On 21 March 2013 the Senate referred the Public Interest Disclosure Bill 2013 for inquiry and report.

The Bill seeks to:

• establish a legislative framework to encourage and facilitate reporting of wrongdoing by public officials in the Commonwealth public sector;
• ensure that Commonwealth agencies investigate and respond to public interest disclosures; and
• provide protections to public officials who make qualifying public interest disclosures.

The Bill will largely implement the Australian Government's 2010 response to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs' 2009 report, Whistleblower Protection: a comprehensive scheme for the Commonwealth public sector.

Please note that the terms of reference for this inquiry are the provisions of the bill. The committee will not be considering or examining any material that relates to personal cases or grievances.

Submissions should be received by 26 April 2013. The reporting date is 25 June 2013; however, the committee has agreed to table its report on 13 June 2013.  

The Committee is seeking written submissions from interested individuals and organisations preferably in electronic form submitted  online or sent by email to  legcon.sen@aph.gov.au as an attached Adobe PDF or MS Word format document. The email must include full postal address and contact details.

Alternatively, written submissions may be sent to:

Committee Secretary
Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia

Notes to help you prepare your submission are available from the website at  
https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm. Alternatively, the Committee Secretariat will be able to help you with your inquiries and can be contacted on telephone +61 2 6277 3560 or facsimile +61 2 6277 5794 or by email to  legcon.sen@aph.gov.au.

Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to Parliament House TTY number 02 6277 7799. Adobe also provides tools at  http://access.adobe.com/ for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. If you require any special arrangements to enable you to participate in the Committee's inquiry, please contact the Committee Secretariat.

Once the Committee accepts your submission, it becomes a confidential Committee document and is protected by Parliamentary Privilege. You must not release your submission without the Committee's permission. If you do, it will not be protected by Parliamentary Privilege. At some stage during the inquiry, the Committee normally makes submissions public and places them on its website. Please indicate if you want your submission to be kept confidential.