August 24, 2023 — 5.00am
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Jeff Morris knows better than anyone the perils of blowing the whistle on your employer’s illegal or unethical behaviour.
His 2008 disclosures against his former employer, the Commonwealth Bank, helped spark the Hayne royal commission, which uncovered widespread misconduct and prompted a public reckoning among banks and financial planners behaving badly.
But when he disclosed documents that put his employer in hot water, he lost his job.
“It was very intimidating,” says whistleblower Morris.
Morris and fellow whistleblower turned independent MP Andrew Wilkie hope a new service, dubbed the Whistleblower Project, will embolden people to not turn a blind eye despite the possible repercussions.
The world of whistleblowing is treacherous. People who dob in an employer or the government run the very real risk of losing their job, going bankrupt or going to prison.
“I understood this fairly well from the start: you’ll not only lose your job, you’ll lose your career in your chosen industry, you’ll never work in that industry again. Nobody employs a whistleblower,” Morris said.
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