It Doesn’t Pay To Be A Whistleblower In Australia, Especially If Subject Of Expose Is PM’s Daughter

While whistleblowers in many countries are hailed for their bravery despite the threat to their life in exposing wrongdoings, especially when done by government officials, it is not the case in Australia.

One was even sued for violation of the law which carries a maximum penalty of two years prison term. It is no coincidence though that the object of 21-year-old Freya Rachael Sommerville Newman's expose was France Abbott, the daughter of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

As a part-time librarian at the Whitehouse Institute of Design, Newman was able to gain access to information that the institute awarded Frances a $60,000 scholarship in 2011. The scholarship became controversial because the politician's daughter was handpicked to be its awardee and the school maintaining that no such scholarships exist, until it was exposed by Newman.

Other students also questioned the choice of the younger Abbott when her family was financially capable of paying for her education and claimed that there are other students with better academic standing who deserve the scholarship.

Mr Abbott, who was Opposition leader when the scholarship was given to his daughter, also did not declare the award in his parliamentary filings.

Newman, who told the Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday that she believed she was acting in public interest and not breaking the law when she exposed the "anomalous" scholarship grant, pleaded in September guilty to accessing restricted data.

Tony Payne, Newman's lawyer, asked Magistrate Teresa O'Sullivan not to record a conviction on the whistleblower since she had already received "punishment" for her action, and instead place her on a bond.

"A sense of injustice motivated Ms Newman, not greed or a desire for notoriety or to embarrass Ms Abbott," Payne argued, quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald.

Newman heard some senior Whitehouse staff discuss the Managing Scholarship awarded to the younger Abbott, which piqued her interest and led her to use the user name and password of another employee at the institute to access its student record system. The owner of the account wasn't aware of what Newman did.

She then took screen shots of her discovery and shared it with two other employees of the institute. Newman also shared the information with Chris Graham, editor and publisher of the New Matilda Web site, which came out with the expose on the scholarship the next day after Graham met with Newman.

Newman immediately resigned from Whitehall, but also apologised to Frances. Since Whitehall is a private institution, Newman could not be given protection under the country's whistleblower law.

Whitehall claimed no special treatment was given to Frances, while the PM had insisted in the past that his daughter deserved the scholarship based on her art portfolio.

Newman's supporters showed up at the court to demand protection for the whistleblower. In Twitter, a number of comments expressed disgust at the fate waiting for Newman whose education and employment prospects could be affected because of the expose. Ahead of her scheduled sentencing on Nov 25, Sydney students converged at Whitehouse to join the growing clamour against the secret scholarship.

YouTube/Newsin2Day

George Newhouse tweeted: "All the hoo from this government on the importance of free speech and this is what they do to whistleblowers."

Matt Siegel found it ironic that in Australia it "isn't illegal to give the PM's daughter a secret $60,000 gift, but is illegal to tell the public."

Charlie Somerville considered it sick that Newman was charged for the expose, while Ironshirt Tom Osborn sarcastically commented: "Maybe Frances Abbott will get a secret PhD scholarship next - supervised by Professor Barry Spurr - on the poetics of white crass fashion."

Schadenfreude George summed up the sentiments of many Aussies when he wrote this witty line: "#FreyaNewman may have accessed an email she shouldn't have, but Frances Abbott got access to a scholarship she never deserved."

In a Sydney Morning Herald commentary on the scholarship, Andrew Street, dripping with sarcasm, wrote: "It's a scholarship Frances Abbott absolutely, definitely deserved, despite the fact the institute makes a point of saying it offers no scholarships, there was no application process. It was entirely done in secret, there's no indication whatsoever it was on the basis of her talent or ability, and the only other person to have been awarded the super-secret 'Chairman's Scholarship' was Billie Whitehouse, daughter of the institute's founder, Leanne Whitehouse."

Street added the scholarship should be renamed Surname Secret Scholarship and told Freya such a fate would have not befallen upon her had she been surnamed Hockey.