One of Australia’s most famous whistleblowers has finally opened up on what it’s like to be the focus of an intense media gaze. Chris Graham reports.
The whistleblower who last year revealed that Frances Abbott – daughter of the Australian Prime Minister – received a free $60,000 scholarship to a private college while her father was planning to send university fees sky-rocketing, has finally spoken out.
Almost a year after Sydney university student Freya Newman was convicted of ‘unauthorised access of information’ in the Sydney Downing Centre, Australia’s most famous leaker finally opened up in detailed and often entertaining interview.
Freya Newman – who was the subject of intense media interest last year, but maintained a stony silence throughout the ordeal – tells comedian, blogger and podcaster Tom Ballard about the impact of whistleblowing on her, and her family.
Her interview with Ballard is the first in-depth look back at what happened.
In May last year, New Matilda revealed that documents from the Whitehouse Institute of Design showed Frances Abbott was given a secret $60,000 scholarship to attend the college, despite Whitehouse widely advertising that scholarships were not available to students.
The story caused an uproar for the Abbott government, and sparked an investigation by the NSW Police after a complaint from Whitehouse.
Freya Newman worked at Whitehouse as an assistant librarian, and accessed data on a computer which undermined claims by the Prime Minister that his daughter’s scholarship was awarded on the basis of merit.
It emerged that the Chairman of the college, Les Taylor was a personal friend of the Abbott family, and that Whitehouse had also provided a scholarship for an Aboriginal student to a course that never ran.
At the time, the Abbott Government had recently unveiled plans to de-regulate Higher Education fees, leading industry experts to warn that the price of college degrees would sky-rocket.
Those reforms were quietly abandoned last month – at least for now – after Education Minister Christopher Pyne was removed from his portfolio, following the toppling of Abbott by Malcolm Turnbull.
In the end, Newman had no conviction recorded for the offence, but was required to be of ‘good behaviour’ for a period of two years. That bond expires in November 2016.
The sentence was poorly received by some conservatives, with Education Minister Christopher Pyne tweeting his outrage.
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