The Mercy Health Whistleblower Hotline is an independent and confidential service available to receive information relating to serious wrongdoing by Mercy Health and its employees and agents.

Mercy Health seeks to adopt best practice in this aspect of corporate governance and comply with international and Australian corporate governance standards.

The following can be reported:

• Whistleblower disclosures made under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). See Further Information – disclosures under the Corporations Act for more information regarding the types of conduct that can be disclosed.
• Allegations of corrupt conduct in Mercy Health’s public sector services. See Further Information – disclosures under state legislation for more information;
• Reports of modern slavery practices in Mercy Health’s operations and supply chain;
• Allegations of human rights abuses within Mercy Health;
• Allegations against workers or volunteers of child abuse and misconduct involving children;
• Complaints of victimisation arising from the making of a complaint to Mercy Health, including under the Aged Care Act or National Disability Insurance Scheme Act.

Other complaints may be made locally or to Mercy Health’s Feedback team.

Mercy Health has engaged Stopline to manage the receipt, recording and reporting of serious wrongdoing alleged against Mercy Health and its employees and agents. Stopline is an independent, confidential and impartial conduit for information that enables the reporting of serious wrongdoing. 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 Mercy Health. 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. 

Stopline enables reports to be made in good faith of suspected serious wrongdoing 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 Mercy Health.

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

You can contact Stopline when you have knowledge of serious wrongdoing by Mercy Health, its employees or agents.

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, Mercy Health will use all reasonable efforts to protect the individual from reprisals; however the act of reporting improper conduct may not shield the person from consequences flowing from any involvement in serious wrongdoing.