Significant changes are taking place surrounding legal protections for whistleblowers in corporations. The new Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Whistle Protections) Act 2019 (Cth) expands protections by requiring that certain companies have a compliant whistleblower policy in place. The requirement comes into force from the 1 July 2019, and public and large proprietary companies will need to have a whistleblower policy in place, which is available to all officers and employees before 1 January 2020 to avoid penalties. The Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) provides that a business is a ‘large proprietary company’ if the business and it’s related entities meet two or more of these requirements; annual consolidated revenue over $25 million, value of consolidated gross assets over $12.5 million or more than 50 employees. Companies which are subject to the new laws will also need to train employees about how to manage disclosures from whistleblowers. Contact M+E to create or update your company whistleblower policy.
