The People First Bank Whistleblower Hotline is an independent and confidential service available to receive information relating to improper conduct, unlawful or unethical behaviour and supports People First Bank’s values and Code of Conduct.

Any breaches of the Code of Conduct, related policies, and issues that may adversely affect People First Bank. This may include any criminal offence, breach of legal obligation, unsafe behaviour, harassment or bullying.

People First Bank believes that all employees and other stakeholders should be able to assist in ensuring People First Bank maintains its status as an ethical business. People First Bank is adopting best practice in this aspect of corporate governance and will be compliant with international and Australian corporate governance standards.

People First Bank has engaged an independent consultant to manage the receipt, recording and reporting of serious misconduct. Stopline is an independent, confidential and impartial conduit for information that enables the reporting of corrupt or improper conduct. Stopline has people experienced in handling sensitive information from stakeholders.

Stopline is an Australian company which specialises in providing integrity/whistleblowing services. It has been operating for over a decade and assists listed and private companies, local, state and Commonwealth public sector bodies and not-for-profit organisations. Further details are available at www.stopline.com.au

No. Your report to Stopline can, if you wish, be anonymous and the staff of Stopline will not ask for any personal details. You may volunteer the information anonymously to Stopline if you desire or you can be overt. If you do not wish to remain anonymous, this information may be provided to the Whistleblower Protection Officer at People First Bank. If you choose to remain anonymous Stopline will issue a confidential reference and password should you wish to seek the status of your disclosure at some later date.

People First Bank is committed to the protection of genuine Whistleblowers against action taken in reprisal for the making of protected disclosures. Maintaining confidentiality is a crucial component of this protection. All disclosures will be treated with a high level of confidentiality. People First Bank has appointed Stopline to enhance confidentiality and anonymity within People First Bank with respect to Whistleblower procedures.

Stopline enables employees, contractors and stakeholders to report in good faith, suspected misconduct via telephone, email, internet or mail, to an independent organisation with trained staff who will receive your concerns confidentially (anonymously if you wish) and provide the confidential information to the Whistleblower Protection Officer at People First Bank. The program then necessitates procedural requirements dealing with and finalising the outcome of the disclosure.

A person within People First Bank is responsible for ensuring that all serious complaints are handled appropriately. The Whistleblower Protection Officer is responsible for People First Bank’s role in managing disclosures and being the contact point for both Stopline and People First Bank.

You can contact Stopline when you have knowledge of any fraudulent, corrupt, unlawful or unethical conduct by an employee and/or contractor.

You can call Stopline on 1300 30 45 50 (in Australia) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  A Stopline investigator will answer your call during business hours (0800 – 1800 Mon – Fri AEST).  Any messages left with our overnight team will be responded to within one working day. You can also send your disclosure via the internet (this website), email, or mail.

The strength of Stopline is that all allegations will be professionally managed by trained Stopline staff. The experience of Stopline is that vexatious reports occur very infrequently. Stopline focuses on the message, not the messenger. The Whistleblower Protection Officer may decline to investigate the matter if satisfied that the disclosure is trivial, frivolous or vexatious.

Yes. You will be kept advised about the status of the report, decisions made regarding how the matter is to be handled, time frames that apply and the result of any investigation and action taken as that information is communicated with Stopline. If you choose to remain anonymous, you will be issued with a confidential reference and password and must initiate contact through one of the methods outlined on the home page to receive feedback.

Where a person who makes a disclosure is implicated in the misconduct, People First Bank will use all reasonable efforts to protect the individual from reprisals; however the act of reporting improper conduct may not shield the person from the reasonable consequences flowing from any involvement in serious misconduct.

Full details are available on People First Bank’s intranet site.