Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Bill

Thank you, Madam Chair. I was hoping to take a call on all the different parts, but Part 4 would have been rather strange, so I’ll give a strange one instead on the title and commencement.

Really briefly, actually, though, just in terms of the commencement, the version of the bill as it sort of sits in front of us says that the Act comes in force on 1 July 2021. I’ve avoided embarrassing myself by trying to make a meal of that, by seeing that the Government Supplementary Order Paper, in fact, will change that commencement date to 1 July 2022. Missed an opportunity for a Richie Benaud there—22—which, in the week of Shane Warne’s passing, is dear to my heart. Anyway, I see, obviously, the Minister’s changed it so we’re not sort of trying to do something retrospective, but by doing that, rather than use that normal formulation of X number of days, perhaps even one day after the Royal assent, we’ve missed the excellent benefit of this within our statutory framework by some months.

So if the Minister’s got any comment on that, I would be interested to hear it. But failing which, I will not delay further the passage of the bill after this excellent committee of the whole House stage we’ve enjoyed tonight. Thank you.

Clause 1 agreed to.

The question is, That the Minister’s amendment to clause 2 set out on Supplementary Order Paper 131 be agreed to.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause 2, as amended, agreed to.

Bill to be reported with amendment.