Richard Boyle is preparing to appeal a landmark ruling denying him protection as a whistleblower, a move described as significant “for all current and future whistleblowers.”
The South Australian district court this week ruled that Boyle could not be protected for allegedly unlawful acts committed while gathering evidence to back up his disclosures about the Australian Taxation Office’s unethical and aggressive pursuit of debts.
The decision, the first real test of Australia’s whistleblowing laws, prompted urgent calls for reform and a warning that Boyle’s case exposed significant gaps in the public interest disclosure act (PID Act).
Guardian Australia understands Boyle and his legal team are now preparing to appeal against the ruling in the South Australian courts. The appeal is yet to be lodged.
Kieran Pender, a Human Rights Law Centre senior lawyer said the planned appeal would have important consequences for all whistleblowers and said Monday’s decision threatened to undermine protections for those speaking out about “human rights violations, government wrongdoing and corporate misdeeds”.
“The appeal will require the appeal court to confront the hole this judgment has left in whistleblower protection laws,” he said.
“It shouldn’t fall on the shoulders of a lone whistleblower to uphold protections available to Australians. The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus KC, should drop the case and fix the law, so all Australians have confidence to speak up about wrongdoing.”
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