Alwyn Johnson made a decision more than 30 years ago that saved the state millions of dollars, but cost him his job.
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And today, he says that he still waits for justice owed to him.
It is not uncommon in Tasmania for whistleblowers to endure the mistreatment he has.
Many that speak out about mismanagement and perceived corruption often find themselves unemployable or psychologically damaged by the process.
Mr Johnson's actions were described by former Prime Minister John Howard during the 1990s as having saved Tasmania from economic disaster and as having saved the jobs of 700 of his colleagues.
It was said Mr Johnson was having his $93,000 home loan written off for alerting the government to the financial troubles of Tasmania Bank in 1990.
That decision, made by the bank's board, was also said to have been overruled by the government at the time.
So Mr Johnson was not only unemployed for three years after taking a personal risk on behalf of the state and his colleagues, but he never received a cent for it.
Mr Johnson was employed as a senior bank officer by the Tasmania Bank, set up by the Gray Liberal government in 1987.
The bank included a wholesale banking department, mainly made up of interstate loans.
Between 1990 and 1991, the bank's net assets plunged due to the bank's exposure to these loans.
Fearing a collapse that could cost the bank and the government millions, as it was guarantor of the bank, Mr Johnson wrote two anonymous letters to then-Premier Michael Field to explain the situation.
The first was a nine-page letter sent in June 1990 followed by a second two-page letter in August.
It was either me do something or the bank would go bankrupt.
- Alwyn Johnson
Mr Johnson said the letters followed a forensic look at the bank that took him several months from his kitchen table.
"It came to my realisation that nobody knew how bad the loans they were writing were," he said. "It was either me do something or the bank would go bankrupt.
"The second letter did say that they should close down this problem area in the bank, which was called Wholesale Banking, and put it on a care and maintenance basis immediately.
"If I'd done nothing, the bank would have continued to lend hundreds of millions more dollars to these shonky mainland entrepreneurs and would have been beyond salvage."
A month after the first letter was sent, Mr Field appointed auditors Deloitte Ross Tohmatsu to investigate the bank's entire loan portfolio.
Mr Johnson provided assistance to the auditors in secret - a move only known to the bank's board.
"The external auditor signed off on the 1989 accounts and embedded in those accounts were serious loan problems that had the ability to destroy the bank," Mr Johnson said.
Five months after Mr Johnson's first anonymous letter to Mr Field, the premier announced changes to the bank's board including the appointment of Treasury head Mike Vertigan to ensure "proper oversight".
He told Parliament back then legislation governing the bank did not allow the government to be directly involved in its day-to-day management.
The following year in March, Mr Johnson revealed to bank general manager Paul Kemp that he had blown the whistle on the bank's loan portfolio.
"I was persona non grata from the 21st of March when I wrote that letter to the 3rd of July, which is roughly, what, 90 days or whatever, till the day I was summarily dismissed," he said.
The dismissal was justified by a fax he had sent to former Reserve Bank of Australia governor Bernie Fraser to report the bank was in serious trouble.
What followed was some years of unemployment for Mr Johnson. "I did find employment, but then never to the status in the banking system I had when I was in Tasmania Bank," he said.
What followed after his dismissal still remains murky to this day.
Mr Johnson claimed the bank's board had come to an arrangement to write off his $93,000 home loan as compensation for his job loss.
It is suggested that Mr Field heard about the arrangement and instructed the bank not to proceed with it.
A briefing note written by Mr Vertigan in 1992 for premier Ray Groom, released under Right to Information, mentioned details of his retrenchment and the arrangement over his home loan.
It said the bank's chairman and its managing director had given undertaking that his redundancy was unrelated to his actions in relation to Tasmania Bank's financial problems.
"It should be noted, however, that the duties that Mr Johnson previously carried out continued to exist and were assigned to another bank officer," the minute read.
Mr Vertigan wrote about a meeting with the Financial Services Union with Mr Field on Mr Johnson's behalf in late 1991.
"The meeting results in the bank agreeing to participate in an arrangement to write off Mr Johnson's mortgage as compensation," the minute read.
"Dr Bob Brown questioned Premier Field in Parliament about Mr Johnson's situation following which the government withdrew from the arrangement on the grounds that it did not wish to be seen as responding to pressure from the Greens."
Mr Vertigan wrote that the government had knowledge of the bank's financial situation prior to Mr Johnson writing the first anonymous letter.
"It should be noted that while Mr Johnson's action in raising a number of concerns held in relation to the overall management of the former Tasmania Bank certainly provided extra impetus for government action, there had already been preliminary discussions between the former Tasmania Bank and the government," the minute read.
Mr Field this week said he could not recall whether there had been an arrangement to write off Mr Johnson's loan or whether he acted to reverse that decision.
"I couldn't comment on a specific complaint 30 years ago by a particular person and nor would I be expected to," he said.
"This issue has been looked at by probably every government since ... and my general feeling is that the right thing was done.
"We had to act really quickly to make sure a major financial institution didn't cause fiscal havoc.
"We did the right thing and the Tasmanian community was well served by the policy decisions at the time."
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
