Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

The government does not support the amendments. The government supports effective and accessible protections for whistleblowers, including appropriate protections for persons who disclose wrongdoing, including MOP(S) Act staff. The government understands the intention of these amendments is to apply the Public Interest Disclosure Act to MOP(S) Act staff. However, this amendment would not achieve this outcome as the Public Interest Disclosure Act as drafted is not set up to deal with disclosures about or by MOP(S) Act staff. The proposed amendments give rise to a range of complex policy issues that would be appropriately dealt with in the context of implementing relevant recommendations in the Set the standard report or as part of a comprehensive second stage of PID reforms.