Following pressure from regulatory authorities to explain how
and why the company duped the authorities on environmental tests,
Volkswagen has called on its employees to volunteer information,
offering an amnesty to junior employees who promptly respond.
This offer reflects the reality that often evidence, as opposed
to suspicion, relies on a whistleblower.
In the Australian scene, it is difficult to consider the issue
of "whistleblowers" without examining the case of Kathy
Jackson.
Jackson received political acclaim, and campaigned as a
whistleblower, on the back of her allegations of corruption by
then General Secretary of HSU East, Michael Williamson. Her
action in assembling material and going to the police led to the
subsequent prosecution and jailing of Williamson, and indeed to the
later enquiries into the activities of Jackson herself.
