The committee undertaking the inquiry into KPMG's audit misconduct has called for the establishment of a whistleblower protection authority, alongside other recommendations.
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, chaired by Senator Deborah O’Neill, has called upon Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to enact an “urgent enhancement of whistleblower protections in Australia”.
The committee has called upon the government to apply recommendations from its 2017 Whistleblower Protections report, as well as recommendations in its 2024 Ethics and Professional Accountability: Structural Challenges in the Audit, Assurance and Consultancy Industry report.
Since its release, the committee noted that the government has agreed to 16 of the 35 recommendations in its 2017 report, noted 11, and did not agree to eight.
The committee added that the recent allegations made by a KPMG whistleblower “continue to expose significant systemic and structural flaws”, which were revealed in the 2024 and 2017 inquiries into whistleblower protections.
“The issues that have come to light during the committee’s inquiry into these matters are not new—they are long-standing, well-known, and have been well-ventilated over many years—and vividly demonstrate that Australia’s whistleblower regimes need urgent repair.”
“The committee considers that there is an overwhelming case for the government to act with haste, and as soon as practicable, to address the deficiencies in...
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