A small piece of positive news today in the Oz, which Alan Kessing will no doubt take some small measure of satisfaction from, regardless of how ironic that satisfaction may be. Proposed changes to current whistleblower legislation – Disclosures of Public Interest – outlined by Senator Ludwig yesterday will, as the linked article states, ‘send the culture of the public service in a highly desirable direction’.
I note Ludwig declined to comment on Alan’s case, doubtless due to the highly contentious nature of the conviction handed down against Alan in 2007. The weight of public opinion is clearly on the side of the whistleblower, especially so in the case of the damning revelations contained within Alan’s reports, despite calls for the conviction to be overturned falling on deaf ears legally & politically. I hope that for Alan’s peace of mind that those calls continue now in light of the government’s better-late-than-never approach to the issue of the public interest being served. Surely it’s not a difficult thing for a bureaucracy which is acknowledging flaws in its veil of secrecy, to help mend the rent in public trust and perception by quashing an unjust conviction against a man who saw wrong and did what his conscience and sense of fair play told him to do.
Mar 182010