Richard Boyle case vindictive and intimidatory

Written by: Nick G. on 10 February 2025

 

Australian Tax Office whistle-blower Richard Boyle is in the South Australian District Court today for a call-over hearing.

Boyle lost his last chance to secure immunity from prosecution when the High Court refused his application for special leave to appeal last November, after two South Australian courts previously rejected his bid. 

He is due to face the court on 3 November 2025. Today’s call-over hearing is intended to bring the presiding judge up to date on developments in the case.

Before he fronted the court this morning, Boyle released a copy of a letter he has sent to Australian Attorney-general Mark Dreyfus stating that he had withdrawn instructions to negotiate a plea-deal with the Commonwealth.

He accused the Commonwealth Prosecutor under Dreyfus’s control of not acting with integrity. 

Background

Boyle, a former ATO debt collection officer, first became an internal whistleblower in October 2017, when he grew concerned about operations in the tax office.
He told journalists at last year’s Walkely Awards Presentation that in mid- 2017, as the financial year wrapped up, ATO staff across the country, not just Adelaide, were instructed to take money out of people’s bank accounts, shutting down many small to medium businesses without due cause.

“It did not matter to the Tax Office if their debts were incorrect.

“Some months after this ‘cash grab’ in June 2017, I wrote a formal public interest disclosure to outline this abuse of power, as well as the other significant failures of administration by the Tax Office that I was observing.

“And who did I have to send that complaint to, by law?

“To the Australian Taxation Office.

“I didn’t have a chance, did I?”

When his complaints were ignored, he went public and told Four Corners about the culture at the ATO, which he said included his area being instructed to use more heavy-handed tactics on taxpayers who owed the tax office money.

Only following the Four Corners episode titled ‘Mongrel Bunch of Bastards’ did this type of vile abuse by the ATO cease.

But rather than rewarding an honest and principled employee for exposing abuse that gravely risked the health and safety of the public, and causing such practices to stop, the ATO sought revenge on Boyle.

Vindictive and intimidatory

It is typical of ruling class legal procedures that the political essence and class nature of its actions is hidden behind criminal charges that particularise and obscure what is really going on.

In Boyle’s case, the intention of the ATO as an employer is to vindictively punish Richard Boyle, and of the Government, which has the power to intervene and drop the charges, it is to use Boyle as an example in order to intimidate any others who dare to expose wrongdoing and injustice.

Hence Boyle is not charged with whistle-blowing and is not protected by the legislation and whistleblower protections introduced by Dreyfus, in 2013.

Instead, he is charged with 24 offences consisting, as today’s District Court hearings sheet lists them, of “Make A Record Of Protected Information By A Taxation Officer (6)/ Use A Listening Device To Overhear, Record, Monitor Or Listen (7)/ Disclosure Of Protected Information To Another Entity By A T/ Record Another Person's Tax File Number (2)/ Attempt To Disclose Protected Information To Another Entity (6)/ Attempt To Divulge Or Communicate Another Person's Tax File (2).”

In his letter today to Dreyfus, Boyle refers to the situation in October 2022, when Counsel for the Commonwealth advised regarding the allegation that Boyle had “disclosed confidential taxpayer information to my lawyer at the time (Mr. Finlay), that 'no such disclosure occurred'. The Commonwealth agreed that Mr. Finlay deliberately did not open the encrypted files out of an abundance of caution to protect the confidentiality of the information. After the initial shock of this statement to all present, her Honour Judge Kudelka retorted, somewhat ironically, 'Aren't you prosecuting Mr. Boyle in the criminal trial for disclosing confidential tax information?'. All parties, including the court, left the hearing that day with the full expectation that the Commonwealth would abandon these charges, considering they had scuttled their own case as they had argued the opposite of the alleged offense.”

If it had acted with any integrity, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions would have dropped the charges then and there, but 28 months later, they are still vindictively in place.

Boyle faces charges that carry a maximum prison sentence of up to 46 years.

Boyle’s case is a reminder that eternal vigilance is required against government erosion of hard-won democratic rights.

They have taken their toll on this brave and honest person.

He told the journalists at the Walkleys, “Louise and I should have been starting a family, buying a house, settling into the routines of life together.

“Instead we are here with you tonight, both completely and utterly broken.

“Louise can speak for herself, but I personally am broken, physically, mentally, and financially.”

Boyle’s charges must be dropped and proper restitution and compensation paid by the government for the hurt they have caused him and his wife.

 

 

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