Whistleblower Policy

At Autism SA we want to give people the confidence to speak up and help us to identify any wrongdoing or misconduct.

We have a Whistleblower policy, which is available in Plain English, to help people understand who, how and when they can report.

Our policy is based on the following principles:

• Every eligible person should have the chance to speak up or speak up anonymously when they feel we are not adhering to our values, policies or legal responsibilities.
• Every eligible person should have a place to report misconduct and be assured that every report will be heard and acted on, and that improvement based on the outcome of an investigation will be implemented, where relevant.
• An eligible person only needs to reveal their identity if they choose to give us permission to do so.
• We are committed to doing our utmost to protect people who make reports and their identify. The nature of the disclosure or the law may compel us to disclose a person’s identity.
• Every report of misconduct will be investigated and documented.

Eligible person

The following people are considered an ‘eligible person’ under this policy:

• Employees, and any person associated with employees
• Contractors, consultants, service providers, suppliers, business partners, volunteers
• Former employees

Eligible recipient (internal)

If an eligible person feels they need to make a report, they must contact, one of our eligible recipients to qualify for protection as a whistleblower.

Internal eligible recipients can be contacted:

• in person, or by phone or email
  • our internal eligible recipient contact details are available from our website: autismsa.org.au/whistleblower
• through our internal dedicated whistleblower email address
  • whistleblower@autismsa.org.au
• making a disclosure through our online misconduct disclosure form

The following people are defined as our eligible recipients under this policy and can be contacted by email or phone.

• Executive Manager Corporate Services
  • Email: Monique Palmer
  • Phone: 0439 661 418
  • Lauren Lewis, Executive Manager People, Culture and Safety Email: llewis@autismsa.org.au
  • Phone: 0477 700 201
• Pamela Patane, Commercial Counsel
  • Email: legal@austimsa.org.au
  • Phone: 8379 6976

Eligible recipient (external)

An eligible person can also report directly to an external party without reporting to us first, or where they feel we have not responded appropriately.

External eligible recipient contact details are:

• Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
  • Online misconduct report form
  • Refer to How ASIC handles whistleblower reports for guidance on making an external disclosure and qualifying for protection
• Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)
  • Whistleblower email: whistleblower@apra.gov.au
  • Public interest disclosure email: PID@apra.gov.au

Identity protection

We respect and protect the identity of any person making a report. They can choose to remain anonymous and will never be forced to provide their identity.

Investigating a report

When a report is submitted the eligible recipient will assess the report and assess for investigation. We may choose to get an external third party to manage the investigation.

Any information that could potentially identify an anonymous person will be held in the strictest confidence and will not be shared unless we are compelled to do so by law.

As part of the investigation, we will keep the eligible person updated on the progress of the investigation subject to our ability to contact the discloser if they choose to remain anonymous. Due to our privacy policy, there may by information that is not able to be shared with the eligible person.

Retaliation

A person making a report might be concerned that other staff, management or the organisation may retaliate against them. We will do our utmost to protect the person making the report from any action that can be seen as retaliation for making a report.

We do not tolerate any form of retaliation against any person making a report. Any employee or associated person found to be retaliating will face disciplinary action, which may include their termination of employment or business relationship with us.

Any other parties that may be witnesses or are involved in the investigation will also be protected from retaliation in the same manner as the person making the report.