1. Healthcare and dissent
Brian Martin
Vice President,
Whistleblowers Australia
Professor of Social Sciences,
University of Wollongong

2. Hospital
Imagine you are a nurse and discover that radiotherapy patients haven’t received enough radiation.

3. Health products company
Imagine you are an executive and discover massive financial fraud.

4. Health insurance
Imagine you are a health insurance auditor and discover systemic fraud.

5. What would you do?

6. Five options 1. Join in 2. Do nothing: just watch
3. Report the problem; speak out
4. Leak information about it
5. Try to change the system

7. Five possible roles 1. Participant 2. Bystander 3. Whistleblower
4. Leaker
5. Activist, change agent

8. Role 1: participant

10. Role 2: bystander

11. We are all bystanders — on some issues

12. Role 3: whistleblower – someone who informs authorities or the public about a problem

14. Some unfamiliar ideas about whistleblowing
Whistleblowing isn’t snitching/dobbing.
Some people blow the whistle unintentionally.
Many whistleblowers are conventional and conservative.
Laws don’t protect whistleblowers.
Official procedures don’t work.

15. Fred Gulson

16. Cynthia Kardell

17. Jean Lennane

18. What often happens 1: cover-up
Matters are not reported.
Evidence is destroyed.
Eyewitnesses do not come forward.

19. What often happens 2: denigration of the whistleblower
Rumours
Referral to psychiatrists
Public attacks

20. What often happens 3: contrary stories
Unsympathetic interpretations are placed on disclosures.
Innocent-sounding explanations are given for reprisals against whistleblowers.

21. What often happens 4: failure of official channels
Official bodies do not respond.
Official bodies undertake superficial investigations.
Official bodies delay action.
Official bodies focus on technicalities.

22. What often happens 5: intimidation
Whistleblowers are threatened, ostracised, harassed, reprimanded, transferred, demoted, dismissed and blacklisted.

23. How to avoid being destroyed
Go public.
Be respectable, calm, rational.
Stick to your main message.
Avoid formal procedures if possible. Instead, build alliances
Refuse to be intimidated. Reduce your vulnerability.
Choose the right opportunity to act.

24. Role 4: leaker

25. Daniel Ellsberg

26. Bradley/ Chelsea Manning

27. Edward Snowden

28. Advantages of leaking (for the leaker)
• There is less risk of reprisals.
You remain in the job (and can do more leaking).
The focus is more on the issue, not the messenger.

29. Disadvantages of leaking
• Leaks lack the credibility of a personal witness.
• Leaked information may put people at risk or undermine policy-making.
• Workplace trust is damaged by the leak and/or by a search for leakers.

30. Role 5: activist; change agent

31. Hospital
Imagine you are a nurse and discover that radiotherapy patients haven’t received enough radiation.

32. Health products company
Imagine you are an executive and discover massive financial fraud.

33. Health insurance
Imagine you are a health insurance auditor and discover systemic fraud.

34. Hope for the future Whistleblowing has been named.
Whistleblower protection mechanisms raise expectations.
More information is available.
Support groups exist.