Australia: improving the protection provided to whistleblowers

The Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law - the Hon Chris Bowen MP - has published an options paper exploring ways to improve the protection provided to corporate whistleblowers: see here (pdf) or here (rtf). In the accompanying press release it is stated:

Information from whistleblowers can make an invaluable contribution to the protection of investor interests and the preservation of market integrity. However, whistleblowers must be shielded from the risks they face in coming forward. Currently, corporate whistleblowers are protected under Part 9.4AAA of the Corporations Act 2001. However, these protections have been in place since 2004 and only four whistleblowers have felt safe enough using them to provide information to ASIC. 'I am concerned that the existing protections for corporate whistleblowers contain fundamental shortcomings,' Mr Bowen said".