Law would not cover man who inspired it

New Zealand's most famous whistle-blower is Neil Pugmire, the psychiatric nurse who inspired the Protected Disclosures Act, or the whistle-blowers' law.

While working at Lake Alice Hospital's secure unit in 1993 Pugmire and his colleagues were worried about dangerous patients being released under a new mental health law.

So he wrote to then Minister of Health Bill Birch outlining the case of a patient who had been committed for trying to strangle and sexually assault two boys, and who would soon be released.

Pugmire showed the letter to his unit manager and the secure unit manager. He sent it to Birch and then the Minister of Police John Banks, and was fobbed off.

Three months later, another released patient, Lloyd McIntosh, violated a 2-year-old girl, and Opposition justice spokesman Phil Goff called for an inquiry. Pugmire sent his letter to Goff.

Pugmire said: "I felt I had a moral responsibility to follow it through to the next person in authority, to tell them that this was a serious problem.

"It's probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do."

When Goff issued the letter to the media, Good Health Wanganui suspended Pugmire for breaching patient confidentiality. He was later reinstated and took a personal grievance case against his employer, which settled out of court. He no longer works in health.

The Protected Disclosures Act came into force last year, establishing a way for whistle-blowers in public and private sectors to expose serious wrongdoing without jeopardising their jobs.

But the act is limited. It applies only when revealing "serious wrongdoing", which includes serious risks to public health, the maintenance of the law, and offences.

Employees are unlikely to blow the whistle unless they believe they are exposing serious wrongdoing.

But as Wellington lawyer Andrew Scott-Howman says: "What if you are making a disclosure believing you are blowing the whistle, and it turns out you are wrong?"

What if it wasn't an offence, and did not risk the maintenance of the law or endanger public health? The answer is, you're not covered by the act.

And it also limits how you can make the disclosure. First, you must use your organisation's internal procedures.

If it has none, or if the complaint is about the person who hears such complaints, you can go to the head of your organisation.

If your complaint is about that head, you can go to an "appropriate authority". Government ministers and MPs are specifically excluded as appropriate authorities. If you have gone through all these channels and are still dissatisfied, you can go to a government minister.

The act does not protect you if you go to the police, other than the Commissioner of Police, or to the media.

Now recall what Pugmire did. First, he showed the letter to his superiors. Then he went to two Government ministers, and finally to an MP.

He would not have been protected by the very law his actions inspired.