The man who has accused the Australian Tax Office (ATO) of covering up serious maladministration will now face trial.
Richard Boyle, a former ATO Debt Collector is accused of 24 offences – including recording and disclosing protected information he collected – when he decided to bring systematic unlawful practices within the ATO to light.
But let’s take a step back.
In June 2017, a directive from the management of the ATO was that standard garnishee notices – whereby banks are directed, by the ATO, to pay the ATO directly from people’s bank accounts – be applied across the board.
In response, Mr Boyle submitted a 27-page public interest disclosure under section 13 of the Public Service Act 1999 (Cth) in October 2017, advising the office that such a directive was unlawful.
When Mr Boyle received no response from the chain of command internally within the ATO, he referred the matter to the Inspector General of Taxation (IGT), making sure that he complied with confidentiality provisions by redacting parts of the information. No action was taken.
Finally, Mr Boyle went public with his concerns – to the media. Around the same time, he was charged with more than 60 criminal offences.
In order to avoid criminal prosecution, Mr Boyle launched a bid for legal immunity.
The Corporations Act (part 9.4 AAA) protects a whistleblower against certain legal actions related to making the whistleblower disclosure, including:
Entertainment of Wednesday, 6 May 2026 Source: www.ghanaweb.com Evangelist Patricia Asiedua Asiamah, popularly known as Nana Agradaa, and her husband, Angel Asiamah, have initiated legal action aga...