A federal whistleblowing authority was first recommended in 1994 by the unanimous, bipartisan Senate Select Committee on Public Interest Whistleblowing. Over the years, governments have tried various weaker institutional arrangements to support its growing number of whistleblower protection regimes. In 2017, the landmark review of federal whistleblower protections by the bipartisan Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services recommended a return to the original idea: ‘a one-stop shop Whistleblower Protection Authority… to cover both the public and private sectors.’ The Parliamentary Joint Committee recently repeated this call in it's November 2024 report.

More than three decades since a parliamentary committee first recommended a whistleblower protection authority, the time has come to fill this missing piece of Australia’s transparency and integrity landscape.

This report details a proposal for a new Whistleblower Protection Authority (WPA). A WPA would be a new, dedicated statutory agency which would support, protect and empower Australia’s whistleblowers. The WPA would:

• enforce improved legal protections for people from inside agencies or organisations who raise concerns about wrongdoing under federal laws
• provide support, information and assistance to prospective, current and former whistleblowers
• facilitate receipt and referral of whistleblowing disclosures
• investigate and address complaints of unfair treatment
• play an important role in monitoring, advocacy and outreach in support of integrity, accountability and the fair treatment of those who speak up.

Some key design principles for a WPA include: 

• prioritising protection
• mediation & administrative redress
• rewards, compensation & financial support
• comprehensive, seamless jurisdiction
• adequate powers & resources
• independence.