Public interest disclosures news

December 16, 2021

Dear Colleague,

Welcome to Issue 45 of our PID e-newsletter, our final for 2021.

In this edition, we’ve included important information about:

our Public Interest Disclosure (PID) Oversight Annual Report 2020-21
an update on the PID Bill 2021
the next PID reporting period and where to seek further information
latest findings from the WWTW2 research
the PID team’s availability over the Christmas and New Year period.

As always, we encourage you to access information on our website. If you have any questions, please get in touch with the PID team through pid@ombo.nsw.gov.au.

Feel free to forward this edition of the PID e-news to interested colleagues. We encourage public officials to subscribe to receive the PID e-news.

Kind regards
PID Team

PID Oversight Annual Report 2020-21

In this edition of PID e-news we announce the release of the PID Oversight Annual Report 2020-21.

The oversight report contains five parts:

Public Interest Disclosures gives an overview of the PID Act roles and responsibilities.
Public authorities: Reporting PIDs contains data about the reports provided by public authorities, including the number of PIDs received and the training and awareness activities provided. Public authorities received 345 PIDs in the reporting period; investigating authorities received 964 PIDs. The majority (89%) of public authorities reported they had taken action to meet their awareness obligations.
Training, awareness, advice, and research summarises the training activities conducted by our office in this reporting period, including discussion of the training needs analysis that will inform our future approach. It also includes a discussion of the latest findings of the WWTW2 research (see below).
Legislative and administrative advice highlights the work of the Steering Committee in providing advice on the PID Bill and draws attention to our office’s Special Report on the PID Bill (see below).
PID audits outlines the purpose and scope of our audit of 6 local councils. Our analysis of the reporting data from 2018–2020 highlighted that 85 (66%) councils reported not receiving a PID at any time during that 3 year period. Local councils as a sector are less likely to report receiving a PID than departments and authorities, universities, and local health districts of the same size. We decided to audit local councils with the aim of identifying any underlying reasons for this. We will report on our findings in 2022.

This section also summarises the development of an audit framework that will inform our future audit program.

We encourage you to read this report.

PID Bill Update

The new Public Interest Disclosures Bill (PID Bill) was tabled in Parliament in October. The Bill was referred to a Legislative Council Parliamentary Committee. We made submissions to the Committee—our Special Report and the PID Steering Committee Annual Report, which details the members’ unanimous support for the Bill.

The Committee reported back on 23 November. The Inquiry did not recommend any specific amendments to the Bill but recommended that the Legislative Council address the stakeholder concerns identified in the Report in debate. At the date of writing, the PID Bill has not yet been debated and the NSW Parliament is not sitting again until 2022.

Our website has relevant information on the PID Bill in our FAQ.

To ensure you receive information on the PID Bill as it becomes available, subscribe to receive the PID e-news.

Reporting – ensuring your authority is compliant with PID Act obligations

As our Oversight report highlights, until the Bill is passed it is important that agencies continue to comply with the current PID Act. Under section 6CA, public authorities are required to provide our office with statistical information every six months about their handling of PIDs.

The report for the period July-December 2021 is due on 14 February 2022. All Disclosures Coordinators should ensure the report is submitted on time. Disclosures Coordinators should also ensure that any outstanding reports for previous reporting periods are submitted as soon as possible. The PID online reporting tool allows you to check whether your authority has outstanding reports, or please contact us to discuss.

Even if your authority has not received any PIDs in the reporting period, a report should still be submitted advising this, and outlining the action you have taken to raise awareness about PIDs with your staff.

Please continue to update us if your agency changes who is responsible for PID management.

For more information, you can access:

Latest findings from the Whistling While They Work 2 research

Led by Griffith University’s Professor AJ Brown, the Whistling While They Work 2 research project is one of the world’s largest studies into the management of whistleblowing across business and government. This project seeks to identify factors that enable positive managerial responses to whistleblowing and inform better procedures and systems to improve whistleblower experiences.

We are pleased to have partnered with researchers and integrity and governance organisations in this project.

The latest findings from the project were released at the 3rd Whistleblowing Symposium in November 2021. Based on analysis of over 1,300 whistleblowing cases, the Symposium drew attention to a range of issues including:

many public interest whistleblowers who experienced serious repercussions as a result of their disclosure received no remedy at all
while the most common form of adverse repercussions for whistleblowers is collateral damage (such as stress and isolation) most laws and policies are framed towards addressing direct damage (including harassment, negative performance appraisals and disciplinary action), often in the form of a criminal offence
only 6% of whistleblowers ever received any compensation, including 8% of those who lost their job because of reporting, and only 4% of those assessed as having experienced serious harassment, intimidation or harm from managers or colleagues.

The analysis suggests that current legal frameworks have not been sufficient to protect whistleblowers from repercussions and to compensate them when repercussions have occurred. Further details of the most recent findings can be found here.

Christmas closure

The NSW Ombudsman will be closed from Saturday, 18 December 2021, and will re-open on Monday, 10 January 2022. Any PID queries that are sent over this period will be responded to after our return.

We wish you a happy and healthy break.