The Supreme Court of Western Australia granted summary judgment for the employer on contractual claims for breach of confidentiality, return of property, and cooperation obligations under an employment contract, where the former employee had forwarded internal documents to personal email accounts and published commercially sensitive information on LinkedIn. The Court held that broad public disclosures on LinkedIn do not qualify for whistleblower protection under either the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2003 (WA) or Part 9.4AAA of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), as such disclosures are not made to a 'proper authority' or 'journalist' as defined. The Court also rejected defences based on employee record provisions under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) and moral rights under the employment contract, and dismissed a recusal application founded on the judge's Indigenous heritage as lacking any rational connection to the issues in dispute.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 1 later case that cites this judgment.