Liberal whistleblower website blunder exposes struggle to adapt to opposition – ABC Online

Updated July 16, 2017 10:03:54

The WA Liberals did something this week that's becoming increasingly core business for an opposition in modern day politics - it released a whistleblower website.

Launched without fanfare, it was a seemingly innocuous act, until the site was revealed to have significant flaws.

The original website, registered to Opposition Leader Mike Nahan, urged anyone aware of misconduct by public officers, including ministers and MPs, to submit their details via an online form, and promised it would be "100 per cent confidential."

The problem was that within minutes of the ABC revealing the new website on social media, people quickly began raising concerns about the site's security.

Those concerns spiralled overnight and by the next day the Acting Premier Roger Cook was out in front of the TV cameras warning the website was "potentially illegal."

"The Attorney-General has today sought advice from the State Solicitor's Office to get advice in relation to the legality of the website," Mr Cook said.

He labelled it a cheap political stunt and was quick to point out there were more appropriate avenues available to report misconduct, such as the Corruption and Crime Commission.

The Corruption and Crime Commissioner John McKechnie agreed.

"If you suspect corruption, come directly to us, we have the people and the tools to deal with it," he said.

The list of those lining up to criticise the website continued to grow throughout the day, with various cyber security experts happy to pass judgement.

That included the University of Western Australia's Centre for Software Practice David Glance, who said data submitted to the website was not encrypted and was therefore vulnerable.

He ran a simple security check on the site and gave it a big F for fail.

He also said he suspected the site was vulnerable to hacking attempts which would reveal submissions, and he warned potential whistleblowers to steer clear of it.

"It seems to have been put up with the minimum amount of thought put into it," he said.

The Opposition was quickly forced into defensive mode and sought advice on how to improve its site from the Public Sector Commission - an agency tasked with enhancing integrity and efficiency in the public service.

Within hours Dr Nahan was out saying the Opposition had taken steps to improve the site's confidentiality and was now encrypting the data.

It had also been updated to remove a note saying whistleblowers were afforded additional safeguards under the Public Interest Disclosure Act.

The site's declared purpose was also expanded to include a call for whistleblowers to report "broken election promises" and "any politicisation of the public sector."

Dr Nahan vigorously defended the site, saying it was about holding the Government to account.

"This Government has in its short period in government been very secretive," he said.

"It's making a whole range of decisions without providing adequate information as the basis for the decision, the outcome and the cost of those decisions and there are many of those decisions," he said.

He said the Government's reaction was "over the top."

"When someone reacts by going to the lawyers they have something to hide," he said.

The problem for Dr Nahan is that it wasn't just the Government that saw the site as a poorly orchestrated political stunt that backfired.

Some of his own colleagues were privately questioning the political judgement of his office for making it public without due diligence.

There's no doubt the WA Liberals appear to be struggling to come to terms with being in Opposition - their own MPs privately concede it.

Gone are the numerous highly paid staff, and other trappings that being in government allows.

Gone are the departmental staff at the Liberals immediate disposal to provide expertise and advice, and the resources to pay expensive marketing companies to set them up sophisticated and secure websites with all the bells and whistles.

The WA Liberals now have just 13 MPs in the Lower House and have to stare across the chamber into a sea of red.

There's no doubt the enormity of the task of holding the Government to account must be daunting.

Just six of their front benchers have any experience in opposition and most of them aren't even in the Lower House.

The Opposition's leadership team of Dr Nahan and his deputy Liza Harvey are not even part of that six and before losing the election had absolutely no experience in opposition.

While some Liberals may argue these factors contributed to the website blunder, others say there is still no excuse for a simple lack of due diligence.

Being in opposition is hard work and requires all members of the team to be pulling their weight, focused and helping to hold a government to account.

It appears this is yet to dawn on some of the WA Liberal MPs.

The WA Liberals' massively depleted ranks and little experience on the opposition benches makes the task ahead over the next four years an unenviable one.

A day after "website-gate" the Opposition Leader's office sent the ABC an email showing it had now run its own security check on the updated site and it now scored an A+.

There are plenty in the Liberal Party who are likely to believe that's the only A+ the Opposition's notched up since losing the election.

Topics: government-and-politics, liberals, wa

First posted July 16, 2017 08:23:36

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Liberal whistleblower website blunder exposes struggle to adapt to opposition - ABC Online