“Australia needs more whistle-blowers. Democracy needs more whistle-blowers and a think tank like the Australia Institute needs more whistle-blowers.” - Ben Oquist, Executive Director of the Australia Institute.

In this final episode we look at how blowing the whistle is just the tip of the iceberg and the role that civil society can play in promoting a culture that not only encourages but supports whistle-blowers like Maryanne Slattery, so that all their knowledge and expertise is not lost.

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CREDITS

How to Make a Whistleblower is a special three-part podcast mini-series by the Australia Institute.

Written and produced by Jennifer Macey. Additional production: Lizzie Jack. Editing by Ebony Bennett. Fact checking by Maryanne Slattery. Executive producer: Anna Chang. Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

For more information on this podcast and the Australia Institute’s research on the Murray Darling Basin, visit our website http://tai.org.au.

And if you haven’t already, do subscribe to the Australia Institute’s other podcast Follow The Money, which breaks down the important economic and political issues of the day and puts them into plain english.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"This is the worst man-made environmental disaster in Australian history" - fourth generation farmer, Rob McBride.

At the start of 2019, one million fish died in the lower Darling river, catapulting the plight of the Murray Darling Basin river system to headline news across the country. But how did it get to this?

In this episode, discover how one whistleblower, supported with a job and a team at the Australia Institute, interprets the water bureaucratese and puts it into plain English for river communities, politicians, journalists and farmers and created a body of research that uncovers exactly how Australia stuffed up a $13 billion public policy.

Subscribe now and listen on your favourite podcast app.

CREDITS

How to Make a Whistleblower is a special three-part podcast mini-series by the Australia Institute.

Written and produced: Jennifer Macey. Additional production: Lizzie Jack. Editing by Ebony Bennett and fact checking by Maryanne Slattery. Executive producer: Anna Chang. Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

For more information on this podcast and the Australia Institute’s research on the Murray Darling Basin, visit our website http://tai.org.au.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Part of the curse, I suppose, was knowing so much, knowing how rotten it is… And so, do you do something with that knowledge or do you just turn our back on it and look after yourself and raise chickens?”

In this first episode of How to Make a Whistleblower, we investigate what happens to the whistleblower after the whistle has blown.

Two years ago, Maryanne Slattery was an unassuming senior bureaucrat living just outside Canberra with her three children and many chooks. For someone who would rather shun the limelight - how did Maryanne Slattery go from director of environmental water policy at the Murray Darling Basin Authority to public whistleblower?

What happens to the person who blew the lid on fraud, corruption or mismanagement by a company or government department?

Often there’s a headline-generating public scandal. Sometimes there might be a government inquiry or an institution will be forced to make changes, but too often the whistleblower’s life is left in ruins at the end of it all.

So how was it different for Maryanne Slattery? When so many other whistleblowers face long jail sentences, career ostracism and even poverty - how did Maryanne land on her feet?

Subscribe now and listen on your favourite podcast app.

CREDITS

How to Make a Whistleblower is a special three-part podcast mini-series by the Australia Institute.

Written and produced: Jennifer Macey. Additional production: Lizzie Jack. Executive producer: Anna Chang. Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

For more information on this podcast and the Australia Institute’s research on the Murray Darling Basin, visit our website http://tai.org.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.