Porn, prostitutes: Revenue SA worker’s Twitter account

A public servant in SA’s tax office shared extreme sex and political views on social media, but has escaped disciplinary action – and quickly deleted his account. Warning: Graphic images

A tax bureaucrat working at one of the state government’s most sensitive agencies escaped sanctions despite sharing graphic sex images and political views on social media.

Treasury officials investigated the Revenue SA worker over a Twitter account that shared hardcore pornography and interacted with prostitutes.

The public servant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, also posted criticism of the Liberal Party. He escaped disciplinary action but was counselled.

After The Advertiser’s inquiries, and Treasury bosses defending their agency’s culture, the account was locked down.

It was then blocked from general view and finally deleted on Tuesday.

The worker for the agency that manages the state’s taxation denied being behind the account. But within minutes of contacting him, The Advertiser was blocked access to it.

Asked if he was investigated, he said “I’m not going to answer that” before hanging up.

The public sector code of conduct requires workers to not bring themselves, their work, the public sector or government “into disrepute” at any time.

A screenshot of one of the Twitter accounts followed by a Revenue SA bureaucrat.

Any personal social media should be “considered public activities”, it states.

The Twitter account followed multiple sex workers.

Calling on Treasurer Stephen Mullighan to intervene, Opposition spokeswoman Michelle Lensink condemned a “weak punishment” for conduct that breached public sector rules.

“It’s disgusting and disgraceful that a government employee has been caught red-handed interacting with inappropriate and offensive material,” she said.

“The evidence is clear, and it sends the wrong message if people are allowed to blatantly break the rules.

“This type of behaviour would never fly in the private sector. A slap on the wrist is too weak of a punishment for this behaviour.”

The worker’s publicly accessible account, created in 2008, followed almost 250 graphic pornographic accounts, other sex-related users and prostitutes, some of whom he interacted with. He unfollowed them after being counselled.

His account, which Labor’s official Twitter feed followed, also “liked” hundreds of sex posts, which the site’s algorithms sent to his followers but are too graphic to publish.

He also posted criticism of the Liberal Party. An agency whistleblower, who declined to be named, questioned the inquiry.

The Twitter account also posted political commentary critical of the Liberals.

The account was critical of the Liberals.

Screenshots of the accounts the Twitter handle was following.

Screenshots of the accounts the Twitter handle was following.

“How is it possible that staff from our state tax department can do this? What kind of security risk does this pose let alone the reputational risks?” they asked.

Commissioner for Taxation Julie Holmes said her investigation involved the agency’s human resources chief, cybersecurity team and IT director but “resulted in no disciplinary action”.

A Treasury spokeswoman said it reviewed internet data logs, analysed the Twitter profile’s content and timing of posts. She declined to detail other “investigative steps”.

“The department is satisfied that this matter was comprehensively investigated, on the basis of available evidence,” she said.

“There was no inappropriate activity that occurred during work hours or using work assets to support any findings of misconduct.

“The staff member was counselled and reminded of their responsibilities as a public sector employee.”

A spokeswoman for Mr Mullighan, whose office was not aware of the issue before Monday, said it was a department matter.

Originally published as Porn, prostitutes: Revenue SA worker’s Twitter account