Yes, the Integrity Commissioner is there essentially to receive complaints, but the administration of the whole internal system—and I'd emphasize that—is very much a system that is saying, yes, you can blow the whistle but no one's allowed to hear about it except internally within government, which doesn't really do much in terms of upholding the public's right to know or really protecting the public. That internal system is all designed to then delay, deny, deceive or divide whistle-blowers and essentially deny them full protection.
That's why I think it's so important that the existing commissioner or a separate commissioner set up for federally regulated private sector workers be given that power and be given the power to order chief executives, heads of government departments, and externally businesses, to take corrective action when they find out that their training and education of workers is not enough or when the internal system has any flaws.
There should be regular audits by that commissioner, and they should have the power to say, “You have to clean this up. This is not best practice. You have to make these changes” and to penalize those chief executives and heads of departments, institutions, and businesses if they do not make those changes to ensure that the initial-stage internal system is actually functioning to protect whistle-blowers and not retaliate against them.