David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Public Interest Disclosure Amendment (Review) Bill, and I thank Senator Scarr and Senator Shoebridge and the many others who have worked on this for much longer than myself. It's great to see the government moving the update to the Public Interest Disclosure Act. These changes are long overdue. Until recently, Australia was falling down the list in the annual Corruption Perceptions Index from Transparency International. In the most recent report earlier this year, we went from a record low of 18th up to 13th. I believe this improvement is in large part due to the passing of the NACC. It's a significant change, one that I welcome, but it brings us to a crucial missing part of the puzzle, which is the legal protection given to whistleblowers in Australia. Clearly, that is not up to scratch. Some protection is given to whistleblowers in the public sector under the PID Act, which the A-G himself oversaw in 2013.

This is obviously a particularly significant piece of legislation for many people in the ACT, many hardworking public servants. But since its legislation in 2013, significant issues have become clear. In 2019, Justice John Griffiths described the act as 'technical, obtuse and intractable'. He went on to say that it:

… is largely impenetrable, not only for a lawyer, but even more so for an ordinary member of the public or a person employed in the Commonwealth bureaucracy.

And Justice Griffiths was not the first to raise concerns. In 2016, the Moss review of the act made 33 recommendations for changes to the legislation. I welcome the implementation of 21 of those recommendations in this bill. The changes represent real improvements that will assist those who speak out, including those who make disclosures to the NACC. I applaud the Attorney-General for his work on the bill, which seeks to improve the protections that he himself put in place in 2013. But we still have a long way to go.

Whistleblowers in Australia are not being properly protected. Instead, they are being prosecuted. They are forced to rely on protection from the offices of parliamentarians to speak out. Andrew Wilkie, Zoe Daniel and I recently used parliamentary privilege to voice concerns raised by whistleblowers. I was able to raise concerns about an oil spill that killed dolphins and has been covered up, Mr Wilkie raised concerns about fraud by the Hillsong Church and Ms Daniel raised concerns about children being kept in solitary confinement. The fact that our offices protect us from the risks experienced by whistleblowers is a sign of the strength of our democracy. The fact that whistleblowers are forced to come to us is a sign of how far we have to go to protect whistleblowers. They should not have to seek parliamentary privilege to do what is in the public interest. When whistleblowers don't speak up, we all suffer. Where there's corruption, maladministration or incompetence, it needs to be called out and dealt with.

As legislators, we should all be pushing for the quality of governance that we offer our constituents to be improved. These reforms, which are a good first step, are part of a two-step package. The attorney-general has committed to a second stage of reforms that will substantially improve the protections offered to whistleblowers. Key to these further reforms will be a whistleblower protection authority or commissioner. There will soon be consultation and discussion around the possible establishment of such a body. I welcome this consultation—consultation is a good thing—but I urge the government to act swiftly. We've seen the cost of inaction with the sentencing of Witness K and the Attorney-General's intervention in the case of Bernard Collaery.

As we debate this today, the trials of Richard Boyle and David McBride continue. These are two people—two Australians—who made the difficult decision to blow the whistle on very significant issues, and now they are being prosecuted for their decision. We cannot have more cases like Witness K, Bernard Collaery, Richard Boyle and David McBride. We need whistleblower protections that work, and we need them now. I urge the government to expedite this to ensure that we have world-class whistleblower protections here in Australia because we will all benefit from that.