Whilst whistleblowers have not traditionally been well regarded in Australia, recent changes mean that whistleblowers will assume a greater role in corporate governance.

In particular, CLERP 9 protects individuals who report suspected breaches of the Corporations Act to ASIC provided they have reasonable grounds to suspect a breach and they make the disclosure to ASIC “in good faith”.

When the whistleblower has identified themselves to ASIC, it will be an offence for a person to threaten, or engage in, conduct which causes detriment to a whistleblower or third person (such as the whistleblower’s family).

However whilst APRA has a whistleblower’s page, ASIC doesn’t (yet).

Transparency International has a collection of Australian whistleblowing resources including this link to a paper by Allan Fels.