The federal government is being urged to establish a new statutory authority to oversee and enforce whistleblower protections in Australia.
An inquiry led by the Senate legal and constitutional affairs legislation committee is considering the proposal to support any person working in the public or private sector seeking to make a public interest disclosure.
Experts from the Human Rights Law Centre, Transparency International Australia, and Griffith University joined to give evidence to the Senate committee on Wednesday in support of the move.
Griffith University’s Professor AJ Brown, who is chair of Transparency International Australia, said a dedicated whistleblower protection authority was the missing piece to the national integrity framework.
A competent body, given independent powers to facilitate whistleblower disclosures and safeguard whistleblowers, would mean Australia was actually protecting those who exposed corruption, he said.
“It took more than 20 years for governments to accept that Australia needed a national anti-corruption agency.
“But no integrity system can work without a competent body to ensure whistleblower protections work in practice, not just on paper.
“The time is right to ensure justice for our most valuable but vulnerable workers and professionals, through concrete measures to help those who speak up under any of our federal whistleblowing laws.”
A crossbench of MPs and senators has prepared a Whistleblower Protection Authority Bill, which ...
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