Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Main Committee is an appropriate place for debate on reports of committees. The parliament has an undeservedly bad reputation in the Australian community as a place of conflict, difference and argument. But so often parliamentary committees bring down unanimous reports which indicate that members have sat down around a table, listened to the evidence they have received and brought forward recommendations which, hopefully, the government of the day will adopt. This inquiry into whistleblower protection was referred to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs by the Attorney-General and, once again, this committee has brought down a unanimous report. In the previous parliament, I was the chairman of the committee, and all of our reports were unanimous. I am pleased that the 26 recommendations in this report, entitled Whistleblower protection: a comprehensive scheme for the Commonwealth public sector, enjoy the support of the full committee.

I do not believe that in 2009 anyone could realistically argue that there ought not to be protection for whistleblowers. We believe in openness, accountability and transparency in government and, without adequate whistleblower protection, we simply would not achieve the high standards that in Australia we have come to expect of governments. I must say that I think we are fortunate in Australia, generally speaking, to have a high level of integrity in the administration of governments at all levels. We have very low levels of corruption, and I think that is one of the things that, as Australians, we ought to be proud of. But the committee did recommend in the report tabled this week in the parliament that a bill, to be entitled the Public Interest Disclosure Bill, should be introduced as quickly as possible, and the principles of this bill would be to promote accountability and integrity in public administration.

In recommendation 2, the committee was very keen to ensure:

… the provisions of the Bill are guided by the following principles:

• it is in the public interest that accountability and integrity in public administration are promoted by identifying and addressing wrongdoing in the public sector;
• people within the public sector have a right to raise their concerns about wrongdoing within the sector without fear of reprisal;
• people have a responsibility to raise those concerns in good faith;
• governments have a right to consider policy and administration in private; and
• government and the public sector have a responsibility to be receptive to concerns which are raised.

In recommendation 3:

The Committee recommends that the Public Interest Disclosure Bill define people who are entitled to make a protected disclosure as a ‘public official’ and include in the definition of public official the following categories:

• Australian Government and general government sector employees …
• contractors and consultants engaged by the public sector;
• employees of contractors and consultants engaged by the public sector;
• Australian and locally engaged staff working overseas;
• members of the Australian Defence Force and Australian Federal Police;
• parliamentary staff;
• former employees in one of the above categories; and
• anonymous persons likely to be in one of the above categories.

Personally I was very pleased that the report sought to extend protection to contractors and consultants engaged by the public sector. While we have had in place certain rules and regulations designed to protect whistleblowers in certain circumstances, the circumstances covered by the existing provisions are not wide enough, and that is why the House of Representatives committee has recommended the introduction and swift passage of the Public Interest Disclosure Bill. The committee would have liked to see this bill introduced yesterday, but we are realists and we do understand that the parliamentary timetable does have a queue of bills. In a prior manifestation, when the coalition was in government, I was well aware of how long it took sometimes to get legislation through the parliament. But I hope, given the fact that this is non-controversial legislation, at least within the parliament—or we hope it is—that this legislation will be accorded the sort of priority it needs so that the protections sought for whistleblowers by the members of the committee will be able to be enshrined in legislation.

The committee secretariat always displays a very high level of impartiality, competence and professionalism. I would like to recognise the members of the secretariat staff publicly in the Main Committee today. Our parliamentary committees would not be able to operate if it were not for the expertise that the officials seconded to those committees and who work with those committees bring. I believe that committee staff often help to create a sense of camaraderie within the committee, and that can ensure that quite often we are able to achieve unanimous reports. Reports that are tabled in the parliament without dissent are very much more powerful and convincing reports than those which are rammed through with the government of the day using the majority it has on all parliamentary committees in the House of Representatives. I think that it is important, wherever possible, to seek to obtain a unanimous report, because that report has a much greater chance of being implemented.

I am particularly pleased to commend this report, Whistleblower protection: a comprehensive scheme for the Commonwealth public sector, to the House. I hope that the government responds expeditiously, that the government, in its response, accepts the recommendations of the committee and that we see introduced to the parliament as a matter of urgency the Public Interest Disclosure Bill.

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