Public Interest Disclosures

The Public Interest Disclosures Act 2002 (the Act), which came into operation on the 1 January 2004, applies to all State Service officer and employees, including those in the SKills Institute.

The main objective of the Act is to encourage and facilitate the making of disclosures of improper conduct or detrimental action by public officers and public bodies. The Act provides protection from reprisals for persons making those disclosures and establishes a system for the matters disclosed to be properly investigated and for rectifying action to be taken.

A disclosure may be made about improper conduct by a public body or public official. Please note that a disclosure may not be made about conduct that has occured more than three years before the commencement of the Act. Improper conduct means conduct that is corrupt, a substantial mismanagement of public resources, or conduct involving substaintial risk to public health or safety or to the enviroment. The conduct must must be serious enough to constitute, if proved, a criminal offence or reasonable grounds for dismissial.

The Act also makes it an offence for a person to take any detrimental action against a person in reprisal for a protected disclosure.

The Ombudsman has a central role in handling disclosures of improper conduct made under the Act, including the preparation and publication of guidelines to assist public bodies in interpreting and complying with the Act.

While the office of the Ombudsman will be most involved with this Act, the Skills Institute's Office of the CEO will:

be a contact point for general advice about the operation of the Act for any person wishing to make a disclosure about improper conduct or detrimental action;
make arrangments for a disclosure to be made privately and discreetly and, if necessary, away from the workplace;
receive any disclosure made orally or in writing (from internal and external disclosures);
commit to writing any disclosures made orally.

The Office of the CEO will:

receive all disclosures;
impartially assess each disclosure to determine whether it is a public interest disclosure; and
be responsible for carrying out, or appointing an investigator to carry out, an investigation of the public interest disclosure.

Contact Details

For further information or assiatance in relation to the above please contact the Office of the CEO on (03) 6336 4244 or via email: [email protected]

The Office of the Ombudsman can also be contacted on (03) 6233 6217 (1800 001 170 outside the Hobart area) or via email: [email protected]