The ordeal is over: let's give Richard Boyle some time out.

Richard Boyle's nightmare is finally over. More than eight years after he first expressed concerns about the now discredited Garnishee Directive from ATO leadership that mandated the widespread and indiscriminate use of oppressive garnishee notices, his persecution at the hands of the Government came to an end today in the South Australian District Court when he was spared jail time and a conviction.

It should never have come to this.

Richard’s whistle-blowing was vindicated by the Tax Ombudsman, the Small Business Ombudsman and a Senate inquiry. Even the prosecutors of his criminal case accept that Richard is a legitimate whistle-blower, raising the alarm about a robodebt-style culture of revenue-raising and arbitrary income targets at the ATO, that saw the garnishee notices pursued regardless of the often horrific impact on the targeted taxpayers.

So why was he pursued in this vindictive and entirely unnecessary way?

These last 8 years have been a time of constant psychological, physical and emotional and financial stress for Richard and his wife Louise. Now the nightmare is finally over, let's all kick in a little more cash to give them some time relax, regroup and - hopefully - recover at the end of this terrible ordeal.