If you are a staff member of the University (or a controlled entity), you should make a report of serious wrongdoing to one of the following people:

• Your direct or indirect manager or supervisor
• The Vice-Chancellor
• A Disclosure Officer of the University or another agency
• An integrity agency
• Any other person provided for in the PID Act.

We encourage staff members to report serious wrongdoing by completing an internal report form. This ensures that you have considered all relevant issues. However, you can also make a report by email or verbally.

You can also report serious wrongdoing anonymously. You can do this by using an anonymous email address or making a report verbally by phone.

If you are a contractor, consultant or volunteer of the University, you should make a report of serious wrongdoing to the University staff member who has responsibility for overseeing the arrangement between the University and the contractor, consultant or volunteer.

We encourage contractors, consultants and volunteers to report serious wrongdoing by completing an internal report form. This ensures that you have considered all relevant issues. However, you can also make a report by email or verbally.

You can also report serious wrongdoing anonymously. You can do this by using an anonymous email address or making a report verbally or by phone.

If you are a student, you should make a report of serious wrongdoing by submitting a complaint under our general complaints process.

If you are a member of the public, you should make a report of serious wrongdoing by submitting a complaint under our general complaints process.

Serious wrongdoing is a broad term that includes a wide range of behaviours. The NSW Ombudsman has a useful guide on the meaning of serious wrongdoing.

Categories of serious wrongdoing include:

Corrupt conduct

Corrupt conduct in the PID Act has the same meaning as in sections 7, 8 and 9 of the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act 1988. It involves deliberate or intentional wrongdoing involving (or affecting) a public official or agency in NSW.

Serious maladministration

Conduct, other than conduct of a trivial nature, relating to a matter of administration that is unlawful, unreasonable, unjust, oppressive or improperly discriminative; or based wholly or partly on improper motives.

Government information contravention

A failure to exercise functions in accordance with the Government Information (Information Commissioner) Act 2009, or the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009, or  the State Records Act 1998.

Privacy contravention

A failure (other than a trivial failure) to exercise functions in accordance with the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 or the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002.

Serious and substantial waste of public money

A serious and substantial waste of public money includes any uneconomical, inefficient or ineffective use of resources, whether authorised or unauthorized, and which results in a loss of public funds or resources.

There are three types of public interest disclosures. All types of disclosures attract the special protections under the PID Act.

A voluntary public interest disclosure is a voluntary report made by a public official containing information which the public official honestly and on reasonable grounds believes shows or tends to show serious wrongdoing. A public official includes a University or controlled entity staff member or an individual contractors, volunteers or consultants that provide services on behalf of the University or a controlled entity. This type of disclosure is what most people think of as whistleblowing.

A mandatory public interest disclosure is where a person discloses information during an investigation (whether internal or external) of serious wrongdoing following a request or requirement of the investigator.

A witness public interest disclosure is a disclosure that has been made by a person because they have a legal obligation to make the report or because making that report is an ordinary aspect of their role or function in an agency.

If you are not sure whether the conduct you have witnessed is serious wrongdoing, then you have several options:

1. You can seek confidential advice from the University’s PID team or the Disclosure Coordinator. You can seek advice anonymously if you wish
2. You can report it anyway. The University will then consider whether it should be managed under a different process
3. You can see our list of complaints to see if your report fits under another process.

It is against policy and employment terms for University and controlled entity staff members to do anything or act in anyway that negatively impacts a person because they have made report of serious wrongdoing.

If your report is a public interest disclosure, then you have special protections under law, including protection from detrimental action such as bullying, harassment or dismissal and protection from having information which may identify you disclosed to others.

If your report is a public interest disclosure, the public official who made the report will have the following special protections under the Public Interest Disclosures Act 2022:

Protections from detrimental action

You will be protected from suffering detrimental action as a result of making a disclosure, such as bullying, harassment or dismissal. If any staff member attempts to take these actions, they will be committing a criminal offence and you will have a right to compensation. The University is responsible for putting in place measures to minimise this risk.

Immunity from civil and criminal liability that might arise because you made the report

For example, if you are subject to a duty of confidentiality that prevents you from disclosing certain information (e.g. you have signed a confidentiality agreement). Sometimes, in order to make a disclosure, you will need to breach these duties of confidentiality. In this case you cannot be disciplined, sued or criminally charged for breaching confidentiality.

The University may manage the report in accordance with an alternative process, if one applies.