Opposition to challenge government bid to water down changes to strengthen whistleblower laws

LED by Attorney-General John Rau, our government continues to deny stronger protections for whistleblowers. It is eroding your right to know and appears determined to keep the public in the dark.

• EDITORIAL: Rau is taking SA down an insidious road
• ICAC to be given power to investigate lobbyists
• John Rau’s vow to keep us in the dark

• READ BELOW: The stories the Government didn’t want us to know

• READ BELOW: The tactics being used to keep us in the dark

THE State Government’s move to water down changes recommended to strengthen whistleblower laws has provoked a showdown in Parliament, where the Opposition will try to beef up protections.

After Attorney-General John Rau this week delivered a blow to transparency in SA by rejecting a bid to hold some ICAC inquiries in public, the Liberals have vowed to fight for the rights of public servants who divulge information to journalists if their concerns have not been acted on.

Deputy Opposition leader Vickie Chapman in Parliament.

Mr Rau yesterday outlined a rewrite of laws, but it did not include extra protection for disclosure to journalists.

Deputy Opposition leader Vickie Chapman said it was “absolutely critical” that public servants felt safe disclosing corrupt conduct or other issues that were in the public interest.

“At the moment ... concerns are not listened to, people feel intimidated and everyone gets silenced,” she said. “We think it’s absolutely reasonable that if someone makes a disclosure through the appropriate channels and nothing happens, that after 120 days people have the right to go public.”

Ms Chapman accused the Government of having an “obsession with secrecy”.

“It’s becoming more acute. Not only is it in terms of legislation, but they don’t answer questions, they won’t provide documents,” she said.

Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander handed down a review of the state’s whistleblower laws in 2014 and made 30 recommendations.

Among those was a call to let public officers “re-disclose” an issue of public interest to the media where there had been a previous disclosure in accordance with the law but there was a failure to investigate or to keep the person informed.

Mr Rau defended his proposal called the Public Interest Disclosure Bill, because he said it did provide extra protection for whistleblowers who approached MPs (but not the media) when they were getting nowhere in the disclosure process.

Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander.

Ms Chapman, however, pointed out that the established protections of parliamentary privilege meant people could already voice their concerns through MPs “so that doesn't really change anything”.

Mr Rau said the Bill also included a “duty to act” provision compelling those receiving whistleblower reports to act on them.

An informant must be notified within 30 days that their information was being assessed and within 120 days of the outcome.

A person who did not meet their duty to act would leave themselves open to a complaint that could be investigated by ICAC.

Changes to ICAC laws passed State Parliament’s Lower House yesterday. They form part of the Government’s “integrity” package, along with the new whistleblower laws and reforms to police complaint processes.

The changes were mainly based on a review of ICAC by former Supreme Court justice Kevin Duggan and Mr Lander’s recommendations, but the latter’s request for public hearings, in some cases, was ignored. “In the case of ICAC, we want to sharpen the focus on investigating corruption and ensure that lesser matters are dealt with by established procedures and government agencies,” Mr Rau said.

He added the Government had consistently not supported public hearings of ICAC.

STORIES THE GOVERNMENT DIDN’T WANT YOU TO KNOW

SHANNON McCOOLE

WITHOUT the willingness of several people to stick their necks out in the days after Shannon McCoole’s arrest by police in 2014, the full extent of the rotten culture within Families SA that allowed his foul crimes to flourish would not have been revealed to the public for a considerable time.

Shannon McCoole was arrested in 2014.

Without them, the South Australian public had to trust the words of politicians who fed journalists information that was, in some instances, misleading and even false.

It was those very actions that motivated one key whistleblower to reveal to The Advertiser that McCoole had been the subject of an internal Families SA investigation into his interaction with a child in his care a year before his arrest to act. Following that initial revelation, other whistleblowers gained the confidence to come forward.

In each and every instance the whistleblowers spoke freely with a guarantee from journalists that their identity would be protected at the journalist’s own personal legal risk, because SA does not have any shield laws.

CHEMO BUNGLE

THE first chemotherapy bungle whistleblower almost backed out because he was frightened to speak out.

A second patient then came forward, also too scared to be named, even though Health Minister Jack Snelling said he had no problem with individuals telling their story.

Only last month the Government switched its position from the secret “lawyer up”, to a more accountable and public $100,000 lump sum offer.

SA Health is now looking at making future disclosure even harder. Outgoing SA Health chief executive David Swan said SA Health was reconsidering its guidelines on which incidents to reveal publicly in future and its procedures for informing patients.

TACTICS BEING USED TO KEEP US IN THE DARK

WHISTLEBLOWER LAWS

IN 2014, ICAC Commissioner Bruce Lander handed down a scathing review of the Whistleblowers Protection Act which he said was not “fulfilling its primary objective of facilitating disclosure and providing protections for those who make disclosures”. The Government rejected his recommendation whistleblowers should also be able to contact the media without fear of reprisal when their reports had not been acted upon.

SHIELD LAWS

LABOR and its independent ministers have struck down shield laws in State Parliament twice in two years, denying journalists the right to maintain confidentiality of sources, putting them at risk of prosecution and prison for exposing stories of public interest. The laws would bring SA in line with other states.

SURVEILLANCE DEVICES

THE Government wanted to ban people, including the media, from publishing secret recordings without going to a judge for approval. Opposition MPs, lawyers and security and media groups raised concerns it was too restrictive and stop reports in the public interest such as animal cruelty and unsafe work practices being revealed. As pressure mounted, he agreed to water down the laws allowing media outlets to be exempt.

ICAC

Despite Premer Jay Weatherill declaring “good governments have nothing to hide” when he announced SA would establish an ICAC in 2011, the state’s anti-corruption body is considered the country’s most secretive. Commissioner Bruce Lander has been outspoken about the need for serious maladministration inquiries to be held in public but the Government yesterday rejected that move.