Anti-corruption proposal a missed opportunity for whistleblower protection
The draft legislation to establish the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) is a missed opportunity for whistleblower protections and should be strengthened, the Human Rights Law Centre has told a parliamentary inquiry.
Appearing before the Joint Select Committee on National Anti-Corruption Commission Legislation in Canberra today, Human Rights Law Centre senior lawyer Kieran Pender highlighted shortcomings in the draft NACC bill.
Kieran Pender, Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said:
“The National Anti-Corruption Commission will rely on whistleblowers to be effective in addressing corruption and upholding integrity in Australian public life. But the Albanese government’s draft law contains the bare minimum when it comes to protecting and empowering whistleblowers. This is a missed opportunity.”
Anti-corruption bills introduced by the cross-bench in 2018 and 2020 would have established a whistleblower protection commissioner. Such a body is absent from the government’s draft legislation.
“Whistleblowers make Australia a better place. Establishing a whistleblower protection commissioner or authority is the single most significant thing this government could do to better protect and empower Australian whistleblowers. Such a body, located within the Commission or as a standalone authority, is critical to aiding the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures”.
While the NACC bill contains some whistleblower protection provisions and integrates the new body with the Public Interest Disclosure Act, Pender said this did not go far enough.
“The draft provisions replicate rather than remedy existing shortcomings in federal whistleblowing law. While the government has promised to reform the PID Act before the National Anti-Corruption Commission is operational, its commitment so far is limited to the now-outdated recommendations of the 2016 Moss Review. The government must urgently and comprehensively reform whistleblowing law.”
The Human Rights Law Centre also called on the NACC Committee to recommend improvements to the shield law provisions in the bill that protect press freedom.
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