University also demands names of journalists who spoke to Gerd Schröder-Turk, after comments on Four Corners

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

Murdoch University is suing an academic whistleblower and demanding the names of journalists he spoke to and the dates of their interactions, court records show.

One of Australia’s leading integrity experts, AJ Brown, says the university’s actions highlight the “huge imbalance” in power between whistleblowers and large employers and shows protections for those who speak out “remain something of a mess”.

Court records show the university is suing associate professor Gerd Schröder-Turk, one of several academics who blew the whistle on the treatment of international students to the ABC’s flagship current affairs program, Four Corners, earlier this year.

The Four Corners program, which aired in May, alleged universities were admitting international students who did not meet their own standards for English.

‘Chilling effect on whistleblowers’: NSW accused of not acting on pledged protections Read more

Schröder-Turk spoke out about his concerns for the welfare of international students and the “integrity of the academic teaching at Murdoch”.

“Admitting students who don’t have the right qualifications, or right prerequisites, or correct language capabilities is setting them up for failure,” he told Four Corners.

The ABC has reported that two days after the program aired, Schröder-Turk was told he would be removed from his position on the university senate due to his public comments.

Schröder-Turk later launched action under Western Australia’s whistleblower protection laws, alleging Murdoch University engaged “in detrimental action against the applicant after he made an appropriate disclosure of public interest information”.

Late last month, Murdoch university filed a cross-claim against Schröder-Turk, suing him for damages over his public commentary during the ABC program. The university said he cost the university revenue after a drop in international student enrolments, according to the ABC.

Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

The university has also continued to “press for particulars of the identity of the journalists to whom the statements … were made, and the dates on which those statements were made”, according to a procedural judgment in August.

It is the latest in a long line of attacks on whistleblowers in Australia. Richard Boyle, the tax office whistleblower, is being prosecuted and faces significant jail time for revealing the Australian government’s aggressive debt collection tactics.

Former spy Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery are also being prosecuted for helping expose an illegal bugging operation targeting Australia’s ally, Timor-Leste, during oil and gas negotiations.

David McBride is facing criminal prosecution for leaking confidential defence documents, which later formed the basis for the ABC’s Afghan Files investigative series.

Schröder-Turk is relying on protections contained in WA’s Public Interest Disclosure Act to allege he suffered detrimental action after speaking to the ABC.

The scheme, like many others, tends to force whistleblowers to resort to costly, protracted legal actions to protect themselves from retribution.

Experts say such cases defeat the very purpose of whistleblower protections, because they are expensive, lengthy, and can cause more damage to the whistleblower.

Griffith University professor AJ Brown, an academic focused on integrity and whistleblower protections, said the Murdoch case highlighted the need for reform and showed the “huge imbalance in legal resources between any whistleblower and any large employer”.

He said that imbalance can make whistleblower protections “unachievable in practice”, even if they exist on paper. It also highlighted the need for reform to ensure whistleblower protections protected those who made public-interest disclosures, instead of prompting “legal battles or counter-battles over whether the law even applies, which defeat the purpose of having the law in the first place”.

“Western Australia’s Public Interest Disclosure Act is one of many laws across Australia which are still overdue for reform to better address these issues,” Brown told Guardian Australia.

“The federal laws which allowed and led to the AFP media raids suffer similar problems – all highlighting that even when there is high-level agreement, or symbolic intentions confirming that protection of public interest whistleblowing is important, our laws and institutions remain something of a mess when it comes to honouring those protections in practice.”

The case continues in the federal court, before Justice Darren Jackson.