Making Australian Whistleblowing Laws Work: Draft Design Principles for a Whistleblower Protection Authority (Report)
Written by Transparency International Australia, the Human Rights Law Centre and Griffith University’s Centre for Governance and Public Policy.
Publish date: 12 February 2024
Making Australian Whistleblowing Laws Work: Draft Design Principles for a Whistleblower Protection Authority was developed drawing on international equivalents and following consultation with a wide range of experts, including former senior public servants, whistleblowing hotline providers, lawyers, companies and Transparency International Australia’s national whistleblowing advisory group.
The Draft Design Principles have been provided to Government by Transparency International Australia as part of the Attorney-General’s Department current consideration of the next stage of reform to the federal public sector whistleblowing regime.
A Whistleblower Protection Authority was first proposed by a Senate inquiry in 1994, and later endorsed by a bipartisan joint parliamentary committee in 2017. The Australian Labor Party pledged to establish a whistleblower protection authority at the 2019 election, and it has been a feature of several cross-bench bills to establish a federal anti-corruption agency in recent years. - TI Austrialia/HRLC