Media Releases

IBAC is committed to maintaining the confidentiality of investigations until a report is finalised. 

The IBAC investigation which was the subject of the recent court injunction has been conducted entirely in private.  No public examinations were held as it did not meet the IBAC Act’s thresholds to do so.

When IBAC drafts a report arising from an investigation, relevant people involved in the investigation will be given an opportunity to respond to IBAC’s preliminary findings. These responses must then be considered before IBAC finalises the report.

This natural justice process is critical. It would be quite unfair to these persons if preliminary findings or other private information were to become public. Reputations may be unfairly damaged, or witness welfare harmed. No public interest is served in preliminary findings being published. It is for such reasons that IBAC took the necessary step of seeking an injunction.

At present it is only an offence for a person who receives a draft report (to enable them to provide a response) to disclose its contents. As a result of previous unlawful leaks to the media of information contained in draft reports, IBAC raised with Government the need for urgent legislative change that would make it an offence for anyone, including the media, to publish information IBAC draft reports, or the information contained in them.

In our view, making it an offence to publish such information is a critical sanction if people are to be deterred from publishing or disseminating information that could not lawfully have been disclosed to them. This will help ensure that the natural justice process is not compromised.

IBAC recognises that the outcomes of our investigations are in the public interest, but it is critical our investigations are shared publicly only after all fair and proper processes have been followed.