Small Enterprises

The Whistleblower Psionic Community Small Enterprises

Introduction

The Small Enterprise sector is very important key to the Australian economy and ecology. Small Enterprises make up 97.3% of all Australian businesses. According to the ATO a small business entity is one that has an aggregated turnover of less than $10 million over a targeted industry and generally over national or international borders. Government agency Fair Work Australia states that a small business has less than 15 employees whereas the ABS says less than 20 employees. Their numbers are approximately 2,520,419 small business groups. (ASBFEO)

Australian small businesses employ more than 5 million people and contribute more than $500 billion to the national GDP. This equates to 31.25% of our Gross Domestic Product. They are normally independent businesses with a simple ownership and management structure.

What is Whistleblowing?

Whistleblowing is the activity of a person, often an employee, a supplier, or other stakeholder who reveals information about activity, through disclosure, within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whistleblowers can use a variety of internal or external channels to communicate information or allegations to various organizations in order to protect the rights of the individual. Some of these protections include education, investigation, prosecution, and other legal means of correction.

There are penalties for organizations that breach Whistleblower’s rights. These include different civil and criminal penalties for a corporation and for individuals. The maximum civil penalty for corporation carries the greater of $13,750,000, or 3 times that amount, or 10% of the annual turnover of the entity up to a maximum of $687,500,000. The government is currently working on a compensation system for Whistleblowers which will encourage staff and management to step forward and disclose any and all illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent incidents and events.

Whistleblower Psionic Community Small Enterprise Program teaches the business owner to be well informed on Whistleblowing Legislation; Acts, policies, procedures, codes and stands. This program also contains reporting documents (disclosures), and many other resources needed to give your staff and other valuable stakeholders the safety and security they need to Whistleblower.

Did You Know That…

Within the last five years amendments to our existing laws regarding government and corporate responsibility for encouraging and assisting staff members Whistleblower. The an amendment to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth). These changes provided for an expanded corporate whistleblowing scheme and a new tax affairs whistleblowing scheme which was commenced just before the COVID-19 outbreak. Public companies and large proprietary companies had until 1 January 2020 to implement a compliant whistleblowing policy. The scope of the amendment affects “regulated entities” in the corporate, financial and credit sectors and should be view as top priority. This means for the organization that any business that doesn’t have an active Whistleblowing System is at risk. What it means to you, as a staff member and management is that you have a means by which you can micromanage and control Australian business and government, through watching over our operations and insisting that business maintain natural justice, procedural fairness, respect for persons, and perform their responsible duty of care through business ethics.

The Whistleblower Small Enterprise Program

The Small Enterprise Whistleblower Kit is designed to teach you and your business precisely how to use your personal power, along with specialty knowledge to report (disclose) workplace and personal offences that represent misconduct, or harm to your staff and your business. Our Small Enterprise Program contains the following benefits and Features.

Psionic Community Turnkey System Training Program
Psionic Community Disclosure Reporting System
Private and Anonymous Identity for each staff person and for other stakeholders to use.
Investigative Services for Disclosure Documents Reporting
Investigative Follow-up for All Reported Disclosures and Disclosure Reports to all Upper level Management and Owners.
Please click on the boxes below to get started.

What Specifically Does the Amended Legislation Dictate

The changes to the Corporations Act Mean that:

There is a broader range of conduct which can be reported and be entitled to protection.
It specifies that the conduct needs to be concerned with “misconduct” or an “improper state of affairs”.
Disclosures will be able to be made anonymously and do not need to be made in “good faith”.
The Whistleblower will need to have reasonable grounds for their concern.
Personal work-related grievances (Disclosures) will only be protected in certain limited circumstances.
A disclosure of a work-related grievance will be protected if it relates to systemic issues, or involves detrimental conduct to the whistleblower.
A disclosure of a work related grievance will also be protected if it is made to a legal practitioner to obtain legal advice or representation in relation to the whistleblower provisions.
The amended laws will apply to disclosures even if the disclosed conduct occurred before the commencement date.
The victimization and compensation provisions apply to protected disclosures made at any time, if the victimization in occurs after the commencement date.

Who Receives the Disclosures?

Whistleblower Psionic Community caters to all company and business stakeholders. Whistleblowing disclosures have a specific life within the Public Service Community. Once the Disclosure has been completely documented the individual then gives the Document either to the Compliance Officer or to Whistleblower Psionic Community.

Whistleblower Psionic Community then presents the Disclosure to one or more of the following Agencies.

ASIC, APRA, and other prescribed Commonwealth authorities;
An auditor or actuary of the entity; and or
Persons authorized to receive disclosures such as a Whistleblowing Hotline.
A solicitor or Barrister for Prosecution.

Each of the following Agencies will then be followed up continually to ensure that each Disclosure is acted upon.

Whistleblowing Ensures Consequences for Engaging in Detrimental Conduct

The Whistleblower has the rights to work in relative peace and harmony without malicious conduct. And when they are forced to report Disclosure for corporate white collar crimes they are protect by law. Detrimental conduct against a disclosing employee or other stakeholder is defined under the Corporations Act as:

Dismissal of an employee;
Injury of an employee in his or her employment;
Alteration of an employee’s position or duties to his or her disadvantage;
Discrimination between an employee and other employees of the same employer;
Harassment or intimidation of a person;
Harm or injury to a person, including psychological harm;
Damage to a person’s property, reputation, business or financial position; or
Any other damage to a person.

Your staff represents approximately 30% of your expenses. It they are not performing their duties in a manner that the Corporation Act would deem trustworthy, accountable, and transparent within their business operations they should and will be held accountable. A report posted by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission stated that serious and organized crime in Australia in 2020–21 to be between $24.8b and $60.1b. The types of crime include: Illicit drug activity, Organized financial crime, Crimes against the person, Illicit commodities, Pure cybercrime, Serious and organized crime enabling costs. Please see https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/sr/sr38 for more information. These numbers are staggering as they represent 3.5 percent of Australia’s Gross Domestic Product total that is lost to practical and productive use.

Know The Penalties for Breaching Whistleblowers’ Rights

Introduction

Breaching a whistleblower’s anonymity and engaging in (or threatening to engage in) detrimental conduct towards a whistleblower or potential whistleblower, carries different civil and criminal penalties for a corporation and for individuals. The maximum civil penalty for corporation carries the greater of $13,750,000, or 3 times that amount, or 10% of the annual turnover of the entity up to a maximum of $687,500,000. The penalty depends upon whether a Court can determine the benefit/detriment balance due to the contravention,

Civil penalties for an individual may carry $1,375,000 or if a Court can determine the benefit derived or detriment avoided, 3 times that amount. Failure to comply with the confidentiality and detrimental conduct provisions will also be criminal offences, punishable by imprisonment and / or fines.

Breach of Confidentiality

Breach of confidentiality will carry criminal penalties of $16,500 or imprisonment for six months, or both for individuals and $165,000 for a body corporate. Penalties for an individual who causes or threatens to cause detrimental conduct (including victimization and retaliation) to a whistleblower or a person who may be a whistleblower may be exposed to up to $66,000 or imprisonment for two years or $660,000 for a body corporate.

Summary

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Thank you for reading!