The government has agreed to introduce stronger whistleblower protections for both the public and private sector workers in a deal with Senate crossbenchers to secure support for one of its double dissolution trigger bills.

The so-called registered organisations bill passed the Senate 33-30 on Tuesday morning after being been rejected twice by the last Parliament.

Under amendments to the bill, stronger protections will apply to union whistleblowers and the government has committed to rolling them out to private sector employees within 18 months.

Experts said the changes, if legislated, would make it easier for whistleblowers such as former Commonwealth Bank financial planner Jeff Morris to expose corporate maleficence without fear of being sacked or financially punished.

A parliamentary inquiry, due to report in the middle of 2017, will examine whether the bounty system that operates in the United States should be introduced in Australia. Earlier this year the US government paid almost $5 million to a former BHP Billiton employee for raising concerns about alleged corruption at the mining giant.

In the US, the Securities and Exchange Commission can reward whistleblowers by giving them a share of a fine extracted from a company, with payouts often reaching many millions of dollars.

Instead of being rewarded, private sector whistleblowers in Australia currently have few protections and take large risks in speaking out. Whistleblowers have been crucial to stories exposing scandals in the banking and life insurance industries as well as companies such as 7-Eleven.

Crossbench senator Nick Xenophon, who championed the amendments, said the changes would give Australia some of the best whistleblower laws in the world.

Fellow crossbencher Derryn Hinch described them as a "great breakthrough".

Both said they would react furiously if the government welched on the deal.

"Don't trust them, trust us," Senator Hinch said. "If they renege on this we will come after them."

Senator Xenophon said: "Hell hath no fury like a crossbencher scorned."

Griffith University Professor A.J. Brown, one of the country's leading authorities on whistleblower laws, said the negotiated amendments were "historic".

"Irrespective of what you think about unions, these changes start to address the biggest defects in whistleblower laws across the board," he said.

"This is a tangible black and white commitment in this term of Parliament. I don't think [the government] can go back on this."

Professor Brown, who has been advising Senator Xenophon on the issue, said the most significant change was that managers would be required to support whistleblowers rather than simply not to punish them for speaking out.

Reprisals against corporate whistleblowers would also carry substantial penalties and whistleblowers would be able to apply for penalties if they have been financially harmed by their disclosures.

Professor Brown said the commitment to vote on new laws by July 2018 was more ambitious than it sounds given the complexity of the issues involved.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission chairman Greg Medcraft, who has previously pushed for compensation for corporate sector whistleblowers, said he supported the move. 
"I think whistleblowers should be valued," he said.

Law Council of Australia President Stuart Clark said he was delighted that "vital whistleblower protection is moving well beyond the public sphere and finding its way into the non-government and private sector".

"It is a healthy thing for legitimate whistleblowers to be emboldened to speak out at all levels if something is amiss within their organisations," he said.

- with Georgia Wilkins

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