Whistle-blower provisions in the ACT Government’s Public Sector management Bill were attacked yesterday as restrictive, inadequate an unlikley to be effective.
In an submission to the Legislative Assembly’s committee on the separate public service, Opposition Leader Kate Carnell, said the Government’s Bill protected public sector employees revealing “”restricted information” if it showed an indictable offence, gross mismanagement or a substantial danger to public health a safety.
The Bill she had put forward earlier this year gave a wider protection. It protected anyone (not just public-sector employees) revealing any information (not just restricted information) that showed not just indictable offences, gross mismanagement and danger to health and safety, but also corrupt conduct, dishonesty, breach of trust, any criminal offence, public waste or unlawful reprisal.
The Opposition’s Bill required each public-sector unit to have staff and procedures to receive information and act on it. The Government’s Bill permitted disclosure only to the Auditor-General or Ombudsman (or to them through a chief executive) and that they “”may”, but are not compelled to act.
The Government relied only on disciplinary measures to deal with false whistle-blowing; the Opposition’s Bill had a $10,000 fine and/or a year’s jail as a deterrent.
The Opposition would allow genuine whistle-blowers against whom reprisals are taken to sue for damages or injunction.
The committee is debating the Bill this week and next. It will go before the Assembly in the sitting week beginning June 14.
There are three sitting days before the July 1 deadline set by the ACT Government for the new service.