Whistleblowers must be protected to prevent next PwC tax scandal

The Human Rights Law Centre will today appear before a Parliamentary Inquiry to call for comprehensive reform of Commonwealth whistleblowing laws so that whistleblowers are protected, not punished.

While the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Accountability and Fairness) Bill 2023 proposes discrete reforms for tax whistleblowers, a joint submission from Transparency International Australia, Griffith University’s Centre for Governance and Public Policy, and the Human Rights Law Centre calls for a single, uniform Act to protect whistleblowers across all types of private sector entities.

The groups also called for the Albanese Government to establish an independent Whistleblower Protection Authority with power to oversee and enforce protections across public and private sectors.

Whistleblowers who expose wrongdoing hold institutions to account and prevent wrongdoing. The PwC scandal underscored the failure of Australia’s whistleblower frameworks to prevent misconduct in major Australian accounting and consulting firms.

The Human Rights Law Centre will appear before the Senate Economics Legislation Committee’s Inquiry on Tuesday 9 April at 10am AEST.

Quotes attributed to Kieran Pender, Acting Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre:

“Whistleblowers should be empowered and protected to speak up about wrongdoing. But whistleblowers in Australia will continue to suffer in silence while the current inadequate whistleblower protection laws are in place. This will harm whistleblowers, and damage the integrity of Australia’s public sector, the private sector and beyond.

“By exposing corporate misdeeds, human rights abuses and government wrongdoing, whistleblowers make Australia a better place. The Albanese Government should fix the law and establish a whistleblower protection authority which can ensure that all whistleblowers, whichever their sector, are protected, not punished.”

Read the joint submission here
Watch the live-stream of hearings here

Media contact:
Thomas Feng
Media and Communications Manager
0431 285 275
thomas.feng@hrlc.org.au