Australian Taxation Office employee-turned-whistleblower Richard Boyle will have to stand trial.Credit:Ben Searcy
Boyle went public in April 2018 as part of a media investigation into the ATO that I was doing forThe Age,The Sydney Morning Herald and ABC’sFour Corners. He revealed that his area of the ATO in Adelaide had been instructed to use more heavy-handed debt collection tactics on taxpayers who owed the agency money.
Months before speaking out,he followed protocol and did a public interest disclosure to the ATO. His concerns were investigated by the ATO and dismissed. He only came to the media because he was worried about the small businesses in the ATO’s firing line.
Days before the story went public,Boyle was raided.
In January 2019,he was slapped with 66 criminal charges,including telephone tapping and recording of conversations without the consent of all parties,and making a record of protected information,in some cases passing that information to a third party.
The charges were later reduced to 24,reducing the time he would serve in jail if found guilty,but it could still be several decades.
He applied for immunity on 23 of the charges in South Australia’s District Court. The case was pitched as the first time whistleblowing laws would be tested as a shield in criminal proceedings.