Under parliamentary privilege in the ACT Legislative Assembly, Independent Member for Kurrajong Thomas Emerson MLA has tabled documents detailing explosive allegations of maladministration at the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT).

During the debate, Mr Emerson said the documents include a Public Interest Disclosure (PID) from a CIT employee alleging that CIT’s Electric Vehicle Centre of Excellence has been training unqualified students on private hire cars — including mechanical training, high voltage battery work, and depowering and repowering — and returning them without telling the hire car companies. 

In the Chamber, Mr Emerson said the whistleblower’s PID raised concerns about the “significant risk of injury or death to staff, students and the general public,” and in an accompanying statement tabled by Mr Emerson, the whistleblower said that “electric vehicles that have been worked on by unqualified students are being unknowingly hired and driven by members of the public.”

Mr Emerson also tabled a PID from Mr Brendan Moyle, the former head of the ACT Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs. In his remarks in the Chamber, Mr Emerson said the PID alleges multiple breaches of legislation in relation to the ACT Government’s treatment of Mr Moyle and of the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs; systemic racism and discrimination in the ACTPS; and the ACT Government’s failure to deliver on its commitments to First Nations people.

Mr Emerson said that despite Mr Moyle’s public interest disclosure having been made in August 2025, the matter was not referred for investigation until March 2026 when his allegations were publicly reported following an FOI request lodged by Mr Emerson.

“These deeply troubling disclosures show exactly why a stronger whistleblowing framework is needed in the ACT,” Mr Emerson said.

During the debate, Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Opposition Leader Mark Parton blocked Mr Emerson’s repeated attempts to have the two PIDs and accompanying statements from the whistleblowers published by the Assembly. The Opposition Leader ultimately successfully moved to adjourn the matter to return to the Assembly for further deliberation tomorrow, Thursday 28 May 2026.

“It’s disappointing that these documents were not made public by the Legislative Assembly, despite the fact that the whistleblowers asked for their disclosures to be published,” Mr Emerson said. 

“These are incredibly concerning allegations that should have been actioned urgently when they were raised internally.

“When public sector whistleblowers feel the only option left is to bring their allegations to a member of parliament, that’s a clear sign that our whistleblowing framework is failing.

“I’m urging all Members to support the publication of these documents when this returns for debate tomorrow, as a matter of significant public interest and out of respect for the wishes of the whistleblowers involved.”

MEDIA CONTACT: Will Devine | 0402 183 296 | [email protected]

BACKGROUND

Today, Mr Emerson tabled two PIDs and accompanying statements during the debate on his Assembly motion calling for strengthened whistleblower protections, including the establishment of a dedicated whistleblower support function providing legal, wellbeing and casework support for ACT public sector workers. You can find Mr Emerson’s motion here.

See Mr Emerson’s speech on the motion — available here — for further context and comments. 

After his move to publish the documents was blocked, Mr Emerson read out part of the CIT whistleblower’s PID and their full statement in his closing remarks here.

The establishment of the CIT EV Training Centre of Excellence, announced in May 2024, was supported by a substantial $27.3 million investment from both the Federal and ACT Governments. This includes:

• $9.66 million from the Federal Government
• $9.66 million from the ACT Government
• an additional $4.8 million from the Federal Government to accelerate the development of the Centre of Excellence, due to the urgent need to increase use of EVs
• $3.2 million from the Federal Government's TAFE Technology Fund to upgrade automotive facilities for EV training at CIT Fyshwick.