Call for change of whistleblower laws after “heroic” worker walks free
The lawyer for the childcare worker who leaked details of Australia’s worst pedophile to the media, wants changes made to Qld’s “grossly inadequate” whistleblower laws.
Police & Courts
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The lawyer for a childcare whistleblower, who was this week cleared by a court of leaking details of Australia’s worst pedophile Ashley Griffith to the media, has called for a major shake-up of Queensland’s whistleblower laws.
Jason Murakami, whose firm Behlau Murakami Grant successfully defended Griffith’s one-time colleague Yolanda Borucki, is writing to Attorney-General Deb Frecklington in the wake of his “heroic” client’s prosecution.
Ms Borucki was acquitted on Friday of computer hacking after being accused of leaking confidential documents on Griffith to A Current Affair in August last year. She had faced up to 10 years in jail if convicted.
Former childcare worker Griffith was last month sentenced to life in jail after pleading guilty to more than 300 child sex offences.
Mr Murakami said current whistleblower laws were “grossly inadequate” and offered little or no protection to people like Ms Borucki.
“These laws have remained window dressing for the past 10 years,” he said.
“They need to be amended to give clear and resounding protection to people who have decided to come forward to tell the truth.
“As they currently are, the definitions contained in the legislation means the great majority of whistleblowers are exposed without a defence.”
Mr Murakami said in the Yolanda Borucki prosecution, he could not rely upon the existing legislation for his client as the facts of the prosecution did not fit within the current definitions of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2010.
“If a child care worker who decides to tell the truth to protect children from a pedophile cannot rely upon the Public Interest Disclosure Act then what is it good for?” he said.
“I would argue it is good for nothing, except to allow a culture in the bureaucracy, corporations and organisations to send a message to prospective whistleblowers: ‘you do (blow the whistle) and there is nothing to protect you’
“I argue this message needs to be stamped out as soon as possible.”
Mr Murakami said his firm’s pro bono division was writing a submission to new Attorney General Deb Frecklington “highlighting the shortcomings” of whistleblower laws.
He said the legislation should be included as part of any inquiry arising out of the Borucki prosecution “debacle”.
“If proper and precise protection was contained in legislation in Queensland, the prosecution against Ms Borucki would have never have gone as far as it did”, he said.
“Because there was no real whistleblower protection under legislation we were required to pick apart the Queensland Police Service’s case to protect Ms Borucki, which the outcome shows we did with steadfast precision and effect.”
Mr Murakami established the Griffith University Innocence Project in 2001 to work to free wrongly-convicted Queensland prisoners.
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