A Super Retail Group employee was so concerned at the handling of whistleblower complaints about an alleged affair between the chief executive and a senior staff member, they made an emergency disclosure to the assistant treasurer, urging a probe into whether the firm was seeking to cover up wrongdoing.

The disclosure sparked drastic action from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which responded by issuing demands to Super Retail staff to attend compulsory interrogations. It wanted to know about how the company had handled allegations its chief executive Anthony Heraghty engaged in a non-disclosed relationship with its head of human resources Jane Kelly.