Queensland Consolidated Acts

PUBLIC INTEREST DISCLOSURE ACT 2010 - SECT 17

17 How disclosure to be made

(1) A person may make a disclosure to a proper authority in any way, including anonymously.

(2) However, if a proper authority has a reasonable procedure for making a public interest disclosure to the proper authority, the person must use the procedure.

(3) Despite subsection (2) , if the proper authority is a public sector entity, the person may make the disclosure to—

(a) its chief executive officer; or

(b) for a public sector entity that is a department—the Minister responsible for its administration; or

(c) if the proper authority that is a public sector entity has a governing body—a member of its governing body; or

(d) if the person is an officer of the entity—another person who, directly or indirectly, supervises or manages the person; or

(e) an officer of the entity who has the function of receiving or taking action on the type of information being disclosed.

Examples of officers for paragraph (e)—

1 an officer of an entity’s ethical standards unit, if the disclosure is made under section 13 (1) (a) (i)

2 a health officer or environmental officer of a department having a statutory or administrative responsibility to investigate something mentioned in section 12 (1) (a) , (b) or (c) or section 13 (1) (c) or (d)

3 the officer of an entity in charge of its human resource management if the public interest disclosure is made under section 12 (1) (d) and is about detriment to the career of an employee of the entity

(4) This Act does not affect a procedure required under another Act for disclosing the type of information being disclosed.

(5) If a public interest disclosure is properly made to a proper authority, the proper authority is taken to have received the disclosure for the purposes of this Act.