Sophie Scamps (Mackellar, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Attorney-General, and I'll be reading it! Integrity in our political system is hugely important to the people of Mackellar, and whistleblowers are a vital pillar of that integrity. Yet right now we have one whistleblower serving a lengthy jail term and one facing trial. Civil society is united in its call for a federal whistleblower protection authority, something the Attorney-General promised before the 2019 election. Will you recommit to establishing a whistleblower protection authority in this term of government?

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

I do thank the member for Mackellar for her question. I can assure the member for Mackellar that integrity is very important to every member of our government, and I would hope that integrity is important to every member of the Australian community. Our government is committed to delivering strong, effective and accessible protections for whistleblowers.

Just to remind the House of where we've got to in this, in June last year, the parliament passed priority amendments to the Public Interest Disclosure Act which ensured there were immediate improvements to the public sector whistleblower scheme in place in time for the commencement of the National Anti-Corruption Commission. That set of reforms implemented 21 of the 33 recommendations of the review of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 that was conducted by Mr Philip Moss, an eminent former Australian public servant, in 2016. To give some context to that, these were the first significant public-sector whistleblower reforms since the Public Interest Disclosure Act was first enacted by the Gillard government, a Labor government, in 2013. When we enacted the Public Interest Disclosure Act in 2013, we took the precaution of writing into that act a statutory review. That statutory review took place because the former government didn't have a choice, and the statutory review was carried out by Mr Moss. Regrettably, the former government didn't see fit to implement a single one of those recommendations; we have implemented 21 of the recommendations.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Mackellar on a point of order.

Sophie Scamps (Mackellar, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A point of order on relevance: my question was directly about the federal whistleblower protection authority.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Attorney-General needs to remind himself of the standing orders regarding the direct relevance provisions to make sure his answer is compliant with that.

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

The government is now progressing a second, broader stage of reforms, which has included the release of a consultation paper. There has been public consultation on additional supports for public-sector whistleblowers, which may include a whistleblower protection authority. There have been submissions received as part of that consultation process, and they are being used to inform the government's next steps for reform.