From July 2024 to June 2025, ASIC conducted a “first-of-its-kind” questionnaire on the whistleblower policies and practices adopted across Australian workplaces and identified a significant opportunity for companies to better support and protect those who speak up.

The corporate regulator said there were significant differences as the report benchmarked whistleblower policies and practices across 134 entities in 18 industries, and examined how these companies had adopted better practices outlined in previous ASIC publications.

According to ASIC, the questionnaire found significant variation in the maturity of whistleblower practices.

The review found that over one-third of participating entities did not provide a dedicated whistleblower web page for raising concerns, a quarter failed to provide regular staff training on their whistleblower program, and more than half had not sought employee feedback on their whistleblower program in the past year.

Alan Kirkland, ASIC commissioner, said: “Whistleblowers play a crucial role in identifying and exposing misconduct that can harm customers, shareholders, companies and the broader community”.

Kirkland added that ASIC had observed that larger companies and companies within the mining sector were most likely to have mature whistleblower practices and higher disclosure rates.

Additionally, some smaller companies had also demonstrated better practices, which suggested firm size did not impede strong whistleblower programs.

ASIC...

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