Public Interest Disclosure Amendment (Review) 2022

✦ Plain-English Summary

# Public Interest Disclosure Amendment (Review) 2022

## What it does

This law updates the rules for whistleblowers in Australian government and public organisations. It makes changes to who can make a disclosure, how those disclosures get investigated, and what protections whistleblowers get. It also clarifies roles for watchdog agencies like the Ombudsman.

## Why it matters

If you work in a government agency or public sector job and spot serious wrongdoing—corruption, illegal activity, or mismanagement—these rules determine whether you can safely report it and what happens next. The changes aim to make the process clearer and fairer for people who speak up.

## Key details

- **What counts as a disclosure**: The law now clarifies what kinds of workplace concerns qualify for whistleblower protection (narrowing it to serious matters, not just personal work grievances)
- **Who investigates**: The changes reorganise how complaints get sorted between different agencies—the Ombudsman, Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, and others
- **Timing**: The main changes won't come into effect until a later date set by the government (with a maximum 6-month wait from when the law was passed), though some parts depend on whether the new National Anti-Corruption Commission is up and running first

Official Description

Amends the: Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 to: provide that 'personal work-related conduct' does not fall within the public interest disclosure (PID) scheme; amend the process for authorised officers' handling and allocation of disclosures, and principal officers' investigation of disclosures; expand the scope of protections for disclosers and availability of civil remedies for reprisal action taken against a person who has made, or may make, a PID; remove the general secrecy offence; clarify the roles of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security in receiving and investigating complaints about the handling of a disclosure by an agency; establish a procedure for handling disclosures where there is a machinery of government change; amend the definitions of 'agencies', 'public officials' and 'principal officers'; exclude grant recipients from the application of the Act; provide for a review of the Act five years after the commencement of the amendments in the bill; and make minor amendments; and National Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2022 , National Anti-Corruption Commission (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Act 2022 and Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 to make amendments contingent on the commencement of the National Anti-Corruption Commission legislation enacted in November 2022.

Committee Referrals

Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee; Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills

Full bill PDF →APH page →

Audit History

Introduced

30 Nov 2022

Last updated on APH

10 Apr 2026

Outcome date

19 June 2023

Last checked by Crossbench

yesterday

Full text indexed

yesterday

🗳️

No formal division recorded

This bill passed by voice vote — parliament agreed without calling a formal count. A division is only recorded when a member explicitly requests one.

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