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Public interest disclosure

The Public Interest Disclosure Act 2018

The Public Interest disclosure Act 2018 (the PID Act) commenced on 1July 2019 and replaces the repealed Whistleblowers Protection Act 1993.

The PID Act provides two types of protection

  • Protections for any person wishing to report public interest information on environment and health matters
  • Protections purely for public officers wanting to disclose allegations of public sector maladministration, corruption or misconduct

What is the PID Act?

The PID Act encourages and facilitates the disclosure of public interest information to relevant persons or authorities. It provides protections for those who make such disclosures and requires proper procedures to be in place for making and dealing with those disclosures.

How can I be protected?

In order to gain protection under the PID Act, an informant must make an appropriate disclosure of public interest information. Whether something is an appropriate disclosure of public interest information depends upon:

  1. the nature of the information to be disclosed
  2. there being a reasonable suspicion that the subject of the disclosure raises a potential issue of corruption, misconduct or maladministration in public administration
  3. the person or authority the disclosure is made to.

Refer to the Public Interest Disclosure Procedure for more information about what constitutes appropriate disclosure.