Whistleblowing: A Practical Guide

In 1998 and 1999, when I was writing the first edition of this book, I had been president of Whistleblowers Australia for several years, and regularly received phone calls from whistleblowers seeking advice and support. Their stories were remarkably similar, typically involving someone who spoke out about a problem at work, suffered reprisals and then tried to deal with the situation by going to some official channels such as ombudsmen but received no useful help. What I had to say in response was often along standard lines: identify your goals, analyse your situation, consider your options and take action — and don’t rely on official channels. Saying the same sort of thing over and over was becoming monotonous, so I decided to write a book spelling out what I knew in a clear and accessible fashion. At the time, there wasn’t a whole lot of practical material for whistleblowers. The best advice manual was Tom Devine’s The Whistleblower’s Survival Guide, but it was oriented to the US situation, with half the text devoted to various US procedures and agencies.