Whistleblower Protection Program: New Legislative Changes – What You Need to Know

In response to long-running campaigns and public pressure, the Australian Government has amended the Corporations Act 2001 to significantly increase the protections available to corporate whistleblowers. This now provides for criminal offences and civil penalties for a person causing, or threatening, detriment to a whistleblower or breaching a whistleblower’s confidentiality, including during an investigation into the whistleblower’s concerns.

Who is impacted?

Public companies, large proprietary companies, and corporate trustees of superannuation funds are required to have a compliant Whistleblower Policy in place from 1 January 2020.

It is critical that companies understand their obligations and begin the task of implementing compliant Whistleblower Protection policies and procedures or amending those currently in place. The penalties for getting it wrong could be severe.

In this short guide, we outline what’s changed, key dates and the steps you can take to implement a fully compliant whistleblowing protection program at your organisation.

Your implementation options

When implementing a Whistleblower Protection Policy, consider what is most practical for your organisation to ensure legal compliance and how it can be tailored to your unique context.