Law Council of Australia

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Inquiry into the Public Interest Disclosure Bill 2013

Submission Date: 3 May 2013

The Law Council of Australia provided a submission that suggests the protection provided by the Public Interest Disclosure Bill 2013 (Cth) (the PID Bill) is considerably weaker than that proposed by the earlier Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblower Protection) Bill 2012 (the Wilkie bill).

Both the PID Bill (cl 26) and the Wilkie Bill (cl 17) proceed on the basis that public interest disclosure should be ‘internal’ unless there is sufficient justification for the disclosure to be ‘external’. However, there are significant differences between the PID Bill and the Wilkie Bill in what is defined as internal disclosure and in what is sufficient justification for external disclosure to be protected. These differences highlight weaknesses in the protection proposed by the PID Bill. The protection provided by the PID Bill is so qualified that it is not likely to provide encouragement to individuals to make public interest disclosures in many situations.

Last Updated on 01/05/2025

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