicated by
several independent inquiries.
By exposing human rights abuses, government wrongdoing
and corporate misdeeds, whistleblowers make Australia a better
place. The Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus KC should fix the law and
establish a whistleblower protection authority, to ensure that
whistleblowers are protected, not punished.
The Human Rights Law Centre has briefed Perry
Herzfeld SC, Michelle Hamlyn and Hannah Ryan. National law firm
Johnson Winter Slattery is acting for the Centre in the
proceedings, led by partners Eve Thomson and Christopher Beames,
senior associate Jade Tyrrell and associate Claudia
Boccaccio.
Media contact:
Thomas Feng
Human Rights Law Centre
Media and Communications Manager
0431 285 275
thomas.feng@hrlc.org.au