Ombudsman Act 1974

The Ombudsman shall not, nor shall an officer of the Ombudsman who is not a member of the Police Force, be competent or compellable to give evidence or produce any document in any legal proceedings in respect of any information obtained by the Ombudsman or officer in the course of the Ombudsman’s or officer’s office.

Subsection (1) does not apply to any of the following—

proceedings under or in relation to section 19A, 19B, 19C, 21C, 31H, 31R, 31U, 34, 35A, 35B or 37,

proceedings under Part 3 of the Royal Commissions Act 1923,

proceedings under Part 4 of the Special Commissions of Inquiry Act 1983,

proceedings under Part 5 of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 arising as a consequence of a decision made by the Ombudsman in respect of an access application under that Act,

proceedings under section 167A of the Police Act 1990,

proceedings under the Public Interest Disclosures Act 2022, section 33 or 37,

criminal proceedings resulting from an investigation under this Act, but only if the investigation related (whether or not entirely) to a matter referred by the Inspector of the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission to the Ombudsman for investigation.

Subsection (1) applies to the following persons in the same way as it applies to the Ombudsman and officers of the Ombudsman—

a former Ombudsman,

a former officer of the Ombudsman,

an Australian legal practitioner who is or was appointed under section 19 (4) to assist the Ombudsman,

a person whose services are or were engaged under section 23.

Subsection (3) extends to information obtained by those persons before its substitution by the Ombudsman and Public Interest Disclosures Legislation Amendment Act 2014.

The Committee on the Ombudsman, the Police Integrity Commission and the Crime Commission is to review the operation of subsections (3) and (4) as soon as possible after 5 March 2016.