An insurance policy of sorts

I was told "I have been reading your blog, but you really haven't written anything controversial for a while" so that got me thinking. I was printing and laminating pages from the Public Interest Disclose Act [2003] at the time, so I thought, just go with that and that is the context of this post.

I have not pursued the individual; for me, he absolutely did the wrong thing engaging in acts by committing a series of offenses carrying two years imprisonment or a $24,000 fine. So where do I go from here? 

Well, this is kind of an insurance policy; sure, I have been discriminated against in terms of promotion, but I have reinvented myself consulting for businesses not connected to my employer. We have to coexist now - I need to make the most of this situation. 

Within reason, I can pretty much do as I like now. I choose to work hard so if they have any issues with me, it is easy to document. I won't ever bother to apply for any internal jobs anymore, that is a waste of time. Instead, I will concentrate on external options.  

The clauses are clear, I cannot be dismissed, no disciplinary action under a written law or services dispensed with. I make sure they are aware that I have the document in my possession and I am well versed in the clauses. 

Should they want to make poor decisions, my options are to dealt with under the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 in the Equal Opportunity Commission. Not only that, I would have the opportunity to question these individuals under oath and I would suggest that would be career ending for them. 

I don't think it will ever come to that, I now keep to myself as we have an agreement where I won't speak out in our open plan office. I will continue to take leave without pay when consulting projects come up and return when the project is completed. 

I used a line out of Wall Street II: Money Never Sleeps where Michael Douglas' character Gordon Gekko quips "You stop telling lies about me; I’ll stop telling the truth about you" to Josh Brolin's character Bretton James.

I am aware that this is really detrimental to their internal planning, this is their problem of their own doing and not my issue though. To be fair, I wasn't the one who committed an offense taking detrimental action against a person who should have been protected under the whistleblower provisions.  

So let's take a look at some of the provisions of the Public Interest Disclose Act [2003]. This is a 27 page document so I have concentrated on the clauses that relate to protection under the Act. While I have excluded some non-relevant passages, this is the main points unedited. 

I feel a little like Kim Jong-un, I have the nuclear option but the real power is restraint. You don't mess with someone who has the power to create absolute devastation and is rational enough to only exercise that option in extreme cases of personal threat.

Part 3 - Protection

13. Immunity for appropriate disclosure of public interest information
A person who makes an appropriate disclosure of public interest information to a proper authority under section 5:
(a) Incurs no civil or criminal liability for doing so.
(b) Is not, for doing so, liable:
    (i)To any disciplinary action under a written law.
    (ii) To be dismissed.
    (iii) To have his or her services dispensed with or otherwise terminated.

14. Reprisal an offence

(1) A person must not take or threaten to take detrimental action against another because anyone has made, or intends to make, a disclosure of public interest information under this Act.

Penalty: $24,000 or imprisonment for 2 years

(2) A person who:
    (a) Attempts to commit an offence created by subsection (1).
    (b) Intending that an offence created by subsection (1) be committed, incites another person to commit that offence.

Commits an offence.
Penalty: $24,000 or imprisonment for 2 years.

15. Remedies for acts of victimisation
(1) A person who takes or threatens to take detrimental action against another because or substantially because anyone has made, or intends to make, a disclosure of public interest information under this Act commits an act of victimisation which may be dealt with as a tort.

(2) Proceedings in tort under subsection (1) may be taken against the perpetrator of an act of victimisation or any employer of the perpetrator.

(3) In proceedings against the employer of the perpetrator of an act of victimisation, it is a defence for the employer to prove that the employer:

(a) Was not knowingly involved in the act of victimisation.
(b) Did not know and could not reasonably be expected to have known about the act of victimisation.
(c) Could not, by the exercise of reasonable care, have prevented the act of victimisation.

(4) An act of victimisation under this Act may be dealt with under the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 as if it were an act that was unlawful under section 67 of that Act but, if the victim commences proceedings in a court under subsection (1).

16. Confidentiality
(1) A person must not make a disclosure (an identifying disclosure) of information that might identify or tend to identify anyone as a person who has made an appropriate disclosure of public interest information under this Act unless:

(a) The person who made the disclosure of public interest information consents to the disclosure of information that might identify or tend to identify him or her.

Penalty: $24,000 or imprisonment for 2 years.