In the Australian legislation, there's been a strong trend basically to just treat contractors and the employees of contractors exactly the same as if they were public employees. It is similar with volunteers or interns—basically people within that workplace.
Many of the regimes cover former employees, although there's a sensible move to put a limitation on that, to restrict it to a disclosure that's been made within 12 months or 24 months of leaving the public service, rather than years later. I think that's a relatively simple change that the committee can recommend to expand the scope of whistle-blower protection via that “no loophole” basis.