NSW busy with announcements on integrity

The NSW Government had a busy week on the integrity and accountability front, with Premier Keneally announcing the introduction of legislation into parliament to amend the Protected Disclosures Act (Download PDF), releasing campaign finance reform proposals (Download PDF), establishing a Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Procedure to see what changes "agreed" in Canberra might be suitable for adoption in NSW, and indicating preparedness to look at the Ombudsman's suggestion of an integrity act for the public service. The Premier branded the last mentioned potentially "symbolic" claiming the state already has "one of the most stable, integral and respected public sector workforces in the world."

Not mentioned in the media release on changes to whistleblower protections is that the amendment bill extends a protected disclosure specifically, to one made by a public official in honest belief on reasonable grounds of "a contravention of government information laws."