Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013

The principal officer of an agency must investigate a disclosure if the disclosure is allocated to the agency under Division 1.

Investigate, in relation to a disclosure, means investigate (or reinvestigate) whether there are one or more instances of disclosable conduct. The disclosable conduct may relate to:

the information that is disclosed; or

information obtained in the course of the investigation, unless the principal officer conducting the investigation is satisfied on reasonable grounds that such information is tangential or remote to the disclosure.

A disclosure may be reinvestigated in response to a recommendation by the Ombudsman or the IGIS under section 55.

If the principal officer of the agency does not investigate information mentioned in paragraph (b) in the investigation of the disclosure, the principal officer may choose to investigate the information disclosed otherwise than under this Act.

For the purposes of subsection (2), an investigation (or reinvestigation) may include consideration of whether a different investigation (or reinvestigation) should be conducted by the agency, or another body, under another law or power.

This section has effect subject to any stop action direction under the NACC Act.