1 week ago
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Australian businesses are falling short on cracking down on misconduct, the corporate regulator has revealed, with one in three lacking a dedicated whistleblower webpage and one in five having no dedicated hotline.
The figures are from a survey, commissioned by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), which canvassed 134 companies that reported receiving 8095 disclosures between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025.
ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland says companies should benchmark themselves against the findings from the corporate regulator’s report.Credit: Oscar Colman
Whistleblowers have played a crucial role in identifying and exposing misconduct, including scandals that led to the banking royal commission, but they continue to face risks. Former debt collection officer Richard Boyle was spared jail time this year after being prosecuted for exposing unethical debt-collection practices.
In February, an independent-led bill to enhance protections for whistleblowers, including a new Whistleblower Protection Authority, was introduced to parliament but was knocked back in the Senate in favour of further consultation by the government.
The latest questionnaire by ASIC found 69 per cent of disclosures were made through a dedicated whistleblower reporting webpage or hotline and half were made anonymously.
The corporate regulator said good practices, investigation time frames and outcomes of whistleblower programs varied across Australian businesses, but that those with stronger practices generally had higher disclosure rates.
Nearly one-quarter of surveyed companies reported receiving no disclosures, while the median disclosure rate – the number of disclosures for every 100 employees – was 0.22, which ASIC said “appear at the lower end”.
However, the report noted this could be due to reasons ranging from lack of trust in internal processes and weaker feelings of safety to raise concerns, a positive workplace environment in which issues are resolved early outside of formal whistleblowing channels, or because of a company’s size, structure, or the nature of its operations.
ASIC found results varied across industries. Mining scored highest in terms of both disclosure rates and the extent to which its companies have practices in place such as offering a dedicated webpage or hotline for whistleblowers and offering regular training to staff about their whistleblower program.
The healthcare and social assistance industry had the fewest number of these practices in place on average and recorded one of the lowest median disclosure rates.
ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland said companies should benchmark themselves against the findings from the report and consider how they could improve their own whistleblower policies and practices.
“Without effective policies and programs to encourage whistleblowers to come forward, misconduct may otherwise go unreported and undetected,” he said.
According to ASIC’s survey, just 10 per cent of the companies accounted for nearly 74 per cent of all whistleblower disclosures reported in the survey.
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It found the average time taken to complete an investigation was seven weeks and that nearly one-quarter of “in scope” disclosures – those relevant to companies’ whistleblower programs – investigated were found to be likely true. This “substantiation rate” was lower for companies that spent less than three weeks on average to complete their investigations.
The most commonly reported wrongdoing was workplace mistreatment, dispute or grievance, and the most common outcome was disciplinary action against staff members.
The corporate regulator said it would write to companies that it had identified as being non-compliant or significantly behind in their practices, highlighting gaps and encouraging them to improve their whistleblower frameworks and practices.
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