Last week in the Legislative Assembly, I tabled disclosures from two public servants who spoke up about wrongdoing in their workplaces. Here's why.

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Whistleblowers play a critical role in exposing corruption, maladministration, abuse of power, misuse of public funds and unethical conduct within government institutions.

When public servants take the immense personal and professional risk of speaking out against these kinds of practices, it's clearly in the public interest for them to be supported - not silenced.

Backing whistleblowers is particularly important for us here in the ACT.

Having the country's longest-serving government can breed a culture of going along to get along. A "Yes, Minister" mentality is even more likely to emerge in a small jurisdiction like ours, where everyone knows everyone and rocking the boat might seriously hamper one's career prospects.

This creates further friction for public servants thinking about reporting wrongdoing, especially if the people they are meant to report to are part of the problem.

Thankfully, when internal reporting processes fail, our whistleblowing laws provide specific protections for public servants to disclose information to a member of the Legislative Assembly or a journalist.

This safeguard exists because human beings are flawed and, unfortunately, there will always be cases where institutions choose to protect themselves instead of protecting the public interest.

That is exactly what was alleged to have occurred in relation to both the disclosures I tabled in the Assembly last week.

Each case involved a public servant alleging they had repeatedly raised serious concerns internally with no appropriate investigation or corrective action occurring in response.

In the chamber, I stated that the........

© Canberra Times