Get ready for new whistleblower protection laws in 2019
The Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Whistleblower Protections) Bill 2018, coming into effect on 1 July 2019, requires all public companies and large proprietary companies to have a whistleblower policy in place by no later than 1 January 2020. Failure to comply with this requirement is a criminal offence under the Corporations Act. A "large proprietary company" is defined to mean a company that meets at least two of the three thresholds below within a given financial year (taking into account any other companies it controls):
· $25 million or more in consolidated revenue;
· $12.5 million or more in consolidated gross assets; or
· 50 or more employees.
You can read more about the whistleblower laws in our recent article here.
We are encouraging our clients to have a compliant policy in place in the lead up to the commencement of the new laws in July and to consider appropriate training to deal with the new legislation, particularly for managers and supervisors who will be classified as recipients of a protected disclosure. If we can be of assistance amending or introducing a policy please don’t hesitate to let me know.
Brent Van Staden
Partner
Head of Capital Markets
Colin Biggers & Paisley Pty Ltd
ABN 28 166 080 682
Level 35, Waterfront Place, 1 Eagle Street Brisbane QLD 4000 Australia
D +61 7 3002 8767 | M +61 414 234 531 | F +61 7 3221 3068