Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated ActsScope
(1) 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:
(a) the information disclosed;
(b) any other information obtained in the course of the investigation.
Power to give information to police
(2) The investigator may give the relevant information to a member of an Australian police force responsible for the investigation of the offence.
Duty to give information to police
(3) 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.
(4) However, subsection (3) does not apply:
(a) 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:
(i) to investigate the commission of the offence; and
(ii) 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
(b) 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:
(i) the corruption issue has been referred under that Act to the person or agency mentioned in subsection (4A); or
(ii) that person or agency is already aware of the issue.
(4A) For the purposes of paragraph (4)(b), the person or agency is:
(a) the National Anti - Corruption Commissioner; or
(b) the IGIS, if the corruption issue concerns:
(i) an intelligence agency; or
(ii) ACIC or the Australian Federal Police in relation to that agency's intelligence functions.
No limitation on power to notify police
(5) This section does not, by implication, limit a person's power to notify a matter to a member of an Australian police force.