How to be a climate whistleblower
OPINION | Democratic Freedoms
There is one crucial resource this country hasn’t yet fully appreciated and nurtured in pursuit of a safer climate: the whistleblower.
By Regina Featherstone and Madeleine Howle
Human Rights Law Centre
Australia is staring down the barrel of a climate crisis. This country has suffered numerous environmental and extreme weather-related catastrophes. Our biodiversity is in decline. The world just experienced its first full year of warming at 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, with no sign of global temperature increases abating. And yet, the climate wars are back – with the added distraction of nuclear energy.
Despite all evidence pointing to the need for a phase-out, the fossil fuel industry’s influence over Australian politics grows. With fossil fuel projects continuing at a rapid pace against all warnings and extreme weather events causing severe destruction to communities, it is easy to feel pessimistic. It seems we are almost out of ideas on how to prevent a climate disaster.
Yet there is one crucial resource this country hasn’t yet fully appreciated and nurtured in pursuit of a safer climate: the whistleblower.
1. Consider what outcome you are hoping for by blowing the whistle.
In the Pitjantjatjara communities of Anangu Country north of the Nullarbor Plain, cancer rates are higher than elsewhere in Australia. This is the legacy of nuclear testing by the British government between 1956 and 1963 – it staged seven atomic explosions and hundreds of other nuclear trials, contaminating the land.
At the time of the testing, communities surrounding the test sites were scarcely warned of the impacts of nuclear fallout – known as “puyu” or “black mist”. Many were forced off their land.
Following a royal commission, the Hawke government agreed to a clean-up of the sites, but in the 1990s under the Howard government, the clean-up process was privatised.
Thanks to nuclear engineer and whistleblower Alan Parkinson, we know the clean-up, in his words, was more of a “cover-up”, with cost-cutting measures putting Pitjantjatjara communities at further risk.
The amount of plutonium found at the site was far greater than expected, and the radioactive waste was simply exhumed and buried in shallow trenches. The government had labelled the clean-up “world’s best practice”, despite clear scientific evidence of the risks associated with shallow disposal of plutonium debris. Parkinson, as the engineering adviser of the project and member of the government’s advisory committee, spoke out about his concerns that the response was hiding the extent of the harm and nuclear fallout caused by the testing. He was subsequently removed from the advisory committee.
Without Parkinson, we would still be in the dark about the negligence and misconduct surrounding the handling of that nuclear waste, which put whole communities at risk.
2. Consider remaining anonymous.
The importance of whistleblowing in exposing environmental destruction was highlighted again just last year when an employee at Santos revealed the fossil fuel company had covered up an oil spill that affected marine life just off Varanus Island, Western Australia. According to their written statement, the whistleblower felt compelled to speak up after Santos failed to take steps to address the incident and then told a newspaper that “no harm” had come from it.
After efforts to raise concerns internally went nowhere, the whistleblower spoke to Senator David Pocock, who tabled the testimony with images and video of the oil spill – including graphic images of dead dolphins – in a Senate estimates hearing last February. The revelations prompted international media coverage and saw Santos commission an independent investigation into the spill. Executive bonuses linked to environmental KPIs were suspended by the Santos board, and ultimately docked “to ensure executive accountability” for “identified gaps in our internal control and communication processes”, according to the company’s latest annual report. One anonymous worker was able to turn the nation’s attention to the failures of fossil fuel giants to prevent and respond to significant environmental harms.
“In order to hold those responsible for climate and environmental harm accountable, and to drive urgent action, we need more Australians to call out the wrongdoing they see at work that is hurting our ecosystems and our climate ... We need transparency for the planet.”
3. Assemble a support network to help you.
Globally, there has been a rush of climate and environmental whistleblowing – exposing environmental damage from Russia to Ecuador. This trend has been slower to emerge in Australia, likely due to our broken whistleblowing laws, lack of support and the chilling effect of recent prosecutions of whistleblowers. In Europe, the organisation Climate Whistleblowers has launched as a dedicated service to help people speak up about climate harm and inaction. Similarly, in Britain and the United States, our whistleblower protection contemporaries champion the role of the whistleblower in helping to save the planet.
Since launching last year, the Human Rights Law Centre’s Whistleblower Project has helped many whistleblowers raise climate and environmental concerns safely and lawfully to their organisations, to regulators, to journalists and to politicians. With our support, ordinary people have called out greenwashing, developments causing environmental harm in breach of planning laws, grave biodiversity hazards and more. This has helped regulators with investigations, assisted parliamentary inquiries and led to front-page news stories.
4. Follow your organisation’s policies or procedures.
Climate and environmental whistleblowers aren’t dedicated crusaders searching for illegal oil spills or waste dumping. They are the auditors, the accountants and analysts working for companies, who can expertly identify fraud and misreporting.
For a long time, the whistleblower was associated with pharmaceutical workers or bank employees who had called out fraud or misconduct in their corporations – not figures with whom the public at large would necessarily identify. But with the very real and existential threats to our Pacific Island neighbours’ survival, including the Torres Strait Islands, and the increase in devastating nature-related weather events such as the 2019–20 bushfires, we need transparency in all sectors of the community, now more than ever.
We need climate and environmental whistleblowers in Australia to hold both the public and private sectors to account. There are now more regulatory frameworks and strategies being implemented that whistleblowers can use to hold business and government to account.
The Treasury Laws Amendment (Financial Market Infrastructure and Other Measures) bill is before the Senate. If passed, it will introduce new climate-related financial reporting requirements for listed and unlisted companies. It puts an obligation on these companies to prepare a statement with governance strategies to mitigate climate-related risks, and to disclose climate-related risks and emissions metrics, starting from 2025. This could help employees become climate and environmental whistleblowers who call out fraud and cover-ups.
With a tranche of reforms on environmental activity and climate risk mitigation on the way, we also need public servants to hold government to account if these frameworks are not effective. In June, three bills were introduced that, if passed, will create the federal body Environment Protection Australia and a new information and data body called Environment Information Australia. The Climate Change Authority is looking into the use of carbon sequestration as a way of meeting this country’s emissions reduction targets. A Senate inquiry is set to propose reforms for the regulation of greenwashing.
Unless public servants and consultants – whose responsibility is to serve the public interest – speak up about environmental and climate wrongdoing, the Australian public will often be left in the dark about whether we are indeed meeting targets, protecting our biodiversity and reducing emissions.
5. Get legal advice.
At the Human Rights Law Centre’s Whistleblower Project, an Australian-first specialist legal service, we believe climate and environmental whistleblowers can be key figures in the pursuit of climate justice. These people are in a unique position – they have access to information about malpractice which, in aggregate, may be contributing to the destruction of our planet. Their decisions to speak up, whether to regulators, journalists or members of parliament, shine a light on how these companies harm our environment and communities.
This week, we are publishing a guide for climate and environmental whistleblowing – a dedicated, accessible resource providing support and information on speaking up on climate and environmental harm in the public or private sector. Our laws are complex. We know all too well that blowing the whistle is a stressful and emotional process. We have created this guide to empower potential whistleblowers with knowledge and resources to call out wrongdoing to help contribute to transparency for the planet.
In order to hold those responsible for climate and environmental harm accountable, and to drive urgent action, we need more Australians to call out the wrongdoing they see at work that is hurting our ecosystems and our climate, and for those people to be protected when speaking up. We need transparency for the planet.
Australian workers are the eyes and the ears of industry and government. They can also be the voice for a safer climate and better future.
Regina Featherstone and Madeleine Howle are in the Whistleblower Project team at the Human Rights Law Centre. You can learn more about the team's work here.