Commonwealth prosecutors are seeking suppression orders in the case of former tax office worker Richard Boyle.
Boyle blew the whistle in 2018 on the Australian Taxation Office’s aggressive use of garnishee notices to claw back debts from taxpayers and businesses.
The Adelaide-based public servant first raised his concerns internally, then to the inspector general of taxation, and ultimately to a joint ABC-Fairfax investigation.
He has pleaded not guilty to 24 charges, including the alleged disclosure of protected information and unlawful use of listening devices to record conversations with other ATO employees.
In a largely unprecedented move, Boyle is attempting to use Australia’s whistleblower protections to shield himself from prosecution.
The case, being heard in the South Australian district court, is the first major test of the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PID Act). It will be crucial in assessing the strength and practical effectiveness of the nation’s whistleblower protections, which the new attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, is contemplating reforming.
On Friday, commonwealth prosecutors sought suppression orders.
Guardian Australia, represented by Stephen McDonald SC, intervened to oppose the suppression orders.
An interim order was made by the court on Friday that temporarily restricted any further detailing of the arguments made by the commonwealth prosecutors and the Guardian during Friday’s hearing until a further hearing.
Boyle will face trial if his PID Act defence fails.
But that trial will now not take place for more than a year.
The existing trial date was vacated on Friday and pushed back to October 2023.
Speaking after Friday’s hearing, the Human Rights Law Centre senior lawyer Kieran Pender said there was no public interest in prosecuting whistleblowers.
“Rather than fighting to keep parts of the case secret, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions should drop the prosecution,” he said. “If that does not happen, the attorney general must intervene – just as he did in the case of Bernard Collaery – to bring this sorry saga to an end. Whistleblowers should be protected, not punished.”
