Whistleblower Richard Boyle has told a court hearing the culture at the Australian Taxation Office was so bad that a manager was reluctant to approve his sick leave after he was punched in the head.
Boyle is seeking protections under the Public Interest Disclosure Act to avoid being prosecuted for the release of protected information, following leaks to the media about aggressive tactics used by the ATO when pursuing tax debts.
The civil case is being heard in South Australia’s district court and will be a critical first test of the strength and effectiveness of national whistleblower protections.
Giving evidence on Monday, Boyle painted a picture of a dysfunctional organisation and suggested he had no choice but to release the information publicly.
Boyle has told the court that the ATO pressured staff to be heavy-handed when collecting debts from taxpayers, including some who were ill, being abused, or who had been through fires or floods.
He said he was concerned that taxpayers were at risk of suicide or other harm because of the stress of being chased for the debts by the ATO, which he said included directing staff to use garnishee notices. Garnishee notices allow third parties such as banks to take people’s money from their accounts to hand over to the ATO.
He also outlined what he called maladministration within the ATO, and how he was victimised, placed “under undue scrutiny”, and bullied once he started speaking out.
This led to his post-traumatic stress disorder, he said, and “catastrophic psychological injury”.
He had tried to report what was happening internally and, dissatisfied with that process, he went to the media.
Boyle is now facing 24 charges including for taping private conversations without consent and for taking photos of taxpayer information, which he says he collected as evidence for a public interest disclosure.
If he fails to convince the district court judge that he is covered by whistleblower protections, he will face a trial and a potential prison term.
On Monday, Nicholas Robinson KC, on behalf of the office of the director of public prosecutions, asked Boyle why he had not sought to correct the record on his behaviour at the ATO during the internal investigation.
Boyle said he had told investigators there were “many things they were misinterpreting and had made establishments that were incorrect”.
He suggested to Robinson that a leader in the organisation was aware he had leaked the information but did not tell investigators, a move he suggested showed tacit approval for his actions.
“You believe [a leader] lied to the investigators,” Robinson said. “Did you ever seek from her or the investigators an explanation of why that answer was given?”
“Absolutely not,” Boyle said.
He then suggested the ATO had a poor culture because when he was punched in the head in a public altercation in 2016 and had to go to hospital, his manager told him he would not get sick leave. That sick leave was later approved.
Boyle said the culture at the organisation was “so woeful it would make your hair curl”. “I didn’t feel I could trust those managers,” he said.
He told the court he did collect evidence – including the taped phone calls and photographs – “randomly” but did so in order to document evidence of the maladministration and the poor treatment of taxpayers as he prepared to make a public interest disclosure.
He taped conversations rather than taking notes, he said, both for his “own lawful interest” but also because “it was in the public interest to do so”.
“It would be unequivocal and objective evidence, rather than my hand-taken notes,” he said, adding that it was “clear” to him that people at the tax office would lie about what had been said.
The hearing continues on Tuesday.
