Public sector whistleblowing: Stage 2 reforms
20 December 2023
The ALA has made a submission to the Attorney-General’s Department, as part of the Federal Government’s second stage of public sector whistleblowing reform. The ALA maintains our long-held belief that comprehensive protections for whistleblowers in all sectors, industries and government agencies/programs are essential to support whistleblowers, to keep them safe, and to prevent reprisals.
In our submission, the ALA addresses:
- the need for the Federal Government to harmonise whistleblower protections between all legislative schemes and between public, private and not-for-profit sectors into a single and consistent legislated whistleblower protections framework;
- reforms to the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 (Cth) that are necessary in the meantime to ensure public sector whistleblowers are adequately protected but also, when processes fail to protect whistleblowers, fairly compensated; and
- the ALA’s support for the establishment of a Whistleblower Protection Authority or Whistleblower Protection Commissioner.
In September 2025, the Attorney-General’s Department is consulting on reforms to public sector whistleblowing laws. The ALA has joined as a co-signatory to a joint submission with the Human Rights Law Centre, raising significant concerns with the Bill and calling for substantial changes to ensure the PID Act and proposed Whistleblower Ombudsman are fit for purpose.
ALA submission