Special Minister of State John Faulkner today committed to legislation establishing a “preferred model” for whistle-blower protection in 2009, based on the outcome of a House of Representatives committee inquiry into ways to broaden and strengthen public interest disclosure.
The House of Reps Standing committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, chaired by Labor MP Mark Dreyfus QC, commenced its inquiry in July and is scheduled to report by the end of February.
Faulkner was speaking this morning at the launch of a new collaborative study on whistleblowing by a Griffith University-based team of researchers. The study found that more than 20% of whistleblowers were mistreated by their agency or employer after reporting wrongdoing. Most reported stress as a result of whistleblowing, with more than 40% reporting extreme stress.
Faulkner acknowledged that current Commonwealth whistleblower protections were inadequate, suggesting that they were too narrow in their protections and that there was a case for extending them beyond the confines of the Public Service Act — for example, to ministerial and electorate office staff employed under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act.
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A similar whistleblowing inquiry is underway in NSW — a part of the shabby and wholly inadequate response of the Iemma Government to the treatment of Gillian Sneddon following her cooperation with police in the investigation of Milton Orkopoulos. The treatment of Sneddon remains – the case of Allan Kessing aside — one of the most egregious examples of whistleblower punishment – in her case, by the NSW ALP and the NSW Parliament.
After she was locked out of Orkopoulos’s office following the leaking of her cooperation with police by Parliamentary staff, Sneddon suffered serious stress-related health problems. Robert Coombes, Orkopoulos’s successor as MP for Swansea, refused to let Sneddon work for him, although he took on two other Orkopoulos staff, who had stayed “loyal” to the Minister (including by refusing to report the original allegations against Orkopoulos, which led to his conviction). Coombes is a member of the committee undertaking the NSW whistleblower inquiry.
After an extended period on accrued leave and worker’s compensation, Sneddon’s employment as an electorate officer was terminated on 22 February this year. Sneddon remains unable to work and has had her life wrecked by her treatment at the hands of her notional employer, the NSW Parliament. She was hospitalised for depression in 2007 and believes the NSW ALP — of which she was a member for a number of years – hoped she would die in order to remove the embarrassment she continues to cause them.
Sneddon was also given misleading advice about her sick leave and worker’s compensation entitlements by NSW Parliament staff. She is currently struggling to get by on $340 a week. A compensation claim has been under negotiation for several months, but she has had to offer her house for sale due to mortgage pressure.
Sneddon isn’t even a whistleblower, strictly speaking. She simply assisted police with claims of disgusting and criminal behaviour by the man she worked for. She did what any responsible member of the community would do, and she has paid for it with her career, her health and now her home.
The issues raised by Sneddon’s treatment go beyond whistleblower protection to the heart of the deeply-flawed system of employment in our politicians’ offices. Sneddon’s notional employers, the NSW Parliament, failed to provide her with basic protection or confidentiality; instead, the interests of an accused paedophile were seen as a greater priority than her’s. Nor was her union, the Public Service Association, the slightest help — although union fees were regularly deducted from Sneddon’s worker’s compensation payments.
Electorate office staff are apparently expected to endure whatever comes their way from politicians, who account to no one for the way they treat their staff. So while Nathan Rees celebrates his ascension to the NSW Premiership, his former colleague Gillian Sneddon waits for some compensation for her wrecked life.
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You hear alot of whistleblowers down the track honestly saying ‘I regret sticking my neck out, the angst and blowback has really not been worth it etc’.
But really I can’t agree with that for a very practical if a little subtle reason. A whistleblower has a psychological threat to cope with – address reality and your values which scream at you to take action, or ignore reality and sublimate that pressure and knowledge.
Really it’s no choice at all. The second path leads to depression, probably legal or illegal drugs, quite possibly clinical madness of living in denial. What about those coppers writing TJIF graffiti on police station walls in frustration? Apparently it stands for The Job Is F*c*ed.
So I reckon it’s just bad luck finding out stuff you didn’t want to know, and good luck for society you are the whistleblower and just do your best! Sanity is the best you can hope for in a mad bad situation. And thanks too you whistleblowers, love ya always.
Gillian Sneddon
The Parliamentary Committee into the Protection of Whistleblowers is made up of 6 ALP MP’s (including Swansea MP, Coombs) & Fred Nile =7, as well as 3 Libs & 1 Nat =4. Somehow I don’t expect the ALP will want the 1000 questions I have for them made public as it will expose them of protecting Orkopoulos at every level. I told Parliament that I was involved in a Police investigation into my boss, Milton Orkopoulos. Russell Grove rang Milton the same day. Vicki Calder & Vicki Mathieu told Milton that I was copying information for the police. Milton told Parliament. Parliament then changed the locks to keep me out. Grove said himself in the Telegraph that he told Orkopoulos to have nothing to do with me. I have proof that Milton told Parliament that he wanted me pensioned off. Vicki Calder has been rewarded with my job. Vicki Mathieu the casual staffer, who told me with glee that I was not allowed back into my office, now has a full time job working for the new Member for Swansea Robert Coombs. Coombs did not want to know me. I have been told by a trusted source that Coombs wife (who lived in Sydney), was looking for a new hairdresser in Swansea three weeks before Orkopoulos was arrested. Therefore Coombs knew as early as October 2006 that he would be the endorsed candidate! Yet Pemier Iemma and the now, Premier Rees claim ignorance to any allegations!!!!!????
Bernard …is there any chance of asking a few ‘assorted’ MPs why they won’t support changes to the dreadful plight of electorate staff such as Gillian Sneddon? Gillian is out on her ear because the award under which she and others are employed is the ‘Workchoices’ model. The all rights to the MP and none to the worker. A principle soundly rejected by Australians last election yet retained by every MP in every party state and federal. The autocratic, inflexible biased and flawed staff management rights foster unfair, illegal and constructive dismissals and fail the safe, fair and healthy employment standards set down by the federal government. These are servile positions window-dressed by parliaments as ‘public service’. Applicants are on-hired to MPs and parties who hold full sway on workplace and conditions. That’s why Gillian Sneddon and a few others have lost lives, health, homes and careers and thousands of dollars paid to unions who took the money under false pretences. An MP’s decision, like Milton Orkpoulos’ is final. He sacked Gillian and she has no right of appeal. Nor do other electorate staff in the same situation. Isn’t it time our MPs offered their electorate staff the same rights as other working Australians?
Gillian Sneddon, Allan Kessing, Jared Golla and another staffer at Iguana Joe’s nightclub all have something in common; they are all without jobs as a result of speaking out against wrongdoing or appalling behaviour. All lost their jobs and are out of pocket. Kessing lost most of his super as a result of incurring huge legal bills defending himself in court. Okopoulos at least went to jail, but that hasn’t helped Ms Sneddon’s bank balance or employment prospects. Kessing’s superiors, John Della Bosca and Belinda Neal, sail on as if they have suffered a great wrong and have kept their jobs and their pay. No loss there at all.
Not a lot of encouragement from these examples for doing anything but leaving the whistle untouched.
Bernard, I was a whistleblower in WA and suffered the usual treatment (one of the reasons that I voted against Labor at the recent election). WA has whistleblower legislation but it is useless because at the end of the day the establishment administrates the ‘protection’ and whilst they not be personally involved they all ensure that the system is not challenged. The Commonwealth needs to look at the consistent failures of whistleblower legislation in other jurisdictions and adjust accordingly.