Union warns code of conduct investigations used to silence public servants
A whistleblower protection authority may be necessary to prevent public service employers from using code of conduct investigations to silence staff, the main public sector union has told a parliamentary committee investigating the matter.
Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) deputy secretary Rebecca Fawcett told a Senate inquiry on Wednesday that scandals such as the unlawful robodebt scheme and alleged PricewaterhouseCoopers taxleak evidenced a need for improved whistleblower protections.
"Our members in Centrelink at the time [of robodebt] had the experience of raising their concerns with the scheme, using appropriate internal channels with their supervisor and [being] routinely told that the system was working as intended," Ms Fawcett said on Wednesday.
"At one point, the CPSU issued an open letter to customers highlighting that our members, staff of Centrelink, had concerns about the robodebt scheme.
"One union member who participated in that activity then faced a code of conduct investigation into their conduct and ultimately while a code of conduct breach was not found, that potentially could have threatened their employment and would have been a very difficult experience for that individual."
Ms Fawcett was speaking before an inquiry set up to investigate a proposed whistleblower protection authority.
The proposed legislation was sponsored by independent senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie, and was referred to the committee by the last Parliament ahead of the May election.
It calls for a new, independent statutory authority to be established to support and advise whistleblowers, with oversight of all federal whistleblower protection laws.
Nine federal laws provide whistleblowers with protections against reprisals, but crossbenchers and transparency organisations say these safeguards are not being enforced sufficiently, and that it's having a "chilling effect" on disclosures.
While the concept of an independent authority has been discussed since 2016, Labor and the Coalition have not committed to supporting the legislation.
In the federal public service, the Public Interest Disclosure (PID) Act protects staff who disclose allegations of misconduct, and requires allegations be investigated where they meet criteria such as potential illegal or corrupt conduct or wastage of money or property.
"We would say that threats of code of conduct investigations could amount to reprisal action, so a whistleblower protection authority would ... have the function of supporting agencies not to take that kind of action," Ms Fawcett told the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee.
Organisations including the Human Rights Law Centre, Transparency International, The Australia Institute, the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Alliance for Journalists' Freedom also voiced their support for the authority before the committee.
Concerns legislation could lead to conflicts of interest
Appearing later in the day, Commonwealth Ombudsman Iain Anderson raised concerns that the bill could overcomplicate the process for whistleblowers.
"It's absolutely the case that whistleblowers need support and need protection, and there are some gaps in the current regime and the bill proposes a model that would address some of those gaps," Mr Anderson said.
"At the same time, it's important to bear in mind that the PID Act itself is an overly complex, overly prescriptive regime, in my view.
"If the legislation itself is not simplified, then the Whistleblower Protection Authority itself might not go as far as it might be expected to go in actually assisting disclosers and in assisting agencies to elevate the purpose of the regime over the processes that are currently laid down in the legislation.
Mr Anderson's submission to the inquiry outlined that the bill includes some overlap with his powers to advise whistleblowers and agencies, and could create confusion.
The ombudsman has also said the current wording of the legislation could lead to conflicts of interest because the authority could provide legal advice to a whistleblower while investigating an agency's handling of a reprisal action.
The committee is due to release its report on the bill by August 29, 2025.
First published in the Canberra Times on October 28th, 2025 as "Union warns code of conduct investigations used to silence public servants", by Miriam Webber
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