Nick Xenophon (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

I endorse essentially everything that Senator O'Neill has said. At least we can agree on something today, and that is the protection of whistleblowers. This has been a terrific committee in that it has been not just bipartisan; crossbench colleagues, the Greens and I, Labor and the government have gotten together to produce a very good report. There's one small point of difference, and that's whether we have parallel bills or one bill to protect whistleblowers, but that is a question of form rather than substance. I see Labor's point and I don't take issue with it.

I just want to focus on this issue, because I think Senator O'Neill has well traversed the reason why we need whistleblower protection and these reforms. This committee was convened to report on this issue as a result of agreements I reached with the government last year. Senator Dastyari isn't here, so he can't call it a dirty deal. But I hope he doesn't call it a dirty deal, given the very good work that's been done in a non-partisan way to strengthen the protection of whistleblowers. The agreement reached with the government last year made it very clear that this was the first step in bringing about significant, sweeping whistleblower reforms of the type we have never seen before in this country. The undertaking from the government was that there would be this report, with a reporting date of 13 June 2017. The report has been delayed, and that will delay other timetable aspects. But an expert panel will be set up to examine this report and make recommendations as to the type of legislative changes we need for the protection of whistleblowers in the corporate and the public sectors, because we don't have that in any comprehensive way. We have public interest disclosure. It's not comprehensive. It's not adequate. It doesn't give the compensation. It doesn't give the protection. It doesn't give the necessary rewards to those people who put everything on the line to tell the truth and uncover wrongdoing and malfeasance.

There will be an expert panel. I'm very pleased to say that the Assistant Treasurer contacted me this morning to indicate that the expert panel will be established and that the government is keeping their word to me on this. That is a very good thing. Legislation will be introduced. It may not by December 2017, but I would imagine the timetable may see it introduced by February 2018. The bills will be debated and put to a vote by June 2018, and the government has committed itself to these sweeping reforms. They've done so with the registered organisations legislation, so we have a template for reform. These reforms will actually go further. These reforms will finesse the registered organisations reforms and fine-tune them, but I think that what we did in the registered organisations legislation was a good start.

Finally, we have here a historic opportunity to bring about protection and reforms, the likes of which this country has never seen before. It will mean better protection for whistleblowers. It will mean better corporate governance, better public sector governance, less waste in government, less abuse by corporate officers and less abuse of corporate responsibility. This will unambiguously be a very good thing for this nation. I look forward to this report being the template for further reform.