The Western NSW PHN Whistleblower Hotline is an independent and confidential service available to receive information relating to improper conduct, unlawful or unethical behaviour and supports Western NSW PHN’s values and Code of Conduct.

Any breaches of the Code of Conduct, related policies, and issues that may adversely affect WNSW PHN. This may include any criminal offence, breach of legal obligation and unsafe behavior.

This service is not for Personal work-related grievances, which can relate to:

• An interpersonal conflict with another employee;
• A decision about employment, transfer, or promotion;
• A decision about the terms and conditions of employment; and/or
• A decision to suspend or terminate employment or otherwise take disciplinary action.

Current employees are advised to refer to WHAL’s Employee Grievance and Complaints Procedure available on the WNSW PHN intranet page – WHALeNET for how they can resolve their workplace grievance.

WNSW PHN believes all employees and other stakeholders should be able to assist in ensuring WNSW PHN maintains its status as an ethical business. The WNSW PHN aims to encourage reporting of unlawful or unethical behaviour that is of legitimate concern by providing a convenient and safe external reporting mechanism that facilitates the protection of ‘eligible whistleblowers’ who make such disclosures.

Public companies, large proprietary companies, and corporate trustees of APRA-regulated superannuation entities must have a whistleblower policy from 1 January 2020. Among other things, the whistleblower policy must include information about the legal protections available to whistleblowers, and how a company will investigate whistleblower disclosures and protect whistleblowers from detriment.

WNSW PHN has engaged an independent consultant to manage the receipt, recording and reporting of serious misconduct. Stopline is an independent, confidential and impartial conduit for information that enables the reporting of corrupt or improper conduct. Stopline has people experienced in handling sensitive information from stakeholders. Details of how you can make contact are listed under “Home”.

Stopline is an Australian company which specialises in providing integrity/whistleblowing services. It has been operating for over a decade and assists listed and private companies; local, state and Commonwealth public sector bodies and not-for-profit organisations. Further details are available at www.stopline.com.au

No. Your call to Stopline can, if you wish, be anonymous and the staff of Stopline will not ask for any personal details. You may volunteer the information anonymously to Stopline if you desire or you can be overt. If you do not wish to remain anonymous, this information may be provided to the WNSW PHN Disclosure Officer. If you choose to remain anonymous Stopline will issue a confidential reference and password should you wish to seek the status of your disclosure at some later date. Stopline can assist at the time of your contact.

Western NSW PHN is committed to the protection of genuine Whistleblowers against action taken in reprisal for the making of protected disclosures. Maintaining confidentiality is a crucial component of this protection. All disclosures will be treated with a high level of confidentiality. Western NSW PHN has appointed Stopline to enhance confidentiality and anonymity within Western NSW PHN with respect to Whistleblower procedures.

Stopline enables employees, contractors and stakeholders to report in good faith, suspected misconduct via telephone, email, internet, facsimile or mail, to an independent organisation with trained staff who will receive your concerns confidentially (anonymously if you wish) and provide the confidential information to the Disclosure Officer at Western NSW PHN. The program then places procedural requirements on dealing with and finalising the outcome of the disclosure.

The Disclosure Officer/s are responsible for WNSW PHN’s role in managing disclosures, ensuring that all serious complaints are handled appropriately and being the contact point for both Stopline and the WNSW PHN.

The Disclosure Officers for WNSW PHN are the Chief Executive Officer and the Chair of the WNSW PHN Board.

You can contact Stopline when you have knowledge of any fraudulent, corrupt, unlawful or unethical conduct by an employee and/or contractor.

You can telephone the Stopline on 1300 30 45 50 (in Australia) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  A Stopline investigator will answer your call during business hours (0800 – 1800 Mon – Fri AEST).  Any messages left with our overnight team will be responded to within one working day. You can also send your disclosure via the internet (this website), Stopline 365 app, email, facsimile or mail.

The strength of Stopline is that all allegations will be professionally managed by trained Stopline staff. The experience of Stopline is that vexatious calls occur very infrequently. Stopline focuses on the message, not the messenger. The Disclosure Officer may decline to investigate the matter if satisfied that the disclosure is trivial, frivolous or vexatious.

Yes. You will be kept advised about the status of the report, decisions made regarding how the matter is to be handled, timeframes that apply and the result of any investigation and action taken. If you choose to remain anonymous, you will be issued with a confidential reference and password and must initiate contact through one of the methods above to receive feedback.

Where a person who makes a disclosure is implicated in the misconduct, Western NSW PHN will use all reasonable efforts to protect the individual from reprisals; however the act of reporting improper conduct may not shield the person from the reasonable consequences flowing from any involvement in serious misconduct.

Further details are available on the WNSW PHN’s Intranet site and on our website at www.wnswphn.org.au