Former Australian Taxation Office worker Richard Boyle has lost a bid to halt his criminal prosecution over allegedly releasing protected information.
In a civil judgment handed down on Monday, South Australian District Court Judge Liesl Kudelka ruled against Boyle’s claim that his actions were consistent with the Public Interest Disclosure Act rendering him immune from prosecution.
But Kudelka imposed an interim suppression order on the reasons for her decision.
He is facing 24 charges related to the release of that information, including allegations he taped private conversations without consent and took photos of taxpayer information, and is now likely to go to trial later this year.
His civil action to block the prosecution was the first of its kind and was considered instrumental in determining the strength and effectiveness of national whistleblower protections, which Attorney General Mark Dreyfus is considering reforming.
The Human Rights Law Centre described Monday’s decision as a major blow to Australian democracy.
“The decision today only underscores the urgent need for law reform to ensure whistleblower protections are real and don’t just exist on paper,” senior lawyer Kieran Pender said.
“The attorney-general should prioritise comprehensive reform to the act and the establishment of a whistleblower protection authority.
“Whistleblowers make Australia a better place and our laws need to reflect that.”
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Dreyfus previously declined to comment directly on Boyle’s case but has said he hoped to update the Public Interest Disclosure Act to reform and improve the scheme protecting whistleblowers.
Boyle first raised his concerns through internal ATO processes and then made a complaint to the tax ombudsman before taking part in a joint media investigation.
In those reports, he revealed ATO staff had been instructed to use harsher debt-collection tactics on indebted individuals and small businesses.
Those tactics included the use of orders that require a bank to hand over money from a personal or business account sometimes without the permission of the taxpayer.
Follow-up reviews found Boyle’s allegations of aggressive debt recovery practices at the ATO at the time were valid.
A federal parliamentary report also found the ATO had conducted a “superficial” investigation into his public interest disclosure.
In his evidence during the civil proceedings, Boyle told the court he had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and alleged he had been psychologically abused after he first tried to use internal processes to bring his issues to light.
