NSW Premier Nathan Rees must right the wrong done to whistleblower Gillian Sneddon or battle the consequences to the next election, said one of her champions during the recent government whistleblower inquiry.
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"Who's responsible for the treatment of Gillian Sneddon? Nathan Rees. At the end of the day, he is the Premier, and the buck stops with him," said Nationals MP Trevor Khan.
Ms Sneddon was sacked as electorate secretary for Swansea MP Milton Orkopoulos after helping police convict him on child sex and drugs charges.
A NSW Ombudsman's investigation recently found protected disclosure legislation failed her, because she did not report her concerns directly to the clerk of the Legislative Assembly Russell Grove. She lost her job when Swansea MP Robert Coombs declined to keep her in his office.
"As soon as she showed disloyalty to the party cause by speaking about Orkopoulos, she was dead meat," Mr Khan said.
The whistleblower report, headed by Maitland MP Frank Terenzini and handed down on Wednesday, found the system was "inadequate, unnecessarily complex and posed too many obstacles to the protection of employees".
Mr Terenzini refused to discuss Ms Sneddon's treatment, and refused to say who should take responsibility for the fact that she fell through the system failings his inquiry identified.
