New South Wales Consolidated Acts

PUBLIC INTEREST DISCLOSURES ACT 1994 - SECT 20A

20A Compensation for reprisals

(1) A person who takes detrimental action against another person that is substantially in reprisal for the other person making a public interest disclosure is liable in damages for any loss that the other person suffers as a result of that detrimental action.

(2) This section extends to a case where the person who takes the detrimental action does so because the person believes or suspects that the other person made or may have made a public interest disclosure even if the other person did not in fact make a public interest disclosure.

(3) Damages recoverable under this section do not include exemplary or punitive damages or damages in the nature of aggravated damages.

(4) An entitlement to damages arising under this section does not constitute redress in relation to detrimental action comprising dismissal from employment, for the purposes of section 90 (Effect of availability of other remedies) of the Industrial Relations Act 1996 or any other law.