What disclosures are protected

To be protected by whistleblowing law, the worker making the disclosure must have reasonably believed at the time of making it that their disclosure was in the public interest. Personal grievances and complaints are very unlikely to be protected. For more information on the “public interest” test, see Chapter 4, page 21.

Even if a worker reasonably believed their disclosure to be in the public interest, it will not be protected unless it contains information “tending to show” past, present or future wrongdoing falling within one of the following statutory categories (section 43B, ERA 96):

• criminal offence (for example insurance fraud or illegal tax evasion);

• failure to comply with a legal obligation;

• a miscarriage of justice;

• endangering someone’s health or safety;

• damage to the environment; or

• deliberate covering up of wrongdoing in any of the above categories.

As long as the person disclosing the information reasonably believed, when making the disclosure, that the information revealed wrongdoing in one of the above categories, they will be protected even if they later turn out to have been mistaken.

There is more detailed information about what disclosures are protected in Chapter 4.