A stand-alone act for corporate whistleblowers is needed as regulator-specific provisions across many pieces of legislation does not provide the best protection for those exposing misconduct, the Governance Institute of Australia believes.
The institute said a stand-alone act that covered disclosure of any sort of misconduct and that provided protection regardless of which regulator the whistle blower disclosed to is what was needed.
Citing a whistleblowing report by Griffith University, the institute said the Corporations Act currently required employees who received information about corporate misconduct from a whistleblower to pass it on to regulators.
The institute’s chief executive, Steven Burrell, said: “They cannot discuss how to stop the misconduct with their colleagues or take internal action to remedy or prevent it unless the whistleblower provides consent, which means the misconduct can continue and does little to foster sound corporate governance”.
“If we want whistleblowers to come forward we’ve got to streamline the process.”
He said the current act required whistleblowers to have a detailed understanding of whether the misconduct they were reporting was covered by corporate law or could relate to competition, tax, workplace health and safety, bribery or corruption or industrial relations, all of which were covered by different legislation and regulators.
“We do not believe that a whistleblower should be required to have a nuanced knowledge of legislation to know which regulator or law enforcement agency they approach to qualify for protection. It is a strong disincentive to making disclosures if employees or concerned members of the public feel that they require legal advice before making any such disclosure,” he said.
Burrell suggested Australia follow the lead of the US and the UK where there were general provisions for allegations of misconduct made in good faith, and which did not attract retribution.
“…a robust and independent whistleblowing process that makes employees feel comfortable about fearlessly reporting wrongdoing is a critical asset in building the kind of positive, ethical culture that supports strong corporate outcomes,” he said.
