Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move Australian Greens amendment on sheet 8421 revised:

(1) Page 2 (after line 11), after clause 3, insert:

4 Review of operation of amendments

(1) Within 2 years after the commencement of this section, the Minister must cause to be conducted an independent review of the operation of the amendments made by this Act.

(2) The review must:

(a) specifically examine the effectiveness of whistleblower protections amended or introduced by this Act;

(b) consider how the introduction of a rewards system for whistleblowers may increase reporting of corruption, fraud, tax evasion or avoidance, and misconduct within the corporate sector; and

(c) consider and examine an appropriate rewards or bounties system for whistleblowers who provide information that leads to successful enforcement action.

(3) The Minister must cause to be prepared a written report of the review within 12 months of the review commencing.

(4) The Minister must cause copies of the report to be tabled in each House of the Parliament within 15 sitting days of that House after the day on which the report is given to the Minister.

I'll speak to the amendment briefly. As I said yesterday in my speech in the second reading stage, we would like to see a rewards scheme put in place for whistleblowers. We'd like to see that as part of this legislation. Unfortunately, it's not going to be possible to have that drafted and put in in its entirety, so we would like to at least see a review as part of this legislation to make sure we do get any future government focused on a reward scheme. I'll just very quickly read some of the key recommendations from the PJC report on this:

… following the imposition of a penalty against a wrongdoer by a Court (or other body that may impose such a penalty), a whistleblower protection body … or prescribed law enforcement agencies may give a 'reward' to any relevant whistleblower.

…   …   …

… such a reward should be determined within such body's absolute discretion within a legislated range of percentages of the penalty imposed by the Court (or other body imposing the penalty) against the whistleblower's employer (or principal) in relation to the matters raised by the whistleblower or uncovered as a result of an investigation instigated from the whistleblowing and where the specific percentage allocated will be determined by the body taking into account stated relevant factors, such as:

So the committee agreed on putting a reward in the report as a major recommendation. I felt it was one of the key recommendations of the committee. It's disappointing, as I said yesterday, that a number of those recommendations haven't been dealt with in this legislation.

I understand, Minister, in your speech on the second reading today, you said that you are in the process of providing a response to those recommendations, so I look forward to that. But we would feel more comfortable with at least putting a clause into this legislation that this will be dealt with. We've had discussions with the government—with Treasury officials—on this issue in recent days. We wanted to have this within 12 months, but we're happy to put this in at 24 months, so two years down the track. I think that will, shall we say, sharpen the focus on actually getting this key recommendation implemented. We have an opportunity to at least put that in today, and I ask the Senate to consider the Greens amendment.