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. 

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, Sarah McNaughton SC, has been extended in the role for a further two years.

The CDPP has launched a new Partner Agency Portal, giving investigators from partner agencies easy and timely access to information.
The last 12 months has tested businesses, including the CDPP, to become more agile to effectively deliver services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) is an independent prosecution service established by Parliament under the Director of Public Prosecutions Act 1983 (Cth) to prosecute alleged offences against Commonwealth law.

The Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is warning members of the community to beware of scammers claiming to be from the CDPP.
The CDPP’s Partner Agencies will soon have access to a refreshed, scalable and dynamic, secure website to support their investigative work.

This is a joint media release between the Australian Federal Police and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions

A 24-year-old Sydney man has been jailed for nine years and four months after he posed as a teen to exploit and extort explicit images from children online.

Note: This is a joint media release between the Australian Federal Police and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions

A serial paedophile who abused children in Australia and Southeast Asia has today been sentenced to 35 years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 28 years.

On 7 November 2019, Richard Ham (21) and Soo Lee (24) were sentenced in the District Court of New South Wales after pleading guilty to attempting to possess a commercial quantity of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), more commonly known as ‘ecstasy’.

Today, Perth woman Alesha Stopforth (30) was sentenced in the District Court of Western Australia to 3 years imprisonment, to be released after serving 16 months upon entering into a Recognisance Order in the amount of $10,000 and to be of good behaviour for a period of 20 months, after pleading

Suzanne Akkari (25) was today sentenced to 18 months imprisonment to be released forthwith on a recognisance of $500 and to be of good behaviour for 18 months, after pleading guilty to a charge of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring another in the arrangement of a marriage to obtain perman

Today*, Savas Avan (49) was sentenced in the County Court of Victoria to 3 years imprisonment, after pleading guilty to mailing packages containing asbestos to consulates and embassies in Melbourne and Canberra.

Today, Luke Borg (36) was sentenced in the County Court of Victoria after pleading guilty to a number of child sex offences.

A man from Sydney was today sentenced to a total term of imprisonment of 34 years, with a non-parole period of 29 years, for preparing and planning a terrorist attack, threatening to kill the NSW Commissioner of Corrective Services and for an attack on an inmate in custody.

Three Victorian men were today sentenced in the Supreme Court of Victoria for the offence of engaging in a terrorist act.  A jury had earlier found the men guilty of this crime by setting fire to a Shia mosque in suburban Melbourne, causing $1.5 million in damage.

The Victorian County Court has today sentenced Mohamed Osman Omar (36), to four years imprisonment, after he pleaded guilty to defrauding the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) of more than $370,000, and attempting to obtain a further amount of more than $85,000.

Drug Trafficking, Selling and Cultivation

While drug importation offences tend to dominate the serious drug practice of the CDPP, trafficking offences are also prevalent. A person traffics in a controlled drug if they:

  • sell it
  • prepare it with the intention of selling it, or believing another person intends to sell it
  • transport it with the intention of selling it, or believing another person intends to sell it
  • guard or conceal it with the intention of selling it, or assisting another person to sell any of it
  • possess it with the intention of selling it.

While drug importation offences dominate our serious drug prosecutions, we also prosecute Commonwealth trafficking offences. From time to time we also prosecute trafficking offences under the relevant State legislation, depending on the case.

Pre-trafficking

Pre-trafficking includes selling, manufacturing, or possessing a precursor and must be accompanied by specified fault elements relating to manufacture and sale.

The Criminal Code contains offences for pre-trafficking controlled precursors, however these offences have rarely been prosecuted.

Commercial cultivation

Cultivation includes:

  • planting
  • transplanting
  • nurturing, growing or tending
  • guarding or concealing
  • harvesting, picking or gathering resin from a plant.

A person cultivates a controlled plant if they engage in cultivation, exercise control or direction over the cultivation of the plant/s or provide finance for cultivation.

Cultivation will be regarded as being commercial if it is done with the intention of selling the plant or its products or believing that another person intends to do so.

The Code criminalises the commercial cultivation and sale of controlled plants; we do not not prosecute many of these offences.

Key legislation

Main offences

  • s.302.2(1) Criminal Code—trafficking commercial quantities of controlled drugs
  • s.303.6(1) Criminal Code—cultivating controlled plants
  • s.304.1 Criminal Code—selling commercial quantities of controlled plants.

Penalties

The maximum penalties for trafficking controlled drug offences are:

  • life imprisonment for trafficking commercial quantity of controlled drugs (s.302.2 Criminal Code)
  • 25 years’ imprisonment for trafficking marketable quantity of controlled drugs (s.302.3 Criminal Code)
  • 10 years’ imprisonment for trafficking controlled drugs (s.302.4 Criminal Code).

The maximum penalties for cultivation of controlled plants are:

  • life imprisonment for cultivating commercial quantity of controlled plants (s.303.4 Criminal Code)
  • 25 years’ imprisonment for cultivating marketable quantity of controlled plants (s.303.5 Criminal Code)
  • 10 years’ imprisonment for cultivating controlled plants (s.303.6 Criminal Code).

The maximum penalties for selling controlled plants are:

  • life imprisonment for selling commercial quantity of controlled plants (s.304.1 Criminal Code)
  • 25 years’ imprisonment for selling marketable quantity of controlled plants (s.304.2 Criminal Code)
  • 10 years’ imprisonment for selling controlled plants (s.304.3 Criminal Code).

Partner agencies

Relevant Legislation