Richard Boyle has faced the heavy price of being a whistleblower in Australia.
The law suggests that if you blow the whistle on wrongdoing, you will be protected.
But, in Boyle's case, it didn't protect him.
Nor did the federal government, which could have, at any stage, requested the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) drop all the charges against Boyle.
More than eight years after the former ATO debt collector internally spoke out about the ATO's heavy-handed debt recovery practices, Boyle has stopped fighting for justice.
His decision to reveal unethical practices at the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) — while helping the lives of many taxpayers — ultimately destroyed his, and his wife Louise Beaston's lives.
"I personally am broken, physically, mentally, and financially", Boyle said, in a recent public address at the 2024 Walkley Awards.
He talked of how he and Louise should have "been starting a family, buying a house, settling into the routines of life together", but instead were, "completely and utterly broken".
On Tuesday, Boyle pleaded guilty to four charges of disclosing protected information, making a record of protected information, using a listening device to record private conversations and recording another person's tax file number.
The 49-year-old struck a plea deal under which Senator Rex Patrick — who has long been fighting on behalf of Boyle for the charges against him to be dropped — said Boyle would avoid jail.
While many of the...
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