Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Attorney-General. The National Anti-Corruption Commission will commence in less than three weeks time. In November, you said that the Public Interest Disclosures Act would be amended to ensure stronger whistleblower protections are in place before the NACC opens its doors. Seven months later, we are still waiting. Will these protections be in place before the NACC starts and, if not, why not?

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do thank the honourable member for Indi for her question and for her longstanding interest in whistleblower and integrity reforms.

The Albanese government is committed to strengthening Australia's whistleblower framework, and that's why we introduced, last year, the Public Interest Disclosure Amendment (Review) Bill 2022 into the parliament. This bill will improve protections for public sector whistleblowers and witnesses and it will enhance the oversight of the scheme by the Commonwealth Ombudsman and by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security.

Regrettably, the Greens party delayed these vital whistleblower reforms in previous sittings, ensuring that the bill did not become law a month ago. The Public Interest Disclosure Amendment (Review) Bill 2022 was stranded in the Senate as a result of days of filibustering by the Greens party.

Despite this, the government is continuing to work on delivering long-overdue reforms to the Public Interest Disclosure Act to improve Australia's whistleblowing framework for the public sector, which, as the member's question indicated, will support the establishment of the National Anti-Corruption Commission. I'm very pleased to again tell the House that the National Anti-Corruption Commission will commence operations on 1 July 2023. This legislation, the Public Interest Disclosure Amendment (Review) Bill 2022, would ensure that improvements to the public sector whistleblower scheme are in place for the commencement of the National Anti-Corruption Commission on 1 July 2023, and I would urge all senators to support this bill to ensure that it does pass this parliament in time for the commencement of the National Anti-Corruption Commission on 1 July 2023.

I'd just add this: following passage of these amendments, the government will commence consultations on a second stage of whistleblower reforms, and this will involve redrafting the Public Interest Disclosure Act to address the underlying complexity of the scheme and provide effective, reasonable and accessible protections to public sector whistleblowers.