Latest News

The 2021-22 CDPP Annual Report was tabled in Parliament on Friday 28 October 20

The CDPP recently received an overall satisfaction score of 86 per cent from its biennial 2022 Partner Agency Survey.

The CDPP's 2022-26 Corporate Plan is now available.

The Attorney-General of New South Wales today announced the appointment of Ms Sarah McNaughton SC as a judge of the Supreme Court of NSW. 

The CDPP’s Library and Research Services team has won the 2022 Legal Information Service of the Year award announced at the Australian Law Librarians’ Association (ALLA) conference in Hobart on Thursday 26 August.

On 7 July 2022 the Commonwealth Attorney-General, the Honourable Mark Dreyfus QC MP, announced he had declined to proceed further in the prosecution of Mr Bernard Collaery for five offences relating to the alleged unlawful communication of ASIS information contrary to the Intelligence Services

On 11 February 2022, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions Ms Sarah McNaughton SC announced her decision to decline to proceed further in the criminal prosecutions of Citigroup Global Markets Australia Pty Limited, Deutsche Bank AG and four senior banking executives for cartel offences

The CDPP 2020-21 Annual Report was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday 20 October 2021. 

General Prosecutions

Due to the breadth of Commonwealth criminal legislation, the CDPP is also responsible for prosecuting a range of offences that do not fall within the areas addressed in the categories listed earlier. General prosecutions may include crimes such as:

  • corruption
  • copyright offences
  • perjury
  • failing to vote
  • bigamy
  • offensive behaviour, and
  • unlawful disclosure of information.

Offences

  • s.142.2(1) Criminal Code – abuse of public office
  • s.70(1) Crimes Act 1914 – disclosure of information by Commonwealth officers

Penalties

The maximum penalty for abuse of public office is 5 years imprisonment.

The maximum penalty for unlawful disclosure of information by a Commonwealth officer is 2 years imprisonment.

Relevant Legislation

Practice Group Instructions (PGI)

PGI IASA No. 2 – pdfComputer browsing offences under the Criminal Code

Partner Agencies