“All that is needed for evil to prosper is for people of good will to do nothing”—Edmund Burke The Whistle No. 78, April 2014 Newsletter of Whistleblowers Australia Article Clearly, pointing at a number plate is important to me in the future. But also the ultimate form of dobbing. it is about the possibility of saving I told them to settle down, and oneself for more important battles that eventually they took off. I had noted possibly can be won; and the knowl- their licence number. The incident edge of karma that I did not have happened too quickly for me to be before I blew the whistle more than scared and, while I was bigger than the twenty years ago. Twenty years ago, I main hoon, twenty years of advocating thought karma was just buried in non-violence have taken the fight out Hindu and Buddhist writings. Now I of me. I did not relish a punch-up in a think differently. Sometimes the uni- Wikipedia: Hoon is a term used in Australia and New Zealand to refer to public street at 8.30 at night. verse does the work. anyone who engages in loutish, anti- social behaviours. In particular, it is used to refer to one who drives a car or boat in a manner which is anti-social by the standards of contemporary society, that is, too fast, too noisily or too dangerously. Why good people do nothing But what was I to do with the licence Kim Sawyer number? I did nothing. I walked away. I exhibited exactly the same indiffer- THE other night I was taking a walk in ence that I have condemned in others. I our neighbourhood. As I was crossing was indifferent to the hoon and to the a road, a car came hooning around the possibility that he may re-offend or corner and nearly removed me from possibly worse in the future. I began to whistleblowing advocacy. question why. After all, I have spent forty years not being indifferent, helping at road accidents, revealing a neighbour to be a burglar, disciplining Kim Sawyer cheats at universities and, of course, blowing the whistle and advocating for For once I did nothing and perhaps others who blew the whistle. An understood better some of the indiffer- honours student once placed a note in ence I have suffered from. But it still my mailbox advising that another doesn’t excuse it, particularly the student had plagiarised a thesis. He collective indifference we all experi- stated “We knew you would do the ence as whistleblowers. I pointed at the number plate and right thing.” evidently one of the two in the car saw the point. They braked, and proceeded to reverse with the intention of running me down. I removed myself to the footpath, whereupon they jumped out of the car, ran up to me and threatened to break my jaw. So why was I now indifferent? Of course, indifference is all about risk; in this case the risk that it would be my word against the word of the hoon; the risk that the hoon would target my family and I did not know his network; the risk that by taking on the hoon I would jeopardise other things more Fate of the hoons? 2 The Whistle, #78, April 2014 Media watch Australian whistleblowers The SEC declined to comment on scheme similar to those in place in the whether any Australian-sourced tip- US. provide tip-offs for US offs led to prosecutions or current scheme amid criticism investigations, and whether the Aus- tralian tips were about US companies of laws at home operating in Australia, Australian- Criticism of laws at home comes as based companies with a US presence, figures reveal dozens of Australians or companies based elsewhere with gave tip-offs to a US scheme dealings in both countries. rewarding whistleblowers Foreign tips accounted for almost with cash incentives. 12 per cent of the 3238 tips the SEC received last year, 149 of which related Ruth Williams to the offshore bribery-tackling Sydney Morning Herald (BusinessDay Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). section), 20 January 2014 The FCPA’s most recent scalp was Alcoa, which, along with Australian subsidiary Alumina, last week agreed to pay fines of $US384 million to settle charges that one of its units bribed officials in Bahrain. The response to the US scheme comes amid criticism of Australia’s own whistleblowing laws and how the Illustration: Simon Bosch corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commis- DOZENS of Australians have contacted sion (ASIC), has dealt with whistle- the US securities regulator to report blowers. suspected misconduct after it launched An ongoing Senate inquiry into a scheme rewarding whistleblowers ASIC’s performance was launched last with cash bounties. year after revelations the regulator The US Securities and Exchange took 16 months to act on a 2008 Commission (SEC) has received 39 whistleblower tip-off alleging serious whistleblower tip-offs from Australia misconduct inside the Commonwealth since late 2011, when laws to “incen- Bank’s financial planning arm. The tivise” those who exposed insider bank later paid $51 million in compen- trading, market manipulation, foreign sation to impacted clients. bribery and other misconduct came Experts are now calling for a major into force. review of Australia’s private sector Figures from the SEC’s Office of whistleblower laws, dubbed “poorly the Whistleblower show that Australia regarded” by the Governance Institute has been one of its top foreign sources of Australia, including whether US- of tip-offs, ranking at least seventh for style rewards should be offered. the past two years. Canada and the UK The Governance Institute has urged were by far the biggest contributors. that a “targeted” review of whistle- The US scheme, introduced under blower laws be launched, and AJ the sweeping Dodd-Frank Wall Street Brown, from Griffith University’s reforms, gives whistleblowers 10 per Centre for Governance and Public cent to 30 per cent of any financial Policy, said it was a “logical” time to penalties paid by those pursued as a review private sector whistleblower result of their tip-offs, as long as the protections, after laws impacting gov- fine levied is at least $US1 million ernment workers and contractors were ($1.13 million). reformed last year. The SEC has so far received more Describing Australia’s whistle- than 6500 tips and paid rewards to six blower laws as “patchy, limited and far whistleblowers under the scheme, from international best practice,” The long-standing US False Claims ranging from $US50,000 to the Professor Brown said a review should Act — a Lincoln-era law beefed up by whopping $US14 million paid to an include a “serious look” at whether the Reagan and Obama administrations unnamed individual in October. Australia should adopt a reward The Whistle, #74, April 2014 3 — rewards whistleblowers that report ers, including putting in place a central managed whistleblowers, “ASIC’s not companies defrauding the government tracking system for whistleblower in this alone,” pointing to ASIC’s need in a similar way to the SEC-run Dodd- reports, and providing “prompt, clear to liaise on criminal matters with the Frank scheme. and regular” communication with Commonwealth Director of Public The False Claims Act has proved whistleblowers. Prosecutions and the Australian Fed- lucrative for the US government and ASIC’s submission revealed that it eral Police. whistleblowers alike, recouping received 845 “potential whistleblower Attorney-General George Brandis $US3.8 billion in fines and penalties reports” last financial year, 129 of was unavailable for comment. for the US government in 2012–13 as which were referred to ASIC’s com- whistleblowers shared $US354 million pliance, investigation or surveillance in bounties. teams for further action. Independent Senator Nick Xeno- In response to questions from Bills in Congress crack phon and groups including the Austra- BusinessDay, ASIC declined to say down on whistleblowers lian Federal Police Association and the how many of these qualified as Maxwell Abbott Tax Justice Network have called for protected whistleblowers under the posted on PR Watch Australia to consider whistleblower current laws, citing confidentiality 20 December 2013 laws similar to those in place in the requirements. US, arguing they could help tackle Professor Brown, whose submission PRESIDENT Obama was elected on a fraud and better protect and compen- to the inquiry called for wide-scale platform that included promises for sate whistleblowers. reforms, said pressure was building for increased transparency and openness in Senator Xenophon has flagged stronger whistleblower protection laws government. Despite this rhetoric, plans to introduce legislation into the in the private sector, but warned that Obama has prosecuted more whistle- Senate modelled on the US laws, and without a co-ordinated approach, a blowers than any administration in told BusinessDay he was planning to “proliferation” of complex rules could history and overseen the massive release the draft legislation in coming result — adding costs to business and growth of the NSA’s surveillance months. He was preparing to travel to government. apparatus. In November, the Senate (S. the US at his own cost to research its “Everybody knows that [whistle- 1681) and House (H.R. 3381) Intelli- whistleblower laws. blowing] happens … but people are gence Committees each released their BusinessDay revealed last year that just on the edge of acknowledging how own version of the “Intelligence the federal Attorney-General’s de- important it really is,“ he told Busi- Authorization Act for Fiscal Year partment is researching the US laws. nessDay. “People are [afraid] that it’s a 2014.” “We are still considering the merits of bit of a Pandora’s box to facilitate or This was an opportunity for an Australian scheme and will con- encourage whistleblowing.” Congressional leadership to address tinue to work with the private sector on The previous Labor government one of the defining issues of our time this,” a spokesman said this month.