Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013

This section applies if, in the course of a disclosure investigation, the person (the investigator) conducting the investigation suspects on reasonable grounds that information (the relevant information), consisting of all or part of any of the following information, is evidence of the commission of an offence against a law of the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory:

the information disclosed;

any other information obtained in the course of the investigation.

The investigator may give the relevant information to a member of an Australian police force responsible for the investigation of the offence.

However, if the investigator suspects on reasonable grounds that the offence is punishable by imprisonment for life or by imprisonment for a period of at least 2 years, the investigator must give the relevant information to a member of an Australian police force responsible for the investigation of the offence.

However, subsection (3) does not apply:

if the investigator believes on reasonable grounds that the agency to which the investigator belongs has the capacity and the appropriate skills and resources needed:

to investigate the commission of the offence; and

to meet the requirements of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions in gathering evidence and preparing briefs of evidence in relation to the commission of the offence; or

if the investigator suspects on reasonable grounds that the relevant information raises a corruption issue (within the meaning of the National Anti‑Corruption Commission Act 2022) and:

the corruption issue has been referred under that Act to the person or agency mentioned in subsection (4A); or

that person or agency is already aware of the issue.

For the purposes of paragraph (4)(b), the person or agency is:

the National Anti‑Corruption Commissioner; or

the IGIS, if the corruption issue concerns:

an intelligence agency; or

AUSTRAC, the Department of Home Affairs or the Australian Federal Police in relation to that agency’s intelligence functions.

This section does not, by implication, limit a person’s power to notify a matter to a member of an Australian police force.