South Australia’s Supreme Court of Appeal rejected Australian Taxation Office (ATO) whistleblower Richard Boyle’s appeal to secure immunity from prosecution under section 10(1)(a) of Australia’s Federal Public Interest Disclosure (PID) Act on Wednesday.

Boyle was prosecuted upon blowing the whistle on alleged unethical debt recovery practices at the ATO. He disclosed these debt recovery practices within the ATO to the tax ombudsman, ABC, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in 2018 after his internal whistleblowing was ignored. In March 2023, South Australia District Court Judge Liesl Kudelka held that Boyle was not immune from prosecution under the PID Act, finding that immunity under the PID Act does not extend to preparatory steps of making a public interest disclosure.

Senior Human Rights Law Centre lawyer Kieran Pender, who participated in the appeal as amicus curiae, wrote on X (formerly Twitter):

This [long-running] prosecution has demonstrated significant issues and uncertainties in whistleblowing legislation. It is now incumbent on the Albanese government to proceed with comprehensive law reform [and] the establishment of a whistleblower protection authority.

This case marked the first time the Australian courts considered the scope of Australia’s whistleblower protection laws.

The appeal, which was unanimously dismissed by Justices David Lovell, Samual Doyle and Sophie David, is subject to an interim suppression order, which means that reasons for the judgment will not be published for the time being.

Boyle is set to face trial for 24 criminal charges related to his public disclosure of materials. He allegedly taped private conversations and took photographs of taxpayer information.

Relatedly, on May 14, the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory sentenced war crimes whistleblower David McBride to five years and eight months imprisonment for theft and sharing classified military documents with journalists after McBride exposed allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan.