Ballarat law firm Lacey and Co is encouraging all businesses to have systems in place for reporting misconduct and the handling of disclosures.

The all-female team, two who have been whistleblowers themselves, have a vision that all workplaces will ensure the safety of their employees.

"We have worked with many whistleblowers, we have been whistleblowers ourselves and we understand the importance of ensuring that whistleblowers are safe to come forward, they are not punished for raising issues and organisations are able to capture the issues raised in order to improve the safety and productivity of their workplace," Elizabeth Lacey, firm principal, said.

To comply with changes to legislation, companies must implement a whistleblower policy. They must also ensure protections are in place for whistleblowers in their organisations, by offering employees a way to anonymously report misconduct.

Disclosing a whitleblower's identity can lead to hefty fines; for individuals, a fine can be up to $1.05 million, and for the company, $10.5 million, or 10 per cent of your annual turnover up to $525 million.

Lacey and Co launched an independent and anonymous whistleblower disclosure platform called Anon to help companies meet these legislative requirements last month.

"It is fundamentally about setting up systems within an organisations whereby people feel safe to say 'something is wrong' and the organisation says 'how do we help?'," Ms Lacey said.

"We think an anonymous external system is fundamental to that because if somebody is afraid of the consequences of raising an issue they can do that in a way they feel safe."

Lacey and Co's Janelle Ryan said it was positive the conversation on workplace safety in Ballarat was well underway, particularly following the Not In My Workplace forum held in Ballarat last month.

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The forum focused on changing workplace culture and encouraging conversation about sexual discrimination in the workplace.

"Compliance (with new legislation) is one thing, but culture change is so critical," Ms Ryan said.

"People are not going to cop it anymore. The alternative for a business now is that person could go straight to the media and we have seen that consistently.

"The fact the conversations are happening is a really positive step in the right direction - putting measures in place is the next step."

Ms Lacey said she had worked in many organisations where she had seen or experienced inappropriate conduct, but felt she could not raise the issues.

"The person who would be complained about was a protected species in that organisation in the sense they had power and control that allowed them to conduct themselves with impunity and the impact of that is to decimate the lives of those around them and those who they target," she said.

"The systems weren't in place to allow an appropriate response to that so you are left with minimal choices yourself. Feeling really trapped and powerless as well as feeling exposed and unsafe is a terrible position to be in.

"Fundamentally organisations need to be committed to safety. You need to know what that looks like, act in preventative ways and if something has gone wrong you need to respond to ensure you are sending a clear message to people that their concerns will be acted upon and their safety is paramount."

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