Whistleblower reveals the toll of speaking out over alleged misconduct by KPMG
The former KPMG executive, who revealed allegations that senior staff at the firm used confidential material from major companies to win business, said speaking out had devastating consequences.
In documents released by the parliamentary committee investigating the anonymous whistleblower’s allegations – many of which have been confirmed to be true – the former KPMG employee detailed strategies allegedly used against him.
“If I were asked if I would actually do this again, my answer would be no,” he wrote. “Not because it wasn’t worth raising the issue or because I regret raising the issue, but because of the things that I know now and couldn’t have known then about what is actually involved in disclosing these things at a firm like KPMG in the legal and regulatory environment that exists in Australia today.”
The whistleblower informed KPMG about allegations that senior staff accessed board documents from Lendlease in 2024 and used them to win business from Westpac, but said he faced years of concealment and retaliation from the consultancy firm.
The whistleblower’s statement was released following blockbuster hearings on Friday, in which the Lendlease chairman criticized KPMG’s “fundamental breach of trust” and former independent director Mike Baird said he had placed too much trust in the firm.
But long before that hearing, which was sparked by Labor senator Deborah O’Neill’s decision to reveal the whistleblower’s allegations in parliament in March, the whistleblower had said they had been forced out of the company and their identities revealed to a former partner.
“My answer would have been different if I had known about the inadequacy of legal protections, the structural gaps that ASIC could examine, the uncertainty of the partnership with the service company and the limits of regulatory access over such a partnership,” the whistleblower said.
“If I had known all the tools KPMG had available and was prepared to use: at least five outside law firms in four jurisdictions, the circulation of my identity and the contents of my protected disclosure within and outside the firm, retaliation, termination of my employment, and coordination with member firms in the global network, I would not have done this again.”
After the scandal emerged, some of KPMG’s senior staff resigned, including CEO Andrew Yates. At some points, the firm argued that the privacy violations were either not material or could not be proven and framed the whistleblower’s allegations as a workplace complaint. He appointed both Ashurst and Allens at different points to examine the allegations or their handling.
On Friday, Yates said he “didn’t get it right” about how the firm handled the issue but defended his motivations. “At every moment I felt like my team was acting the right way,” he said.
Martin Sheppard, chairman of KPMG Australia, told the committee he was sorry for the whistleblower’s experience.
“I deeply apologize to the whistleblower and … it is extraordinarily troubling to sit here knowing the disappointment we have caused the whistleblower, particularly with the way whistleblower protections were presented to her, and for that I apologize,” he said.
Existing legal protections for whistleblowers are primarily provided through companies under the law, but KPMG is a partnership that employs staff through the company (a different legal structure), making application of the rules complicated.
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Nick Bonyhady is the business editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is a former deputy federal editor, technology editor and industrial relations correspondent.Connect with: X or email.
