What will it take to give whistleblowers the kind of protection they deserve? When will women like Roxanne Mysko be saved from “a pile-on by rich white men?” Andrew Gardiner reports.
Australia’s weak whistleblower protection laws claimed another victim this morning, when Adelaide grandmother and former truck safety compliance officer Roxanne Mysko turned herself in to police in Adelaide’s north. That followed an arrest warrant yesterday issued by the South Australian Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, fatalities in crashes involving heavy trucks are up by an average of 6.1 per cent per year over the three years to March 2023, but if Roxanne’s experience is any guide, the unwritten rule appears to be: “don’t talk about it, or else.”
Roxanne, whose whistleblowing over corner-cutting on safety and driver fatigue and the draconian response from her former employer was the subject of an MWM report in June, failed to appear in the Adelaide Supreme Court on Wednesday. Supporters say this is because she “fears for her life” in prison following alleged threats and harassment of her and her family.
She describes the four years since whistleblowing on Port Adelaide-based Express Cargo Services (ECS) – a company linked with gas giant Santos – as a “living hell” in which she was sacked, sued and on the receiving end of a police raid.
“Roxanne is terrified, believing people can get at you in prison, but handed herself in at Elizabeth Police Station after she learned the court had issued an arrest warrant,” a supporter, Julie-Ann Finney, told MWM. “When will women like her be saved from a pile-on by rich white men?”
Keep your trap shut
Roxanne’s legal peril comes after she raised her safety concerns to a partner trucking company of ECS which was “not an eligible recipient” under whistleblower protection laws. After the ensuing ECS civil action, Roxanne complained to that same company – in breach (contempt) of court orders – for, among other things, ‘outing’ her as the informant.
Her indiscretions seem negligible next to the serious alleged safety breaches at ECS – breaches MWM independently learned of – which Roxanne brought to the attention of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR). These include:
- Fatigue among company drivers and subcontractors, who are alleged to have worked up to 26 days straight (the relevant law states drivers must have a 24-hour break every seventh day);
- No safety audits of 70 subcontractors from 2007 to 2020, many in violation of Chain of Responsibility (COR) requirements which began in 2014;
- No license checks on 70 subcontractors;
- No vehicle maintenance audits over an extended period;
- Speeding by trucks supposedly limited to 90 km/h, and …
- No documentation for all COR safety procedures for any truck or freight movement anywhere in Australia.
Such alleged breaches of safety law can be life-threatening to truckies, 188 of whom died – in heavy truck crashes alone – over the 12 months to March last year. If proven, they can incur seven-figure fines, but as things stand, it’s Roxanne who faces $350,000 in ECS legal fees awarded against her, not to mention a possible prison sentence.
MWM dragged into Supreme Court action
MWM found itself in the middle of Wednesday’s Supreme Court of South Australia to-and-fro when ECS lawyers argued this publisher might also be in breach of court orders after airing the allegations against ECS in its June article. In response, this reporter repeated our June assertion, contained in the same article, that it had independently learned of and researched the alleged safety breaches at ECS, and had breached no such order.
In a June email to MWM, David Elix of 1878 lawyers cited court transcripts warning “any other person who knows of this order and does anything that helps (Ms Mysko) to disobey it” may also be imprisoned. Following the article’s publication, Elix sought a retraction, threatening an action for injurious falsehood if MWM did not publish it “within 48 hours.”
MWM did not publish a retraction, offering instead the opportunity for ECS and its lawyers to respond to questions and have their say. We are not suggesting ECS or its partner company have acted unethically or in violation of workplace or transport safety laws, and to reiterate, we established the alleged facts around ECS’ safety record and subsequent conduct independently of Ms Mysko. Further, ECS has not responded to questions either prior to or after publication.
The case of Roxanne Mysko brings into sharp focus the limitations of whistleblower legislation. Not a woman of means, Roxanne needed but couldn’t afford expensive legal advice that would have forestalled her approaching a “non-eligible recipient” of whistleblower information, thereby avoiding the seemingly punitive blowback that followed.
Whistleblowing can cost much more than a lawyer’s bill if you get it wrong. “I don’t laugh anymore, have withdrawn from what was a very social, busy life (and) am now a recluse,” said Roxanne on the emotional toll the last four years have wrought.
Roxanne is in the early stages of a High Court appeal, but is in no position to privately fund such action. She is on the lookout for pro bono representation.
Trucking deaths on the rise but safety whistleblower ignored then prosecuted
An Adelaide-based graduate in Media Studies, with a Masters in Social Policy, I was an editor who covered current affairs, local government and sports for various publications before deciding on a change-of-vocation in 2002.