No. Not every report receives whistleblower protections. Protections may not apply if one or more legal criteria are missing.
Common situations where protections don’t apply include:
1) The person is not an eligible whistleblower.
For example, someone with no insider connection to the organisation (such as a member of the public or a competitor) may not qualify under the corporate whistleblower regime.
2) The disclosure is not about qualifying misconduct.
A report must relate to misconduct or an improper state of affairs. Concerns that are purely personal grievances without broader wrongdoing usually fall outside the regime.
3) The disclosure is made to a non-approved recipient.
If a report is only made to someone who is not an approved internal/external recipient, the legal whistleblower protections may not be triggered.
4) The whistleblower knowingly makes a false report.
The person must have reasonable grounds to suspect wrongdoing. Deliberately false disclosures are not protected and may expose the discloser to consequences.
For licensees and compliance teams:
Even if a report is not legally protected, it can still signal a serious risk. Best practice is to assess first, protect confidentiality early, and avoid retaliation, then determine whether the disclosure qualifies.