Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Whilst there is much in the member for Burt's contribution that I would agree with, I note had the pleasure of serving with him on that committee and into that inquiry. One important things from that inquiry were some of the stories of those who had sought to blow the whistle on a variety of misdeeds and misbehaviours and the way they were treated. Whistleblowing, in its simplest form, is about disclosing misconduct in the workplace. We have seen, in any number of areas over the past few years, sadly, those things occur.

I think it's critically important, as a consequence, that we have strong whistleblowing protections, because we need those people to be confident that, as they come forward to report that misconduct, they have the protections in place necessary. This is a good step in that direction. It's a good step because we need to ensure that the people who are inside these organisations have the confidence to come forward and report corporate misconduct or—in particular, in the case of this—tax and corporate misconduct. These protections are key to combating what are, in many instances, poor cultures of compliance and to ensuring that companies, their officers and staff know that that conduct will be reported.

Last week in this place in relation to the banking industry, which I had a career in before coming into this place, I made the observation that part of the problem that I see in banking today is that it's filled with managers these days, not bankers, and not with people who build relationships with people. I think we would see many of these cultural issues disappear or be moderated if the banks actually spent time focusing on working and building relationships with their clients rather than chasing profits at the expense of those very clients.

Whistleblowing is important because, oftentimes, in these big corporate organisations, the conduct that is falling short of community expectations or is outright corporate malfeasance is often opaque and complex by the very nature of the organisations involved. Because it's generally behind the four walls of the corporate organisation and not in the public realm, it makes it difficult for our law enforcement organisations to detect it in the first place. We've seen with the banking royal commission the inability of ASIC and/or APRA in a number of instances to deal with these issues or to deal with them in a timely manner. In many cases, corporate crime is only detected once whistleblowers come forward—and, as we saw and heard in the testimony in our committee, sometimes at significant personal and financial risk.

The importance of protecting corporate whistleblowers has been recognised for many years. There are already some legislative protections in the Corporations Act; however, they have been used sparingly and are increasingly perceived as inadequate, having regard to advances in the public sector and overseas. Interestingly, currently there are no specific provisions for tax whistleblowers, and a range of secrecy and privacy provisions are relied upon and are incapable of guaranteeing that absolute protection. This is why in the 2016-17 budget the government announced greater protections for those who disclose information about tax misconduct to the Australian Tax Office.

This bill will further strengthen the integrity of our tax system by creating active protection for whistleblowers to encourage them to make disclosures that are essential. The government is determined to ensure that it has the legislative settings in place to achieve this. In my office, over my time, in this place, I have spoken to a number of people who have raised concerns with me about the tax practices of certain organisations, and I have referred them to the relevant ATO helplines and reporting lines to ensure that they convey those concerns, and I would hope that the ATO has taken the relevant action and acted on those.

The legislation before us today is an important step in the right direction to ensure that our whistleblowers are protected. We see across this legislation the emphasis on the disclosure of wrongdoing and who it is reported to and investigated by within government. This emphasise is designed to make sure that the problems are identified and rectified quickly. Where an official does not wish to make a disclosure to their own agency, the disclosure can be made to the Commonwealth Ombudsman or the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security. Officials can make disclosures to people outside government, other than a foreign public official, where certain criteria are met. It's important, though, that the disclosure must first be reported internally to the government, except in cases of disclosure in an emergency, or to a legal practitioner to obtain legal advice. That is a very important provision. I think it's extremely important that people who are going to go down this road ensure that they are themselves covered.

Qualifying disclosures entitle public sector whistleblowers to protection from exposure of their identities and immunity from civil, criminal and administrative liabilities for making the disclosure. The act also gives protections to public officials from victimisation and discrimination as a result of making a public interest disclosure. A whistleblower can seek a range of civil remedies through a court, including an apology, injunction, reinstatement order and compensation for loss or damage and for costs.

This is in addition to other accountability measures we've already put in place through this House, such as the Banking Executive Accountability Regime. We sought to ensure that the senior executives of our banking and financial services institutions are held to account for their actions. Sadly, as I've touched on before, the royal commission has shown the reason why legislation like the Banking Executive Accountability Regime was necessary.

I think I've said before in this place that I'd prefer that many of these pieces of legislation that are tied to people's ethics and conduct in our society weren't necessary, and that people acted in an ethical manner and conducted themselves in an ethical manner. There were days when you'd shake someone's hand or sign a contract to do a deal, and that's the deal that was done and honoured. Sadly, we've seen over the last number of years the conduct of organisations not meet those community expectations. I think far too often we stand in this place and pass legislation to deal with that ethical failure of those in the broader community. I think it's incumbent, as a consequence, on our corporate sector, the public sector, and, importantly, the private sector to ensure that standards of community expectation and standards of conduct meet the highest level possible.

At the end of the day, they are dealing with everyday Australians. In the case of financial services sector, they are dealing with people's finances. In the case of businesses that trade in other areas, like our major food and grocery organisations, they are dealing with everyday Australians—farmers and other manufacturers of food products that they sell on their shelves. We hear many stories of farmers and people who supply to large grocery chains. We hear the stories of how they are treated by the large corporates in that space.

Again it shows that these whistleblowing provisions—in whatever form they take, whether in the public or private sector—are necessary to ensure that conduct that doesn't meet legal requirements or falls short of community expectations is reported. I want to see in our community people treated fairly and equitably. It disappoints me that we have to stand in this place and pass laws such as this because our corporate offices—predominantly listed corporates—can't seem to do that and are more interested in chasing profits as a consequence.

I commend this bill to the House because I think it is a good step in the right direction to ensure that the whistleblowers in our community who have the information in front of them also have the courage to stand up and make the issues that they see on a daily basis or have come across known to the public. I trust that through that process we will see over time that the culture in our organisations that are doing the wrong thing is changed and is cleaned up. In doing that, I trust that all Australians will benefit through having and being able to restore that level of trust. I heard a contribution earlier today that talked about the level of trusts in our institutions and our corporate entities. We have seen these stories over the past little while and in the inquiry from people who were prepared to be whistleblowers. It's not unfair to reflect on why there is a loss of trust in some of our most well-regarded names when you see some of the things that have been brought to the fore by the whistleblowers who have had the courage to stand up and be counted.

I think it is critically important, through legislation in this place, we ensure those whistleblowers continue to be protected or be given, in this case, more protection to give them the opportunity to shine the light on the dark places where it needs to be shone, where things are not being done in accordance with the laws of this country but, more importantly, in accordance with community expectations and a level of ethics and conduct where everyone in our society can benefit. So I commend this bill to the House.

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