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A new bill was introduced to strengthen and protect whistleblowers which will replace The Protected Disclosures Act (Protection of Whistleblowers).

The act is roughly 20 years old and is due for a review.

Proposed changes will help address the corruption and secure integrity of the public sector.

The Auditor-General, John Ryan, says he is getting behind proposed whistleblower laws in-support for the public sector of organisations.

Source: CC/ Gettyimages

The Minister of State Services, Chris Hipkins, says the laws are ‘not working as well as they should’ — “Anyone who raises these issues, or ‘blows the whistle’, needs to have faith that their role, reputation, and career development will not be jeopardised when speaking up,” said Hipkins, RNZ reports.

Changes made to the bill will allow for serious wrongdoings to be reported directly to an external authority if the whistleblower wishes to do so.

In other terms, the bill will allow for stronger protection in relations to whistleblowers while public sector organisations will be required to provide more support.

Serious wrongdoings will be extended to include any misuse of public funds or resources and that does not matter if it is either a public or private organisation.

Image: oag (Parliament/Government DEPT)

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