Women who speak up against wrongdoing and become whistleblowers are paying a heavy price for their courage, according to a new report from the Human Rights Law Centre. The study finds women are more likely to face harassment and bullying in the workplace because of their whistleblowing disclosures. Whistleblower advocates are urgently calling for the establishment of a Whistleblower Protection Authority, to ensure safety and support for those who are brave enough to come forward.

For two years, myself and others here tried to raise concerns about what was going on and terrible things were happening to patients and patients were dying....I tried very hard to get investigations done and that type of thing, but he was basically protected by the executive."

This is the voice of Toni Hoffman, who was the head nurse at Bundaberg Base Hospital's intensive care unit when American Surgeon, Jayant Patel was appointed Director of Surgery.

Within six weeks of his appointment, Ms Hoffman began raising concerns with her superiors about Mr Patel, after a number of patients developed serious complications following his treatment.

Ms Hoffman says she was dismissed and ridiculed by hospital seniors at every step.

"The barriers were there were manifold, there were so many different barriers, but a lot of them were just complete disregard for me as a nurse and blaming me for having a personality conflict. It was put down as a personality conflict between Patel and me. It was just disregarded...

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