Lack of faith in law on whistleblowing

A review of whistleblower legislation has found it has been used only a little, and some people believe the identities of whistleblowers cannot be kept confidential.

The Protected Disclosures Act 2000 arose after psychiatric nurse Neil Pugmire nearly lost his job after raising concerns about the release into the community of a paedophile who had raped two boys.

A review of the act, by Mary Scholtens QC, was tabled in Parliament this week.

She said it appeared the act had had only "limited use" and some of that had been inappropriate.

There was a strong perception "that it was unlikely that the identity of a person making a protected disclosure would remain confidential".

"This appeared to have implications for employee confidence in the process and the effectiveness of the act in achieving its purpose."

Although it was early days, there were signs that the act would benefit from a greater involvement by a body such as the Office of the Ombudsman to help "those wishing to make protected disclosures, to co-ordinate the referral of matters to appropriate agencies and to monitor the operation of the act".

The aim of the act is to protect employees, including former employees, who disclose "serious wrongdoing" in an organisation from retaliatory action by their employer, and from civil and criminal action over their disclosure.

- NZPA