The Opposition has slammed the McGowan Labor Government’s ongoing behaviour of throwing
whistleblowers under the bus.
Opposition Leader and Leader of The Nationals WA Shane Love moved to suspend Parliament today to condemn the Government for their history of targeting whistleblowers, and their obvious unwillingness to be transparent or accountable for their actions.
Mr Love said the matter was moved urgently to bring attention to the McGowan Labor Government’s pattern of using whistleblowers as scapegoats for their failures in a range of portfolios.
“The latest person to be thrown under the bus was a former Perth Mint staffer who was identifiable by
scapegoat Minister Bill Johnston who used parliamentary privilege as cover as he deflected away from taking responsibility for the problems plaguing Perth Mint,” Mr Love said.
“This is not the first instance of whistleblowers being targeted by the McGowan Labor Government, given last year a Department of Communities staffer’s home was raided after accusations of leaked reports.
“This damning pattern of throwing whistleblowers under the bus is quickly becoming the legacy of the McGowan Labor Government, whose Ministers clearly don’t want to take responsibility for the problems of their own making.”
“Gold standard transparency is nothing more than a gimmick when it comes to this government,”
Leader of the WA Liberals Libby Mettam said Labor Governments had a long history of throwing public servants to the wolves under the protection of parliamentary privilege.
“We’ve seen it before, this is straight out of Labor’s playbook of grubby moves,” she said.
“This is a ploy they use to deflect attention from themselves when they going gets tough. They did it to
an education worker who raised the alarm about truancy levels and many will remember the truly tragic case of Penny Easton.
“The Minister for Mines and Petroleum should be ashamed of these actions, there is no place in this
Parliament for weaponising privilege against individuals who cannot defend themselves.”
