The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has welcomed stronger whistleblower laws allowing it to better investigate and prosecute misconduct.

The reforms create civil penalties for a company that persecutes a whistleblower or their family, or breaches confidentiality. They strengthen access to compensation for whistleblowers if they suffer loss, protect disclosure of information to journalists and MPs in certain circumstances, and broaden protections to cover current and former employees, officers and contractors, plus their spouses and dependants.

The laws also extend protections to whistleblower reports that allege misconduct or an improper state of affairs concerning any financial sector matters, and they require companies to create whistleblower policies.

“These reforms will help ASIC to perform our important regulatory role by encouraging people who have observed misconduct to come forward,” the regulator says.

The laws, effective from July 1, complement improved measures to assess whistleblower reports and communicate with whistleblowers, ASIC says.