We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and pay our respects to all Elders past and present, and to the children of today who are the Elders of the future.
Artist: Jasmine Sarin, a proud Kamilaroi and Jerrinja woman.
PID Awareness Week aims to raise awareness and understanding of the Public Interest Disclosures Act 2022 (PID Act) and the importance of a speak up culture across agencies and among public officials under the Act. We have a range of resources to help you raise awareness of the importance of speaking up and reporting wrongdoing.
Below are some key questions asked by participants during PID Awareness Week 2025. Questions have been condensed for clarity and to allow response by theme.
One of the objects of the Public Interest Disclosures Act 2022 (PID Act) is to promote a culture across the public sector in which PIDs are encouraged. In practice, this requires agencies to develop and embed a strong speak-up culture and to respond appropriately to any concerns that are raised by staff.
For Government Sector employees, the Code of Ethics and Conduct for NSW Government Sector Employees (the Code) reinforces every employee’s duty to act with integrity, accountability, and ethically for the public interest. This includes the responsibility to speak up if we witness any behaviour that may be wrongdoing. All managers are required to model and promote the Code, and ensure that workplace culture, practices and systems operate consistently with this framework.
You should report wrongdoing in accordance with your agency’s policies.
While leadership support is important, the culture in an agency can be influenced by teams and individuals who model integrity and safe reporting practices. Some practical ways to help build a speak up culture in your workplace include:
Casebook July 2025: Investigations and complaint-handling case studies is a summary of all investigations completed by the NSW Ombudsman between 1 January 2025 and 30 June 2025. Previously, the January Casebook was published with a summary of all the investigations completed by the NSW Ombudsman between 1 July 2024 and 31 December 2024.
You can find further reports here.
The NSW Ombudsman coordinates a quarterly Community of Practice for agency PID practitioners. This is an important forum where PID practitioners can stay up to date with current practice and to troubleshoot and share ideas and experiences about how to implement an effective PID framework in your organisation and perform PID Act functions.
To find out more, please email pid@ombo.nsw.gov.au.
The Office of the Public Service Commissioner (OPSC) supports a number of initiatives to enable leaders to understand the role of the public service, and their duties as leaders within it, including:
Any suggestions for potential areas of focus for the OPSC, can be emailed to ethics@opsc.nsw.gov.au.
Response provided by the Public Service Commission.
Under section 13 of the PID Act there are six categories of serious wrongdoing. One of the categories is 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 (ICAC Act). Section 8(2)(e) of the ICAC Act sets out that corrupt conduct is any conduct of any person (whether or not a public official) that adversely affects, or that could adversely affect, either directly or indirectly, the exercise of official functions by any public official, any group or body of public officials or any public authority and which could involve fraud.
For more information about the categories of serious wrongdoing, please refer to our guideline What is serious wrongdoing?
For more information about corrupt conduct, please refer to the ICAC website.
Yes, the NSW Ombudsman is an integrity agency under the PID Act. Public officials can make a disclosure to any integrity agency, including the NSW Ombudsman.
The Public Interest Disclosures Act 2022 (PID Act) places obligations on agencies to assess and manage disclosures with strong requirements of confidentiality for voluntary PIDs. The PID Act also contains protections for the maker of the disclosure; including that it is both a criminal offence and misconduct to take detrimental action against a person who makes, or is suspected of making, a public interest disclosure.
When the agency is aware a voluntary PID has been made, the PID Act requires them to take steps to assess and minimise the risk of detrimental action and provide information and regular updates to the PID maker.
It is mandatory that agencies report any allegation of detrimental action to the NSW Ombudsman.
The NSW Ombudsman has a range of resources to help agencies and public officials to the understand the PID Act, guide their PID policy, and promote awareness of PID obligations and protections available:
In limited circumstances, you can make a voluntary public interest disclosure to a Member of Parliament or a journalist. The NSW Ombudsman website has specific guidance about when you can do this in our guideline: PIDs to Ministers, Members of Parliament and Journalists.
The PID Act requires agencies to assess and manage reports of serious wrongdoing. This is the baseline that ensures there are consistent and appropriate approach to dealing with disclosures about serious wrongdoing in the public sector.
The NSW Ombudsman’s PID Audit and Monitoring team oversights how agencies undertake their functions under the PID Act, including through an annual reporting process. As part of the annual report, agencies must detail the measures they have taken to promote a speak-up culture within the agency for that financial year.
The NSW Ombudsman delivers ongoing outreach and training – including PID Awareness Week - designed to help agencies and their staff handle public interest disclosures under the PID Act.
Under the PID Act, if an agency has evidence of a detrimental action offence, then the agency must refer that evidence to the Commissioner of Police and either the ICAC or LECC, depending on the circumstances. If the Commissioner of Police, or the relevant integrity agency, receives and reviews the evidence and forms the opinion that a detrimental action offence has been committed, they must in turn provide a brief of evidence relating to the alleged offence to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
If you have further questions about detrimental action offences, you can refer to your agency’s PID policy or contact the PID Advice team on pidadvice@ombo.nsw.gov.au.
A voluntary PID must be a disclosure of information that the maker honestly, and on reasonable grounds, believes shows or tends to show serious wrongdoing.
This does not mean that the PID-maker must prove the allegations (that will occur later, such as at the investigation stage of the PID process).
Accordingly, a report may be a voluntary PID, whether or not any serious wrongdoing has occurred.
It is not necessary for the maker to provide information to establish conclusively, or to any legal or investigative standard of proof, that the serious wrongdoing occurred.
However, a bare allegation or suspicion that is unsupported by any relevant evidence would not be sufficient.
While it is not necessary to provide evidence when making a disclosure, it can help to support a claim that serious wrongdoing has occurred
For more information see: Assessing a report of wrongdoing to identify if it is a voluntary PID.
Under section 60(1) of the PID Act, makers of disclosures can seek internal review of the following agency decisions:
1. The decision that the agency is not required to deal with the disclosure as a voluntary PID.
2. The decision to stop dealing with the disclosure because the agency decided it was not a PID.
3. The decision to not investigate the serious wrongdoing and not refer the disclosure to another agency.
4. The decision to cease investigating the serious wrongdoing without either completing the investigation or referring the disclosure to another agency.
If a PID-maker is otherwise dissatisfied with the outcome of an investigation, they may be able to raise this with the agency that investigated their disclosure. Alternatively, if they are concerned about the way their disclosure was handled, they may be able to raise their concerns with the Ombudsman.
More information can be found at: Dealing with voluntary PIDs.
If you are considering reporting wrongdoing, it is a good idea to read your agency’s PID policy first. If you are not sure who to report to, you can contact the NSW Ombudsman for advice and assistance.
The NSW Ombudsman’s Whistleblower Support Team can provide disclosers with independent, confidential and impartial support before or after you speak up. Visit Whistleblower support or email whistleblowersupport@ombo.nsw.gov.au or call the 1800 719 766 (between 10am – 4pm, Monday to Friday).
You can remain anonymous when you contact the Whistleblower Support Team and you can discuss your concerns about wrongdoing with the team, without unintentionally making a PID.
If you’re seeking further information or are considering making a report of serious wrongdoing, then you can visit our website for further information. Our PID guidelines are designed to help agencies and their staff handle public interest disclosures under the PID Act. Our website also has a variety of training and resources. There are also various teams established to provide information, advice, and support to agencies and public officials on matters relevant to the PID Act.
The PID Advice Team provides advice for agencies and public officials who handle PIDs and can be contacted at:
The Whistleblower Support Team provides support for public officials who have reported, or are thinking about reporting, serious wrongdoing. You can contact the team at:
These guidelines are designed to help agencies and their staff handle public interest disclosures under the PID Act.
View and download a copy of the PID guidelines for agencies here.
As part of PID Awareness Week 2025, we encourage agencies to think about how you could raise staff awareness of the importance of reporting wrongdoing.
Find out more information here.
We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and pay our respects to all Elders past and present, and to the children of today who are the Elders of the future.
Artist: Jasmine Sarin, a proud Kamilaroi and Jerrinja woman.