Commonwealth introduces new whistleblower legislation

Whistleblowing is an important function of transparent and accountable government. But it has also received a lot of mixed press in recent years with coverage of the disclosures of WikiLeaks and more recently those of Edward Snowden. Yesterday the Federal Government joined every other State and Territory with the introduction of stand-alone public interest disclosure legislation. The Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 (Cth) provides a comprehensive protection regime for public sector whistleblowers which will roll out over the next six months. In the overview in s 7 the dual purposes of the Act are identified as providing “… a means for protecting public officials, and former public officials, from adverse consequences of disclosing information that, in the public interest, should be disclosed” and providing for “… the investigation of matters that…