The South Australian District Court last year found that Richard Boyle was correct to blow the whistle on the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for breaching its policy not to dip into small business accounts to extract debts, to bump figures up for the end of financial year.

The Supreme Court confirmed this decision on appeal last June, but made certain that despite Boyle’s actions being correct and which led to the practice being ended, his appeal was dismissed.

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This means that the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 (PID Act), which ostensibly aims to protect public sector whistleblowers, is flawed.

Any reasonable person would conclude that a law that protects those disclosing wrongdoing would also protect them in proving their case. But this is not the case.

Attorney General Mark Dreyfus drafted the PID Act during his first stint as chief lawmaker. In opposition and watching the Coalition pursue a series of high-profile whistleblowers cases in 2021, including Boyle’s, Dreyfus promised to fix his laws if reelected.

But, Dreyfus is refusing to drop the prosecution of the ex-ATO employee, even though the laws have failed Boyle. It........

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