‘There are many examples in Australia of whistleblowers being retrenched or punished for being brave enough to reveal issues in the public interest.
It is unfortunate but not uncommon for whistleblowers to be forced to take costly actions through the courts or Fair Work Commission after losing their jobs.
The move to uncover best practice in whistleblowing in the private sector is timely given the recent high-profile scandals at Target and CommInsure as well as the allegations of a broken corporate culture which was raised during Labor’s call for a royal commission into financial services. Whistleblowers revealed unethical behaviour at the Westfarmers-owned discount department store Target and at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia subsidiary CommInsure. The Target case involved an unknown person in the accounts department tipping off management about the use of supplier rebates to create about $20 million in additional profits in the half year to December.
Seven people have been sacked following that disclosure and former Target CEO Stuart Machin has left Westfarmers while denying all knowledge of what happened.
In the CommInsure case, chief medical officer Benjamin Koh claimed doctors were pressured to change medical reports, patient’s files were deleted and claims delayed as part of a strategy to avoid policy pay-outs. Koh lost his job for breaching CBA’s IT policy relating to taking client files home. But at this stage it would appear his actions have been vindicated given that CBA chief executive Ian Narev has apologised for what happened’.
Tony Boyd ‘ASIC backs whistleblower project’, The Australia Financial Review, Friday 15 April 2016 p.40
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