12 April 2016
Level 5, 100 Market Street,
Address block
Sydney NSW 2000
GPO Box 9827, Sydney NSW 2001
DX 653 Sydney
Telephone: +61 2 9911 2000
Facsimile: +61 2 9911 2414
www.asic.gov.au
Dear Sir/Madam
Research and evaluation opportunity –
Whistling While They Work 2: improving managerial responses to
whistleblowing in public and private sector organisations
I am writing to encourage your organisation to participate in a new national research project
aimed at improving management of internal reporting of wrongdoing across the public,
private and not-for-profit sectors.
This project, in which ASIC is pleased to be a partner, is led by Griffith University and has
been independently funded by the Australian Research Council. It involves four universities
and 21 supporting organisations across Australia and New Zealand. It is the most
comprehensive study of whistleblowing processes yet undertaken in either country or
internationally.
Ensuring that employees and others have safe channels through which to raise wrongdoing
concerns, and that your organisation is well equipped to address them and to protect those
who raise them, are vital elements of good governance and integrity in modern organisations.
This first step is a short
Survey of Organisational Processes & Procedures which can be
found on the project website,
www.whistlingwhiletheywork.edu.au, along with further
information on the project as a whole. The survey can also be directly accessed by visiting
this website
: www.whistleblowing.edu.au/survey. The survey will only take 20-30 minutes for most companies to complete. The information
will be collected directly by Griffith University. It will provide a new snapshot of the key
elements of processes and procedures for managing internal reporting of wrongdoing
concerns across all sectors, and for managing the challenges that can arise.
Many organisations have whistleblowing policies, but not enough is known about current
best practice. The results will be used to inform new guidance for organisations, including a
proposed new Australian and New Zealand Standard for whistleblowing programs.
The survey also allows you to indicate your organisation’s interest in participating in greater
depth, through the next phase of the research:
Integrity@WERQ. This phase will contribute to
greater knowledge of how organisations’ processes and procedures are actually working, and
provide a unique opportunity for your organisation to directly benchmark your current
policies and their performance, if you wish.
By participating in this research, your company can also help ensure it has best practice
procedures in place to help it implement its obligations under Part 9.4AAA (Protection for
Whistleblowers) of the Corporations Act, and other legislation.
Finally, your organisation may also have relationships with other private sector or not-for-
profit organisations – major contractors, service providers, funded organisations or
subsidiaries – who could benefit from participating in this research. If so, please also
encourage them to do so by forwarding information about the project and survey.
The research is open to any organisation based or with significant operations in Australia or
New Zealand, with more than 10 employees, until 30 June 2016. The project team is
contactable via the website or by emailing
xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx.xx, and can also assist with any further information.
I encourage you to join in both phases of the research, commencing with this initial survey of
your organisation’s processes and procedures.
Yours sincerely
Peter Kell
Deputy Chairman
Enc. Whistling While They Work 2 Project Information Sheet