ASIC welcomes new whistleblower laws

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Whistleblower Protections) Bill 2018, was approved by Parliament late on 19 February 2019.

"These reforms will help ASIC to perform our important regulatory role by encouraging people who have observed misconduct to come forward," said ASIC executive director Warren Day.

"They complement the measures we have put in place since 2014 to improve our processes for assessing whistleblower reports and communicating with whistleblowers during our inquiries," he added.

The reforms:

- broaden the whistleblower definition to include both current and former employees, officers, and contractors, as well as their spouses and dependants, and anonymous disclosures;

- extend the protections to whistleblower reports that allege misconduct or an improper state of affairs or circumstances about any matter covered by financial sector law, as well as all Commonwealth offences punishable by imprisonment of 12 months or more;

- create civil penalty provisions, in addition to the existing criminal offences, for causing detriment to (or victimising) a whistleblower and for breaches of confidentiality;

- provide protections for disclosures to journalists and parliamentarians in certain circumstances;

- provide whistleblowers with easier access to compensation and other remedies if they suffer loss; and

- require all public companies, large proprietary companies, and corporate trustees of registrable superannuation entities to have a whistleblower policy.

ASIC’s Office of the Whistleblower will oversee the implementation of the reforms when they commence from 1 July 2019.