Whistle Blower Policy

1.1 MoleMap Aus­tralia Pty Lim­it­ed (ACN 116131929) is a pri­vate­ly owned organisation.

1.2 The Com­pa­ny togeth­er with its whol­ly-owned sub­sidiaries (Group) is com­mit­ted to a cul­ture where staff feel they are free to report or raise con­cerns regard­ing what they see as ille­gal, unac­cept­able, uneth­i­cal or unde­sir­able behav­iour or conduct.

1.3 This pol­i­cy applies to cur­rent and for­mer offi­cers, employ­ees, sup­pli­ers of good or ser­vices (includ­ing con­trac­tors, den­tists, con­sul­tants, and their employ­ees), sec­on­dees, vol­un­teers and asso­ciates of the Com­pa­ny. Asso­ciates in this con­text means direc­tors and com­pa­ny sec­re­taries of any relat­ed body cor­po­rate of the Com­pa­ny, and a per­son who is act­ing, or propos­ing to act, in con­cert in rela­tion to the Com­pa­ny’s affairs. A rel­a­tive or depen­dant of any of the above men­tioned indi­vid­u­als can also make a dis­clo­sure under this Pol­i­cy (col­lec­tive­ly referred to as Per­son­nel in this policy).

1.4 The pur­pose of this pol­i­cy is to encour­age the report­ing of any Reportable Con­duct and out­line the pro­ce­dures to be fol­lowed. For the avoid­ance of doubt, this pol­i­cy applies to dis­clo­sures of Reportable Con­duct made in accor­dance with the pol­i­cy irre­spec­tive of whether the Reportable Con­duct is said to have occurred before or after 1 July 2019.

1.5 There are pro­tec­tions avail­able under this pol­i­cy and at law pro­vid­ed the discloser:

a. is one of the Company’s offi­cers, employ­ees, con­trac­tors (includ­ing der­ma­tol­o­gists) or oth­er­wise has a con­nec­tion with the Com­pa­ny as described in 1.3 above;

b. has rea­son­able grounds for his/​her concern;

c. dis­clos­es any of the mat­ters defined as Reportable Con­duct under para­graph 2 of this pol­i­cy; and

d. rais­es his/​her con­cern direct­ly with one of the recip­i­ents set out at para­graph 5 of this policy.

In this pol­i­cy:
ASIC means Aus­tralian Secu­ri­ties Invest­ment Com­mis­sion
APRA means Aus­tralian Pru­den­tial Reg­u­la­tion Author­i­ty.
ASX means ASX Lim­it­ed ACN 008 624 691 or the secu­ri­ties exchange oper­at­ed by it (as the case requires).
Board means the board of direc­tors of the Com­pa­ny.
Com­pa­ny means MoleMap Aus­tralia Pty Lim­it­ed (ACN 116131929)
Cor­po­ra­tions Act means Cor­po­ra­tions Act 2001 (Cth).
Relat­ed body cor­po­rate Group has the mean­ing in sec­tions 9 and 50 of the Cor­po­ra­tions Act.
Group means the Com­pa­ny and its whol­ly owned sub­sidiaries.
Per­son­nel has the mean­ing set out in sec­tion 1.3 of this pol­i­cy.
Pro­tect­ed Dis­clo­sure Offi­cer has the mean­ing set out in sec­tion 5.1.c of this pol­i­cy.
Reportable Con­duct means dis­clo­sure of infor­ma­tion regard­ing con­duct engaged by the Group, its offi­cers or employ­ees, pro­vid­ed the dis­clos­er has rea­son­able grounds to sus­pect such con­duct constitutes:

a. mis­con­duct in rela­tion to the Group, such as fraud, neg­li­gence, default, breach of trust, or breach of duty in rela­tion to the Group, includ­ing unsafe work prac­tices or any­thing which may put the lives, health or well­be­ing of any­one at risk;

b. improp­er state of affairs in rela­tion to the Group, such as:

(i) dis­hon­esty;
(ii) act­ing uneth­i­cal­ly;
(iii) con­duct which may cause finan­cial loss or be detri­men­tal to the Group, sys­temic or seri­ous breach­es of any Group poli­cies or pro­ce­dures poli­cies,
(iv) breach­es of any ASX List­ing Rule;
(v) caus­ing loss or dam­age to the Group’s rep­u­ta­tion, inter­ests, stand­ing in the com­mu­ni­ty, or finan­cial posi­tion;
(vi) destruc­tion, alter­ation, mis­treat­ment of, or removal for an improp­er pur­pose, of any Group asset, data or infor­ma­tion, includ­ing mate­r­i­al wastage of the Group’s resources; or
(vii) seri­ous and sys­tem­at­ic harass­ment, bul­ly­ing, dis­crim­i­na­tion, or any­thing that undu­ly makes any­one feel uncom­fort­able, or is an abuse of authority.

c. breach­es any laws admin­is­tered by ASIC or APRA;

d. an offence against any oth­er law of the Com­mon­wealth that is pun­ish­able by 12 months impris­on­ment or more, including:

(i) engag­ing in vic­tim­i­sa­tion against a per­son who is, or is thought to be, a dis­clos­er;
(ii) bribery or cor­rup­tion, envi­ron­men­tal dam­age that con­sti­tutes crime accord­ing to envi­ron­men­tal laws in Aus­tralia; or
(iii) ques­tion­able account­ing, tax, report­ing or com­pli­ance pro­ce­dures, includ­ing manip­u­la­tion, con­ceal­ment, fal­si­fi­ca­tion or know­ing mis­state­ment of records or financials.

e. dan­ger to the pub­lic or the finan­cial system.

Terms not defined in this pol­i­cy which are giv­en a mean­ing in the Cor­po­ra­tions Act have the same mean­ing as in the Cor­po­ra­tions Act.

3.1 This pol­i­cy should not be used for com­plaints relat­ing to per­son­al work-relat­ed griev­ances, such as an inter­per­son­al con­flict between the dis­clos­er and anoth­er per­son, a deci­sion relat­ing to engage­ment, trans­fer or pro­mo­tion of the dis­clos­er, a deci­sion relat­ing to the terms and con­di­tions of engage­ment of the dis­clos­er, or a deci­sion relat­ing to sus­pen­sion, ter­mi­na­tion or dis­ci­pline of the dis­clos­er. These com­plaints should be raised with Human Resources.

4.1 Every­one asso­ci­at­ed with the Group is expect­ed to adhere to accept­able and eth­i­cal stan­dards, includ­ing the com­pli­ance with all laws, and this in turn helps the Group to achieve its com­mit­ment to a cul­ture of eth­i­cal and hon­est behaviour.

4.2 Achiev­ing this com­mit­ment requires all Per­son­nel who become aware of any actu­al or sus­pect­ed Reportable Con­duct, to report what they know or sus­pect accord­ing to the pro­ce­dures set out below.

5.1 Any­one who has rea­son­able grounds to sus­pect Reportable Con­duct should report the con­duct via one of the fol­low­ing channels:

a. offi­cer or senior man­ag­er of the Group;
b. audi­tor or mem­ber of an audit team con­duct­ing an audit of the Group;
c. direct­ly to the Pro­tect­ed Dis­clo­sure Offi­cer, being Johan Ven­drig, Pri­va­cy Offi­cer, email to molemap.​privacy@​molemap.​net.​au
Addi­tion­al Pro­tect­ed Dis­clo­sure Offi­cers may be appoint­ed from time to time.
d. Tax mat­ters: in addi­tion to the above, a dis­clo­sure can also be made to any oth­er employ­ee or offi­cer who has func­tions or duties relat­ing to the tax affairs of the Group; a reg­is­tered tax agent or BAS agent pro­vid­ing tax agent or BAS ser­vices to the Group and the Aus­tralian Com­mis­sion­er of Taxation.

5.2 Also, the dis­clos­er may make a dis­clo­sure to ASIC, APRA, a legal prac­ti­tion­er for the pur­pos­es of obtain­ing legal advice or rep­re­sen­ta­tion, and to a jour­nal­ist or a mem­ber of par­lia­ment in cer­tain lim­it­ed cir­cum­stances (eg pub­lic inter­est dis­clo­sure and/​or emer­gency disclosure).

5.3 Pro­tect­ed Dis­clo­sure Offi­cers are respon­si­ble for over­see­ing the devel­op­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of this pol­i­cy and Group’s whistle­blow­er ini­tia­tives and encour­ag­ing report­ing of pol­i­cy breaches.

6.1 Dis­clo­sures of Reportable Con­duct can be made anony­mous­ly. How­ev­er to enable the Group to prop­er­ly inves­ti­gate and respond to dis­clo­sures that have been raised, the Group encour­ages dis­clo­sures to pro­vide their name when mak­ing a disclosure.

6.2 The Group will keep con­fi­den­tial the iden­ti­ty of the indi­vid­ual who has raised a dis­clo­sure of Reportable Con­duct (regard­less of whether the dis­clo­sure was made anony­mous or not), except where:

a. the dis­clos­er con­sents to this infor­ma­tion being dis­closed;
b. the Group needs to dis­close infor­ma­tion rea­son­ably nec­es­sary to inves­ti­gate the dis­clo­sure of Reportable Con­duct, and in doing so, will take rea­son­able steps to reduce the risk of the dis­clos­er being iden­ti­fied;
c. the Group needs to obtain legal advice or rep­re­sen­ta­tion regard­ing the dis­clo­sure of Reportable Con­duct; or
d. is per­mit­ted by law or to pre­vent threats to life, health or property.

6.3 The Group may impose sanc­tions where an indi­vid­ual does not main­tain con­fi­den­tial the iden­ti­ty of the dis­clos­er, which could include the can­cel­la­tion of con­tracts, dis­ci­pli­nary action for employ­ees, ter­mi­na­tion of employ­ment or oth­er steps or cor­rec­tive action as may be appro­pri­ate in the circumstances.

6.4 The Group will keep files and records relat­ing to dis­clo­sures con­fi­den­tial and store them securely.

7.1 The way the Group inves­ti­gates dis­clo­sures of Reportable Con­duct will depend on who makes the dis­clo­sure, the seri­ous­ness and nature of the mat­ter, and who receives it. The objec­tive of an inves­ti­ga­tion is to deter­mine whether there is evi­dence which sub­stan­ti­ates the disclosure.

7.2 The steps to respond to a dis­clo­sure may include:

a. deter­mine whether the dis­clo­sure should be dealt with under this pol­i­cy or anoth­er pol­i­cy (for exam­ple, if it is a per­son­al work-relat­ed griev­ance mat­ter, it would be referred to Human Resources);
b. deter­mine the appro­pri­ate person(s) to inves­ti­gate the mat­ter, which could include exter­nal inves­ti­ga­tors;
c. con­duct an inves­ti­ga­tion with­in a rea­son­able peri­od of time, which may involve speak­ing to wit­ness­es, review­ing oth­er records, analysing the infor­ma­tion and, if pos­si­ble, speak­ing with the indi­vid­ual who has made a dis­clo­sure. The inves­ti­ga­tion will be con­duct­ed thor­ough­ly, objec­tive­ly and fair­ly; and
d. decid­ing whether the dis­clo­sure is sub­stan­ti­at­ed or not.

7.3 The out­come of an inves­ti­ga­tion will be report­ed on a con­fi­den­tial basis to the Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, and where pos­si­ble, the per­son who has made the dis­clo­sure may be informed that the mat­ter has been inves­ti­gat­ed and con­clud­ed. If the inves­ti­ga­tion sub­stan­ti­ates the dis­clo­sure, the Group is com­mit­ted to address­ing any wrong­do­ing, to the extent prac­ti­ca­ble in the circumstances.

7.4 Files and records relat­ing to dis­clo­sures will be treat­ed as con­fi­den­tial and stored securely.

8.1 The Group is absolute­ly com­mit­ted to ensur­ing all per­sons who make a report in accor­dance with this pol­i­cy are not sub­ject to any detri­men­tal, recrim­i­na­to­ry, harass­ing or unfavourable treat­ment for lodg­ing a report, hav­ing rea­son­able grounds to sus­pect Reportable Conduct.

8.2 Whistle­blow­ers will not be sub­ject to detri­ment or vic­tim­i­sa­tion for mak­ing a dis­clo­sure of Reportable Con­duct on rea­son­able grounds. This pro­tec­tion applies regard­less of the find­ings of any inves­ti­ga­tion, as long as the whistle­blow­er has rea­son­able grounds for mak­ing his/​her dis­clo­sure. Whistle­blow­ers may how­ev­er still be sub­ject to dis­ci­pli­nary action for mis­con­duct that is revealed as a result of mak­ing a disclosure.

8.3 If the whistle­blow­er thinks the dis­clo­sure has not been dealt with suf­fi­cient­ly, or if his/​her iden­ti­ty has been dis­closed in breach of this pol­i­cy, or the whistle­blow­er has been the sub­ject of detri­ment or vic­tim­i­sa­tion, the whistle­blow­er may make a dis­clo­sure under this pol­i­cy. Per­sons dis­clos­ing the iden­ti­ty of the whistle­blow­er or engag­ing in detri­men­tal con­duct towards a whistle­blow­er will com­mit an offence, and may be sub­ject to dis­ci­pli­nary action includ­ing ter­mi­na­tion of their engage­ment or employment.

8.4 In cas­es of vex­a­tious, base­less or triv­ial reports where there are no rea­son­able grounds for sus­pi­cion, the pro­tec­tions afford­ed to the whistle­blow­er may not available.

9.1 Indi­vid­u­als who raise Reportable Con­duct are pro­tect­ed from detri­ment and vic­tim­i­sa­tion. Addi­tion­al pro­tec­tions to avail­able to whistle­blow­ers at law include:

a. the whistle­blow­er is pro­tect­ed from any legal lia­bil­i­ty by mak­ing the report;
b. no con­trac­tu­al or oth­er rem­e­dy may be enforced and no con­trac­tu­al or oth­er right may be exer­cised against the whistle­blow­er for mak­ing the report;
c. if the pro­tect­ed dis­clo­sure is to a Reg­u­la­tor or the Com­mis­sion­er of Tax­a­tion, or is a pub­lic inter­est dis­clo­sure or emer­gency dis­clo­sure as per­mit­ted under the Cor­po­ra­tions Act, the infor­ma­tion is not admis­si­ble in evi­dence against the whistle­blow­er in crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings, or in pro­ceed­ings for the impo­si­tion of a penal­ty, except for pro­ceed­ings in respect of pro­vid­ing false infor­ma­tion;
d. the whistle­blow­er may be sub­ject to civ­il, crim­i­nal or admin­is­tra­tive lia­bil­i­ty for his/​her own con­duct;
e. should the whistle­blow­er suf­fer any detri­ment or vic­tim­i­sa­tion for lodg­ing a report, the whistle­blow­er can claim com­pen­sa­tion for that dam­age from the offend­er, who may also be liable for a crim­i­nal offence; and
f. if the per­son receiv­ing the report dis­clos­es the iden­ti­ty of the whistle­blow­er (oth­er than as required by law as stat­ed in Para­graph 6 of the pol­i­cy, they too may be guilty of an offence.

10.1 The Group’s prac­tice is to ensure that any inves­ti­ga­tion process is con­fi­den­tial, fair and objec­tive. Also, the Group will endeav­our to:

a. main­tain the pri­va­cy of employ­ees men­tioned in a dis­clo­sure or to whom a dis­clo­sure relates.
b. pro­vide employ­ees who are men­tioned in a dis­clo­sure an oppor­tu­ni­ty to respond (where appro­pri­ate and sub­ject to our require­ments to main­tain confidentiality).

a. Exter­nal reviews of this pol­i­cy may be under­tak­en at the request of the Board.b. A copy of this pol­i­cy (or a sum­ma­ry of it) will be made avail­able on the Group’s web­site, and can be pro­vid­ed upon request to Human Resources.